16th Jul 2015 09:50
LONDON (Alliance News) - Chief Executive Youval Rasin was set to tell the annual general meeting of DekelOil Public Ltd on Thursday that he is focused on increasing the profitability of the company as part of his vision of the company becoming one of West Africa's largest crude palm oil producers.
"We are focused on increasing the profitability of Ayenouan in 2016 and beyond and we have a number of forthcoming initiatives to facilitate this," said Rasin, referring to DekelOil main project. "DekelOil continues to make fantastic progress on the ground especially at our new state-of-the-art extraction mill which became operational in February 2014."
Rasin said the company will increase the amount of feedstock supplied by local landholders which feeds into the mill where the crude palm oil is extracted. Crude palm oil is extracted from fresh fruit bunches, and the company plans to increase the amount of company-owned plantations to further increase production.
DekelOil has planted 1,900 hectares of company-owned estates to date. These fields are beginning to mature which will deliver production at a higher margin compared to using produce from local farmers.
The company is also introducing a kernel crushing plant to its project in the fourth quarter of 2015, which will allow it to also produce palm kernel oil on top of its current production. Kernels are also derived from fresh fruit bunches to produce a lower-quality product compared to crude palm oil.
That kernel palm oil will be sold into the local market.
"DekelOil's vision is to become one of West Africa's largest crude palm oil producers. With this in mind, we will shortly be turning our attention to the 24,000 hectares located at our second project area at Guitry," said Rasin.
Guitry, or Guitri, is located close to its producing Ayenouan project in the Ivory Coast and is key to the company expanding its company-owned estates, which it hopes will push up its margin and increase production when combined with fresh fruit bunches derived from local landholders.
"Considering our achievements to date, and our proven ability to deliver on our objectives, I hope shareholders will agree that we are ideally poised to continue our growth trajectory," said Rasin.
DekelOil shares were up 1.2% to 1.24 pence per share on Thursday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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