Flooding and severe winter weather in the Midwestern United States will reduce Archer Daniels Midland Co's operating profit in the first quarter by $ 50-60 million, the American grain trader Archer Daniels Midland Co. said on March 25.

Record floods destroyed a wide strip of Farmer's Belt in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and some other states. Water suspended the operation of ethanol plants, slowed the railway transportation of agricultural products, and flooded grain storage bins.

In ADM, floods affected two key business units — Origination, which buys, stores and transports grain, and Carbohydrate Solutions, which process corn and wheat.

The decrease in operating profit before tax is from 50 to 60 million dollars, which will be approximately the same between the companies, with little influence on other divisions, Archer Daniels Midland Co. said.

“Extreme winter weather negatively impacted our first quarter of North American operations, and this negative is significantly higher than what we usually experienced in a typical winter,” the company added.