23rd Jan 2014 12:28
LONDON (Alliance News) - Crude palm oil producer R.E.A Holdings PLC Thursday said production for the year ended December 31, 2013 was lower than in 2012, due to difficult trading conditions during the year, although it expects production to pick back up in the current financial year.
R.E.A Holdings said that after a difficult first half of the year, when disputes with villagers on its land in Indonesia hit palm oil production in the first 10 months of the year, production did increase towards the end of the year after those issues were resolved.
"2014 should see further progress as the improved relations with the local communities permit previous operational standards to be fully recovered," it said in a trading update.
The group said it harvested 578,785 tonnes of oil palm fresh fruit bunches for the year ended December 31, compared with 597,722 tonnes in 2012.
It said external purchases of fresh fruit bunches from smallholders and other third parties totalled 99,348 tonnes for the year, up from 64,014 tonnes for the year ended December 2012.
Combined with its own fresh fruit bunches production, the group said production totalled 678,133 tonnes in 2013, up from 661.736 tonnes the prior year.
R.E.A said it produced 147,649 tonnes of crude palm oil, lower than the previous year, 30,741 tonnes of palm kernels, and 11,393 tonnes of crude palm kernel oil, again a slight decline when compared with production in 2012.
"Crops for 2013 were impacted not only by village issues but also by what appears to have been a downturn in crops throughout Malaysia and Indonesia. The trend of monthly crops suggests that cropping levels were recovering over the last few months of 2013. The directors are therefore hopeful that 2014 will see crop levels more in line with past production experience," the company said.
The group said it will release its final results for 2013 in the second half of April.
R.E.A shares were down 0.1% at 455.00 pence per share midday Thursday.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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