By May 2023, Boortmalt was the word's leading producer of malt, with a production capacity of 3 million tonnes, 15% of global market share, and 27 malting plants across five continents. It had recently acquired a major competitor and had sustained an EBITDA growth of 17% per annum over the past ten years. Despite this success, Yvan Schaepman, Boortmalt's charismatic and eco-conscious CEO, was aware of the rapidly evolving malting industry, marked by changing consumer preferences, technological advancements, and shifting climate dynamics. Schaepman was considering various strategies to sustain growth amidst these headwinds, including greenfield investments, exploring new acquisitions, and expanding into the food sector. This case study explores Boortmalt's growth trajectory, and assesses different strategies for sustaining and enhancing growth. Additionally, it dives into the unique world of malting, the company's culture and sustainability efforts, and the challenges and opportunities of acquiring a competitor.

In October 2022, Bruce Taylor (HBS MBA, 1981), Chairman and CEO of Taylor Farms, the leading producer of salads and healthy fresh foods in the United States, wondered whether this was the right time for Taylor Farms to venture into the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA). Taylor Farms' operations involved farming, processing, and distributing about 50 million pounds of fresh produce every week. To accomplish such a feat, Taylor Farms faced a number of ongoing challenges related to features such as food safety, climate change, labor shortages and wages, input prices, and logistics. CEA, either in high-tech, single-level greenhouses or vertical farms (multi-layer indoor crop cultivation systems), could not entirely help address environmental and logistic challenges, but its smaller geographic footprint enabled operations closer to consumption sites. Indoor farms were promoted as using far less water and requiring less transportation than traditional farms, but they required more power and were more expensive to build and run. With these solutions still under development, Bruce harbored some qualms about their actual benefits. After all, Taylor Farms had been able to sustain double-digit revenue growth rates by sticking to conventional agriculture. Yet, he did not want the company to fall behind in new technologies that could render its operations more efficient. Moreover, CEA producers might turn into a threat for Taylor Farms, eating into its market share by catering to consumers who favored "environmentally-friendlier" products. Was this the right time for Taylor Farms to venture into the CEA space, or should it wait for the technology to evolve further or the industry to consolidate?

Founded by CEO Steve Barnard in 1983, California-based Mission Produce was a leading supplier of Hass avocados with a global sourcing, marketing, and distribution network and $892 million in 2021 sales. Barnard had been influential in the global avocado trade's transformation in recent decades. For instance, Mission's use of ethylene gas ripening for avocados had allowed it to supply consistently ripe avocados to the U.S. market for the first time. Moreover, Mission had established an early presence in key avocado-growing countries, including Mexico and Peru, as they were on the cusp of gaining access to the U.S. and other key import markets. Barnard believed Mission's scale, global presence, value-added offerings, and vertically integrated model gave it many advantages in the maturing avocado market. Yet, he recognized the challenges Mission would face in the years to come. In its supply network, these included political instability, declining cost advantages, and the high cost of land in California. Perhaps most of all, water scarcity and cost were mounting concerns with no obvious fix. Mission recently entered the mango category, which, in the U.S., shared notable traits with the 1990s avocados market: mangos were a relatively minor U.S. product that many consumers did not know how to prepare, and their ripeness was variable at retail. Like avocados, mangos could be ripened with ethylene gas in destination markets, but they were more easily damaged during handling and had a shorter shelf life post-harvest.

Marfrig, one of the world's leading meatpackers, strived to comply with its commitment to have a deforestation-free value chain in Brazil by 2030. The company also pledged to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases in accordance with the guidelines set by the Science-Based Targets Imitative (SBTi). Controlling shareholder and chairman Marcos Molina, and Director of Sustainability and Communications for South America Paulo Painez, must figure how to achieve these goals while dealing with increased pressures from NGOs, customers, and foreign governments. The pair believed that a solution to the company's-and the sector's-challenges would only be achieved by working together with other stakeholders of the Brazilian beef industry: cattle ranchers, NGOs, the government, and civil society at large. Aligning the interests of the different players, while keeping Brazil's lead as the world's top beef exporter, was especially challenging given the country's fraught political environment and its tarnished image abroad.

Pairwise discusses the strategic approach of a company aiming to "snackify" fruits and vegetables by using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to create nutritious, bite-sized foods that could compete with packaged snacks. The company is confronting a number of challenges, including distinguishing their approach from that of GMO foods, which had a mixed public reception.

This case describes the entrepreneurial journey of David Yeung, from campaigning for plant-based diets to building Green Monday, a purpose-driven business and an ecosystem based in Hong Kong comprising a retail platform, an alternative meat brand ("OmniPork"), a non-profit foundation, and an impact investment arm. Green Monday had been reshaping the traditional concept of plant-based food into a modern and aspirational lifestyle by providing more food options to the growing number of flexitarian consumers in Hong Kong and beyond. But in fall 2021, challenges were emerging that could slow its rapid growth. Externally, the breakdown of the global supply chain caused by the Covid-19 pandemic was affecting the company's expansion into new markets, such as mainland China, the U.S., and Southeast Asia. Internally, the strategy of operating multiple business models was testing the startup's ability to find a balance between growing the business without diluting its strong mission and purpose. Given these constraints, Yeung had some important decisions to make regarding Green Monday's growth plans. Should he continue the multi-business strategy or should he be more focused?

Updates (A) case by describing the early impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the art market, the renaming of the gallery as the Krakow Witkin Gallery, and the response of its partners and staff to the pandemic.

The Irish company Kerry Group, one of the leading global players in the taste and nutrition industry, wants to ensure its future growth in developing and developed markets. Founded in 1972 as a dairy cooperative, it had grown into a provider of taste and nutrition solutions through many acquisitions, but also through organic growth. In 2020, Kerry rolled out its new sustainability strategy, "Beyond the Horizon", with the goal of reaching 2 billion people a day with sustainable nutrition solutions by 2030. In order to reach that goal, Kerry had identified channels where it could grow and that were compatible with environmental sustainability, namely food waste reduction, plant-based protein, and proactive health products. Kerry's customer base was changing as well, with many FMCG companies losing market share to new, innovative market entrants in the food and nutrition space. Kerry was looking for ways to attract those new customers, while helping its existing customers shift to more sustainable solutions as well. Kerry had already adapted its recruitment strategy to meet its changing needs, but it still had to simplify its organization to better integrate new acquisitions and talent. Would this be enough to reach the 2030 goal of 2 billion people reached daily?

Arcos Dorados-McDonald's largest independent franchisee, covering Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)-faced a pandemic that was disrupting the entire consumer foodservice business in 2020. With the exclusive right to own, operate, and sub-franchise McDonald's restaurants in LAC since 2007, the company served over 40 million customers a day at its almost 2,300 restaurants sprawled in 20 markets across LAC, reporting revenues of roughly $3 billion and $291.8 million EBITDA in 2019. Although results for 2020 had looked promising, in late March 2020, governments throughout the region implemented quarantine measures in response to a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), affecting the company's normal operations. Forced to withdraw a previously approved 2020-2025 plan for restaurant openings and reinvestments, the company had to focus on a strategy to reduce the impact of the pandemic on the company's finances. Based on its strengths vis-à-vis its competitors, Arcos Dorados' recovery plan hinged on five pillars: i) McDonald's restaurants' reputation for people care and food safety; ii) the company's capabilities to explore new channels for food purchasing and delivery; iii) McDonald's good "value-for-money" perception; iv) a consolidated brand with unique offerings; and v) a sustainable-minded company, with initiatives underway to enhance its brand image. Once the crisis was contained, the company had to draft a new six-year plan, including capital outlays for restaurant openings and reinvestments. Given its current position and strengths against its competitors, should Arcos Dorados grasp this opportunity to pursue an aggressive growth plan? Or, considering the post-pandemic economic downturn expected in the region, should the company come up with a more conservative plan or even contemplate downsizing? How should the plan differ by country?

Daily Table is a case about a grocery chain with two outposts in Boston neighborhoods Dorchester and Roxbury. Its mission is to provide healthy food at lower prices to people in lower-income neighborhoods. The case explores Daily Table's responsibility to its employees during the COVID-19 pandemic amid a series of changes to wages.

This case, a follow-on to "Luvo" (517-049), provides a brief look at changes that have occured at Luvo, now called Performance Kitchen, since the timing of the first case (mid 2016). Set in January 2020, Luvo (B) touches on developments such as the company's purchase of a small food retail chain and its "food-is-medicine" strategic positioning, which includes selling to health insurers and other firms in the health care industry.

This note, written in late March 2020 and mainly U.S. focused, looks at the unfolding impact of the coronavirus pandemic on food retailers and their suppliers. It allows student to consider the challenges facing food retail executives as they navigate urgent supply chain challenges amid rapidly changing information and circumstances. It touches on developments in various segments of the supply chain, including farms, manufacturers, the trucking industry, warehouse operators, and store operations, as well as home delivery. The note is "set" as the outbreak is accelerating in the U.S., where the first "hot spots" include cities such as Seattle and New York City. Officials in many states have ordered or advised residents to stay home, exempting those employed in industries designated "essential," including food. The food industry is contending with a massive surge in demand for staple goods, as consumers worry about product shortages, seek to minimize store visits, and anticipate long stretches of time at home. Stock-outs and rationing in some categories in stores are widespread. Demand for online food shopping and delivery has skyrocketed well beyond the current capacity of retailers in many markets. As they scramble to respond, players up and down the food supply chain are changing how they source, make, move, and stock products. While U.S. officials have asserted that the food system remains reliable, anecdotal news is emerging of problems facing individual players, industry segments, and geographies. With the crisis expected to continue for weeks or months, all are bracing for even greater challenges.

Chicago-based CME Group is the world's largest futures and options marketplace, with annual trading volume of over 4.8 billion contracts in 2018. This case is set in late 2019, as heightened perceptions of risk stemming from the U.S.-China trade war are driving record trading volumes of agricultural futures. CME Group leads the agricultural futures market, but changing global dynamics are raising new questions about the security of its competitive position. With roots dating to the 1850s, CME Group became the market leader by developing liquid markets for reliable products tied to U.S. agricultural production. But the U.S. no longer dominates global grain and oilseed production and trade, raising questions about whether U.S.-domiciled futures and options will remain relevant globally. Other pressures on CME Group include the U.S. political environment-there is talk of taxing futures trades-and potential competition from Chinese futures exchanges. How should the management team adjust their strategy? While this case focuses on CME Group's agricultural products business, some of the questions at play-e.g., about the role of speculators, the usefulness of a financial transactions tax, and the positioning of price discovery in commodity source markets versus destination markets-apply to other lines of business such as foreign exchange or precious metals.