28 Jan 2010 --- Cargill recently announced that Robert Aspell was appointed as president, Cargill China, replacing Norwell Coquillard, who retired after 31 years service from Cargill. Coquillard was responsible for the company's operations in China for the past 11 years, and was awarded with Magnolia Silver Award for outstanding contributions to social and economic development in Shanghai.

Robert Aspell graduated from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada in 1983, and joined Cargill in the same year as a grain trader. In 1989 he moved to Geneva, Switzerland to lead Cargill's global corn trading. He was Cargill's country manager in Egypt from 1993 to 1997, then moved to Cargill Mexico where he lead the growth of the grains and oilseeds business until he became president in 2004. In 2005, he was sent Shanghai to take over the company's Greater China & Korea grain and oilseeds supply chain. Aspell will be responsible for the Cargill's operations and management in China as president.

"The Chinese government vowed to increase farmer incomes, improve agricultural production capacity, and develop modern agriculture at the recent Central Economic Work Conference", Aspell said, "and Cargill's newly announced Golden Key Plan is fully supportive of the government's efforts. By implementing the Golden Key Plan, Cargill aims to help farmers increase their incomes, and promote modern agricultural development by sharing its expertise and experience with China."

The Golden Key Plan consists of three parts: Cargill will increase its farmer training network from 21 for 50 locations in China, and in 5 years, the company will train 500,000 farmers on modern animal nutrition and planting technologies.

Secondly, Cargill will set up a risk and supply chain management innovation center, through which customers and partners can learn about managing risk and how to supply safe and consistently high quality food. The company will also work with customers to help them improve supply chain efficiencies and manage rapid product development cycles.

Thirdly, Cargill will utilize its global resources to help build local agriculture and food capacity. Cargill will send farmers to overseas universities and farms to learn advanced farm management techniques. The company will continue to develop its local management team by rotating them through overseas assignments so that they have an opportunity to learn global best practices and technology.