Producer
Archer Daniels Midland Co. (Corn Processing)
American agricultural commodity processing company (NYSE: ADM, HQ Chicago IL; revenues ~$85B); one of the world's four dominant grain trading companies (ABCD: ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus). ADM corn wet milling operations (Clinton IA, Decatur IL, Columbus NE) produce pharmaceutical-grade dextrose alongside high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), corn starch, corn oil, and ethanol. ADM's pharmaceutical ingredients division (ADM Health & Nutrition) produces USP-grade dextrose for IV solution manufacturers including Baxter International. The same ADM facility that wet-mills corn into the HFCS in a Pepsi can also produces the pharmaceutical-grade glucose that goes into a hospital D5W IV bag. ADM also processed soybeans (soy lecithin for pharmaceuticals, soy protein isolates), operates global grain elevators, and was the subject of a 1996 price-fixing scandal immortalized in the book and film 'The Informant!'
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Inputs supplied
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Goods downstream
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Facilities
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Stories
What they make
2 inputs Archer Daniels Midland Co. (Corn Processing) supplies
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Goods downstream
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What else they do
Business segments
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Pharmaceutical Dextrose (IV Glucose)
10%High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
25%Corn Starch & Specialty Starches
20%Ethanol & Corn Oil
30%Soy & Oilseed Processing
15%
Intelligence
What's known
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Did you know2023
ADM's corn wet milling simultaneously produces: (1) pharmaceutical-grade dextrose for hospital IV solutions (healthcare supply chain), (2) high-fructose corn syrup for Pepsi and Coca-Cola (consumer beverage supply chain), (3) corn starch for paper mills and food processors (industrial manufacturing), and (4) fuel ethanol for gasoline blending (energy supply chain). All four products come from the same Iowa and Illinois corn wet milling facilities, from the same corn kernels. A severe drought in the US Midwest Corn Belt (as occurred in 2012, the worst since 1988) simultaneously threatens corn supply for IV glucose, HFCS for the beverage industry, paper manufacturing starch, and fuel ethanol for the Renewable Fuel Standard. Hospital IV procurement, beverage company sweetener sourcing, paper mill supply chain, and gasoline blending infrastructure all share corn wet milling capacity as a common upstream bottleneck -- with no cross-sector supply chain monitoring.
Archer-Daniels-Midland Company ↗Origin2023
ADM's corn processing history is inseparable from the most famous corporate crime in agricultural history: the lysine cartel. In the 1990s, ADM under CEO Dwayne Andreas colluded with Japanese and Korean competitors (including Ajinomoto -- the same Ajinomoto known for its semiconductor packaging material ABF substrate) to fix global lysine prices. FBI informant Mark Whitacre worked inside ADM for years recording evidence; ADM paid $100M in criminal fines in 1996 -- then the largest antitrust fine in US history. The film 'The Informant!' (2009) dramatized the case. The corn wet milling operations at the heart of the lysine supply chain (dextrose from corn is the fermentation substrate for lysine) are the same ADM operations that produce pharmaceutical dextrose for IV bags. An agricultural conglomerate that ran a criminal international price-fixing scheme in the 1990s now supplies the glucose in hospital IV solutions under pharmaceutical-grade quality systems -- the same Clinton, Iowa wet mill, different regulatory oversight.
Archer-Daniels-Midland Company ↗