Specifically, 2025 brought Mars’ blockbuster acquisition of Kellanova, Unilever’s demerger of its ice cream business and the marriage of Brazilian meat producers Marfrig and BRF.

But, as we know, these major developments are driven by revenue, and that’s the basis of our Top 100 ranking. Each year, we comb through the annual reports of major food manufacturers and processors to see how their food sales performed. And in these reports, companies highlight the significant headwinds they’ve faced. These often include inflation, evolving consumer trends and civil unrest.

As a major buyer of cocoa and sugar, The Hershey Company also pointed to “commodity cost volatility.” That’s a perfect phrase to describe the challenges manufacturers face in purchasing raw or minimally processed ingredients and how ingredient processors fared in complicated commodity markets.

Simply put, several ingredient processors had a difficult 2025.

Starting with Acher-Daniels-Midland (ADM), the company posted $80.3 billion in total revenue in 2025, down from $85.5 billion in 2024. Subtracting its agriculture services and other business revenue, ADM posted $39.5 billion in food revenue, down from $40.6 billion in 2024.

ADM Chairman, President and CEO Juan R. Luciano pointed toward several external factors.

“During 2025, we navigated an external environment that included ample global grain and oilseeds stocks weighing on markets despite significant demand; uncertainty in U.S. biofuels policy; and lack of U.S. export prospects to China,” Luciano said. “Given these challenges, we focused on areas within our control, including execution and cost management, strategic simplification, strategic growth and capital discipline.”

Olam International posted S$67 billion in revenue in 2025, up from S$56.1 in 2024. However, with the sale of its Olam Agri business in 2025, the company’s remaining food revenue – generated through ofi – totaled S$28.5 billion. Notably, ofi’s sales, which include cocoa and coffee, were up from S$21.8 in 2024.

“Since the start of the reorganization, ofi has had to overcome many challenges – from the Russia-Ukraine war, high inflation to spikes in interest rates and more recently unprecedented extreme volatility in input prices,” said Lim Ah Doo, Chairman, non-executive and independent director. “Following the recapitalization of ofi in June 2025, the group is now positioned to sharpen its focus on purposeful growth.”

German sugar and starch producer Südzucker AG posted €8.7 billion in 2025, down from €9.7 billion in 2024. Its sugar segment, in particular, experienced a 28.1% decline.

“One of the key challenges was the sugar market, were persistently low prices significantly impacted our sugar business — much more than anticipated at the beginning of the fiscal year,” wrote Südzucker’s executive board. “Thanks to the broad diversification of Südzucker Group’s business segments, we are generally able to absorb such pressures effectively. This remains one of our core strengths, and one we will continue to rely on. However, this fiscal year, it proved difficult to offset the losses in the sugar segment.”

These are just a few examples. Admittedly, I’m not an economist, but I know volatile commodity markets pressure ingredient processors and make it challenging for finished product manufacturers to plan and adapt their operations.

While 2026 already has brought more volatility, here’s to hoping the rest of the year and 2027 offers some stability.