By Karl Plume

Global commodities trader Cargill Inc reported this week that its fiscal year 2023 revenue increased 7% from a year earlier to $177 billion, the highest ever for the 158-year-old company.

Privately-held Cargill's strong result released on Wednesday was the latest for a global farm commodities trader after publicly-traded peers Archer-Daniels-Midland and Bunge both reported solid earnings in their most recent quarters and raised their profit outlooks for 2023.

Cargill halted public reporting of most of its quarterly and annual financial data in 2020 but reports its sales for its June-to-May fiscal year in its annual report.

Robust demand for food, animal feed and biofuel, and global supply disruptions such as war in major crop exporter Ukraine, have elevated profits for grains merchants.

(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Marguerita Choy)