AgriNurture earnings surge to P24 M

MANILA, Philippines — Earnings of AgriNurture Inc. (ANI), the listed agri-business company, surged to P24 million in the first quarter from only P1 million in the same period a year ago.

In a regulatory filing, ANI said consolidated gross profit grew to P213.6 million from P114.9 million.

“The increase was due to the increase in sales in exports, retail and distribution as well as the consolidation of Fucang’s operations from sale of commodities and real estate properties,” ANI said.

Fucang is one of the company’s subsidiaries which acquired last year a 70 percent stake in Guangzhou Lexian Fruit Industry Co. Ltd., a Chinese company engaged in wholesale trade.

Consolidated sales jumped 174.48 percent to P1.2 billion on strong local and export sales.

“For the first three months of 2019, Philippine operations contributed 39 percent while sales from foreign operations accounted for 61 percent of consolidated sales,” it said.

Of the P1.2 billion, P406.12 million came from export sales.

ANI said exports got a boost from  the stable selling prices of banana and coco juice in the international market, constant supply of raw materials and increase in customers especially in the China market.

Against this backdrop, ANI expects to continue increasing its sales volume of banana in the succeeding quarters, on top of increased volume in shipments for mango and beverage products such as canned coconut water.

Local sales, meanwhile, rose three percent to P32.4 million, mainly due to improvement  in operations.

Retail and franchising sales, meanwhile, went up 10 percent to P24.6 million despite the closing of some sub-performing outlets in the third and last quarter of 2018.

ANI, chaired by businessman Antonio Tiu,supplies home-grown fruits such as mango, banana and pineapple to customers in Hong Kong, Mainland China, the Middle East, and to different European regions.