Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Item 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
The market risk inherent in the Company’s market risk sensitive instruments and positions is the potential loss arising from adverse changes in: commodity market prices as they relate to the Company’s net commodity position, foreign currency exchange rates, and interest rates as described below.
Commodities
The availability and prices of agricultural commodities are subject to wide fluctuations due to factors such as changes in weather conditions, crop disease, plantings, government programs and policies, competition, changes in global demand, changes in customer preferences and standards of living, and global production of similar and competitive crops.
The Company manages its exposure to adverse price movements of agricultural commodities used for, and produced in, its business operations, by entering into derivative and non-derivative contracts which reduce the Company’s overall short or long commodity position. Additionally, the Company uses exchange-traded futures and exchange-traded and over-the-counter option contracts as components of merchandising strategies designed to enhance margins. The results of these strategies can be significantly impacted by factors such as the correlation between the value of exchange-traded commodities futures contracts and the cash prices of the underlying commodities, counterparty contract defaults, and volatility of freight markets. In addition, the Company, from time-to-time, enters into derivative contracts which are designated as hedges of specific volumes of commodities that will be purchased and processed, or sold, in a future month. The changes in the market value of such futures contracts have historically been, and are expected to continue to be, highly effective at offsetting changes in price movements of the hedged item. Gains and losses arising from open and closed designated hedging transactions are deferred in other comprehensive income, net of applicable taxes, and recognized as a component of cost of products sold or revenues in the statement of earnings when the hedged item is recognized.
The Company’s commodity position consists of merchandisable agricultural commodity inventories, related purchase and sales contracts, energy and freight contracts, and exchange-traded futures and exchange-traded and over-the-counter option contracts including contracts used to hedge anticipated transactions.
The fair value of the Company’s commodity position is a summation of the fair values calculated for each commodity by valuing all of the commodity positions at quoted market prices for the period, where available, or utilizing a close proxy. The Company has established metrics to monitor the amount of market risk exposure, which consist of volumetric limits, and value-at-risk (VaR) limits. VaR measures the potential loss, at a 95% confidence level, that could be incurred over a one year period. Volumetric limits are monitored daily and VaR calculations and sensitivity analysis are monitored weekly.
In addition to measuring the hypothetical loss resulting from an adverse two standard deviation move in market prices (assuming no correlations) over a one year period using VaR, sensitivity analysis is performed measuring the potential loss in fair value resulting from a hypothetical 10% adverse change in market prices. The highest, lowest, and average weekly position for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 together with the market risk from a hypothetical 10% adverse price change is as follows:
December 31, 2023 December 31, 2022
Long/(Short) Fair Value Market Risk Fair Value Market Risk
(In millions)
Highest position $ 498 $ 50 $ 986 $ 99
Lowest position (6) (1) 44 4
Average position 125 13 388 39
The change in fair value of the average position was due to the overall decrease in average quantities of certain commodities.
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Item 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK (Continued)
Currencies
The Company has consolidated subsidiaries in more than 70 countries. For the majority of the Company’s subsidiaries located outside the United States, the local currency is the functional currency except certain significant subsidiaries in Switzerland where Euro is the functional currency, and Brazil and Argentina where U.S. dollar is the functional currency. To reduce the risks associated with foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, the Company enters into currency exchange contracts to minimize its foreign currency position related to transactions denominated primarily in Euro, British pound, Canadian dollar, and Brazilian real currencies. These currencies represent the major functional or local currencies in which recurring business transactions occur. The Company also uses currency exchange contracts as hedges against amounts indefinitely invested in foreign subsidiaries and affiliates. The currency exchange contracts used are forward contracts, swaps with banks, exchange-traded futures contracts, and over-the-counter options. The changes in market value of such contracts have a high correlation to the price changes in the currency of the related transactions. The potential loss in fair value for such net currency position resulting from a hypothetical 10% adverse change in foreign currency exchange rates is not material. Effective April 1, 2022, the Company changed the functional currency of its Turkish entities to the U.S. dollar which did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.
The amount the Company considers indefinitely invested in foreign subsidiaries and corporate joint ventures translated into dollars using the year-end exchange rates is $15.5 billion and $13.0 billion ($17.9 billion and $15.5 billion at historical rates) at December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The increase is due to the increase in retained earnings of the foreign subsidiaries of $2.4 billion and the appreciation of foreign currencies versus the U.S. dollar of $0.1 billion. The potential loss in fair value, which would principally be recognized in Other Comprehensive Income, resulting from a hypothetical 10% adverse change in quoted foreign currency exchange rates is $1.8 billion and $1.6 billion for December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Actual results may differ.
Interest
The fair value of the Company’s long-term debt is estimated using quoted market prices, where available, and discounted future cash flows based on the Company’s current incremental borrowing rates for similar types of borrowing arrangements. Market risk is estimated as the potential increase in fair value resulting from a hypothetical 50 basis points decrease in interest rates. Actual results may differ.
December 31, 2023 December 31, 2022
(In millions)
Fair value of long-term debt $ 8,557 $ 7,502
Fair value amount over (under) carrying value 298 (232)
Market risk 378 342
The increase in the fair value of long-term debt at December 31, 2023 is due to a new debt issuance and a decrease in corporate bond interest rates.
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