Agribusiness
Results decreased from last year, primarily due to lower results in our soy processing operations, reflecting tight bean supplies in South America and softer global soymeal demand due to competition from lower cost feed products. Results in our European and Canadian softseed processing operations increased, driven by large crops, solid vegetable oil demand and our new Ukrainian plant, which started up earlier this year. Improved performance in Grains was largely driven by higher results in our U.S. operations, which benefitted from record corn and soybean crops that increased origination and export volumes and margins, as well as lower costs resulting from our footprint optimization efforts. Our global teams effectively managed risk during the quarter; however, contributions from risk management were lower than last year.
Edible Oil Products
Increased results in the fourth quarter were primarily driven by improved performance in Brazil, reflecting higher margins in all major product categories, share gains and lower costs. In India, increased sales of higher margin specialty bakery products contributed to its improved performance. Results in North America were down as higher results in Canada were more than offset by lower U.S. results. Performance in Europe was comparable to last year.
Milling Products
Higher results in the quarter were primarily due to increased volumes and margins in Brazil, which benefitted from the contribution of our recently acquired Pacifico mill, market share gains and improved product mix. Partially offsetting these improvements were lower results in North America, driven by the translation impact of the stronger U.S. dollar on our Mexican operations and lower margins in our U.S. corn milling business.
Sugar & Bioenergy
Increased results in the quarter were primarily driven by our sugarcane milling operation, where higher sugar and ethanol prices more than offset lower crush volumes. Results in our trading & distribution business were down due to lower volumes and margins. Results in our biofuel joint ventures were higher due to improved volumes and margins. We incurred a $7 million loss in the quarter associated with our renewable oils joint venture.
Fertilizer
Higher results in the quarter were driven by improved volumes in our Argentine fertilizer business that slightly offset lower margins. Results in the quarter also benefitted from the reversal of an $11 million provision related to tariffs on natural gas consumption.
Cash Flow
Cash generated by operations in the year ended December 31, 2016 was $1,904 million compared to cash generated of $610 million in 2015. The year-over-year increase was primarily driven by lower levels of working capital reflecting increased payables and decreased secured advances to farmers. Adjusted funds from operations of $1,477 million was $61 million higher than the year ago period of $1,416 million.
Income Taxes
The effective tax rate for year ended December 31, 2016 was 22%. Adjusting for net gains and charges, the effective tax rate was approximately 24%.