The coronavirus pandemic has forced companies worldwide to recalibrate on the fly — with those in supply chain-sensitive sectors especially feeling the virus’s disruptive impact.
ADM has experienced these dynamics firsthand, chairman and CEO Juan R. Luciano said during this year’s virtual edition of the Fortune Global Forum on Monday.
ADM was able to benefit from its position as a multinational operator — parlaying what it saw and learned from the virus’s earliest hot zones in Asia to inform its response once it spread to Europe and the Americas.
Looking to the future, Luciano talked of the potential that scientific developments in food and agriculture — partially spurred by heightened consumer demand for products that promote health and wellness — will have on ADM’s industry.
“Most people take for granted that food will show up,” Luciano told Fortune senior editor Beth Kowitt. “We can’t, and we have that responsibility. We have been doing that for 118 years.”