NEW YORK — A strategy for Archer Daniels Midland Co. to grow by expanding its presence in a number of commodities was described in a recent presentation by Steve Mills, ADM executive vice-president and chief financial officer.

Addressing investment analysts, Mr. Mills spoke Nov. 19 at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer and Retail Conference in New York.

"We are expanding the scope of our model as we diversify our feedstocks," Mr. Mills said. "In the past year, we started our joint venture in Brazilian sugar, and we’re evaluating other opportunities in this space. We’ve increased our participation in palm sourcing and refining, and we are advancing our biomass efforts and conducting research with our partners to explore the commercialization, or the potential commercialization, of corn stover (leaves and stalks) as a longer-term feedstock for both animal feed and bioenergy."

Mr. Mills offered the group a vision of the ADM constellation of businesses for the future.

"We are expanding the volume and scope of our core model as we diversify and increase our product portfolio," he said. "We want to have a diversified portfolio of products across food, feed, bioenergy, and industrial end markets. This diversified product portfolio allows us to optimize our processing capacity and gives us the flexibility to find value as product and market demands change."