Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Jain Irrigation Systems Q4 and FY 2026 earnings conference call hosted by DRChoksey Finserv Private Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in listen only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Maahir Mani. Thank you, and over to you.
Thank you, Danish. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Jain Irrigation Systems Limited earnings call to discuss the Q4 FY 2026 results. Today we have on call Mr. Anil Jain, CEO and MD, and Mr. Bipeen Valame, CFO. We must remind you that the discussion on today's call may include certain forward-looking statements that may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors and must therefore be viewed in conjunction with the risks that the company faces. Future results, performance, or achievements may differ significantly from what is expressed and implied by such forward-looking statements. Please note the results and presentation are available on the exchange and the company's website. Now, I request Mr. Anil Jain to take us through the company's business outlook and financial highlights, subsequent to which we will open the floor for questions. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good evening to all the participants and the listeners for the call. Thank you for joining company's conference call for the fourth quarter results and overall year review. As we circulate, we had a board meeting earlier today, and we have circulated the results. You might have seen that overall when you look at it, we were able to manage approximately a revenue of about INR 1,800 crore this quarter as the entire company. As against the same period last year at about INR 1,750 crore. So registering about a nominal growth of about 4.3%. Within that, the high-tech business which primarily means drip irrigation, tissue culture, grew in fact about 8%. There is small amount of degrowth in plastic business because of slow quarter for the piping in the first quarter. And the impact we had because of very high prices of raw materials in the month of March.
Agro-processing also did about 6% growth during this quarter. In terms of overall EBITDA grew about 7%. So revenue grew 4%, EBITDA grew about 7%. Within high-tech, the EBITDA had a really good growth at about 22% compared to the same period last year. The plastics grew also 3.3%, but agro-processing had a negative EBITDA growth for this quarter. Well, for the whole year, they had a positive EBITDA growth. We have been able to improve the margin. Overall margin came at 13.2% as against 12.8% across all the divisions. Within individual businesses, high-tech came out at 19.8% as against last year's same period, 17.5%. So that's a substantial improvement. Even plastic was a little bit higher at 10.2% versus 9.7%.
This has been in that context and background, we have been able to hold our margins even though revenue growth was lower than what we were expecting or we were anticipating in the quarter. If I look at the whole year now that we are aggregating all the four quarters, revenue has grown for about 11% for the whole year. That includes the consolid business that is the business in India, the food business, the overseas plastic business all put together. But within that 11%, you would see that the high-tech business grew more than 20%. That has been really heartening to see that the business which is most profitable grew at the best rate. The plastics grew only at 2.4% and the food managed to cross INR 2,000 crore revenue by growing 9%. Again, overall positive revenue growth and especially in high-tech it was 20%.
That obviously works going forward. In terms of EBITDA, while revenue growth for high-tech was about 20%, EBITDA for the whole year grew to 26%. We had a negative growth in plastics EBITDA because revenue also did not grow. Food managed about 9% growth in EBITDA compared to the last year's same period, in line with its revenue expansion. But if you look at the India side of the food business did very well during the whole year. While we had some challenges in our European and U.S. business, those are being addressed and I think we expect current fiscal year, that is FY 2027, they will not remain. Next year looks then quite good for the food business in totality.
In general, in terms of the market, what we have seen that the pricing shocks which we saw in March, where some of our polymer, we use PVC and polyethylene for our piping business and linear low-density polyethylene in drip irrigation business. We saw that between 20th February to sometimes in 25th of March, prices had gone up substantially, resulting into almost, at one point, there was more than 50% increase in the raw material prices within a space of about 20 days. On polyethylene side, it was, in fact, 60% increase. That was a kind of a shock to the system. This was unprecedented. Not seen anything like that even during COVID period. In fact, over last 40 years, this was in such a short period, such an amount of increase which took place.
Since then, if I talk about late April, early May, PVC prices have come down because part of PVC gets supplied from China, which is coal-based, and that comes at a lower cost. Because it is coal-based, it does not have to be a derivative of the crude. While polyethylene, HDPE or LDPE, continues to remain still quite high, because it is a direct derivative of the crude. Those prices are about 40% up. They had gone up to 60% up, but they are now at around 40% level. PVC is down to about 10% compared to where it was in February. We have seen, since the prices have come down, we have seen demand for PVC pipe already come back and while March and April, we lost some business due to uncertainty in the market.
Customers decide to postpone their demand or their orders, especially the farmers. PVC has come back, and we expect that over next few months as monsoon is expected to be lower than normal, we expect stronger demand for water management products from farmers. We expect next few months to be better, unless there is another big price shock, which one cannot predict and one is not aware. As things stand, I think what we saw the worst between first three weeks of March, and through April, things have stabilized, and business is coming back to normal. The second half of this quarter looks better than the first half, and then July onwards also should be better, is our overall sense in terms of where we are going.
In our food business, we had planned also new business where we had talked about that we are getting into beverage manufacturing. I'm happy to report that in the quarter, the two beverage lines started, one for juice and one for CFC. There is a discussion ongoing to also put additional three more lines during FY 2027. We are looking forward to closure of those discussions soon and then move forward with that additional investment. Overall, I think we had a small amount of revenue because of the initial trials, et cetera, in late February and early March. We did some amount of business already in March. We expect current year to generate, again, the revenue and the margins into that new side of the business. The other business which we are working on a collaboration with a Japanese company, it's about tomato processing.
That plant would start sometime, I think, January. That is the next mango season. Sorry, tomato season, when that comes through. As we also speak right now, we are currently processing onions since January, and that season has gone reasonably okay for us. That augurs well for the next year in terms of improving sales of onion, et cetera, dried onions. The mango season is just starting as we speak. This year onwards, 2027, 2028 onwards, we also expect that once all the rules are notified under India-USFDA, earlier we used to pay 10% duty on onions while being importing. Now the duties are going to be zero. That should be good to create demand for those type of products for us into European market. Again, that should help overall our food business.
In overall scene, we are cautious right now because of this unpredictable scenario related to major raw materials which we have in terms of the plastics which we use in the ribbon pipe business. Overall, as things stabilize, I think revenues will come back and kick in again. In terms of the food business, as I said, there are two, three things which are happening which are positive for the food for the next year. One of the other thing which happened during this period. That lower demand was not just linked to the higher raw material prices, which was one of the important factors. Because of this war-type scenario, some of the agriculture produce which farmers sell, things like banana, which goes into export markets, banana, onion, grapes, and so on, which are our primary customers as farmers.
Due to this whole war-type scenario, the exports went down. The price they were getting also went down, which was also a dampening reason for them at a given point of time. From what we hear from the market, things have stabilized even on that front now, and farmers are getting better prices for their produce now. That should help them to make those purchase decisions they need to make. In terms of coming to financials now, I think if we look at the overall year, whatever revenue and the EBITDA we generated, we were able to convert a substantial amount of EBITDA into free cash flow, when I look at overall performance of the company. That is important to know because that is what our really focus is, going forward next year also.
Almost if you look at for the whole FY 2026, whatever EBITDA we generated, almost about 76% was operating cash flow, post-working capital change, was created in that to in north of about INR 600 crore. The idea in the current fiscal, FY 2027, is to take this amount to four figures by recovering the old government receivables and project receivables there. There was some movement in this particular quarter where some INR 80 crore were reduced in January to March from the government project receivables. Again, in April, we also received INR 30 crore. We expect FY 2027 to be a year where substantial amount will come down so that from FY 2028 onwards, we don't have to discuss about this issue because that would be behind us in totality.
Our focus has remained on cash flow and the fact that we could generate INR 600 crore of operating cash flow after working everything all that is good. We also focus on working capital cycle, and that working capital cycle has been reduced by almost about by 15 days, in total, across different businesses, despite all the volatility and the changes which have been there in marketplace, including what happened in the March. Overall, when you look at business level profitability, ability to collect cash to honor the obligation, 2027 is important because while we last four years, we have been repaying all our obligations on the date and on time. There are additional obligations in the current year, that is, in FY 2027. Those are due in September and March.
We feel that company would be able to generate adequate internal accruals, to be able to take care of that matter. By March, almost 98% of the old debt which we had which was interesting debt in terms of term loans and FITL, et cetera, that has all been fully repaid. About 1% or 2% remains, which is on ongoing basis. Now this year, we repay 0% debt, the NCDs which we are carrying in our books. That is where we are. All in all, some good news and some difficult times we have gone through in March and April. I think structurally speaking, business is in good place.
Our ability to be cost competitive and make good margins is there, and at least on drip irrigation business, et cetera, I think our margins are better than most of the companies because the fact that we sell system and we sell cross solutions rather than merely plastic products. That is what is helping us as a company. Food is moving next year. I think domestically, food was already very strong this year. Next year also looks good for domestic business. With the addition of the beverage business, food should do very well. The hit we have taken into a couple of overseas businesses on food side should also not be there in FY 2027. Overall food should be okay. The plastic business, especially the piping part, which is a domestic business.
As things have stabilized, polymer prices now, PVC especially, has come down to reasonable level. It should create now sustained, stable business environment. Plastic sheet business, which is overseas, is already doing reasonably well. All in all, despite some of these headwinds, we think company should do better in FY 2027 compared to FY 2026 on all parameters. By and large, the revenue, the margins, the cash flow, all three parameters and balance sheet should definitely become far better than what it is today with a large chunk of repayment. That is what our focus is, and we think we need to prepare ourselves to face some of these uncertainties and challenges, mitigate some of these risks which are out there. One has to be a little bit cautious.
You cannot go say, "I am going to do things in a very different way." Another factor, the business which grew last year was also as a part of the high-tech division, has been the solar agri pump. That business grew nicely, and we expect because of additional government initiative, our solar agri business should grow also in FY 2027. There are some places where I see definite growth opportunity. As I said, solar pump will grow. Drip irrigation, especially into the markets where farmers buy directly from us via dealers, should continue to grow because it is a good solution for farmers to improve productivity and profitability. The pool will do well. Plastic sheet overseas is already doing well. Pipe, which did not grow this year, we expect to grow next year.
In terms of different businesses, I think in the current year, the domestic business grew about 12%, exports were low, less by almost 10%, 11%, and the retail business within that grew 13%. Our target is that the retail business should grow more than 15%, right? That was in the current quarter, also in the whole year, but we ended up at 13% because of lack of sales in March because of the shock. I think going forward, our focus would remain that the domestic and the retail business should maintain that 15%+ growth. Export, we have to be watchful this year because of whole geopolitical scenario, the tariff issues, sometimes you cannot ship, all kinds of issues. Even there, this year, I think we clocked exports of last year INR 455 crore from the earlier year of INR 500 crore.
That was a 10% low. But now with the depreciation of the rupee and rupee level, some of our products, especially on the food side, exports could become more competitive and that would help us. I think this is where we are. We are cautious. We remain focused. 2027 is important year. But I think overall, we are in good way for the whole year. Again, our business quarter to quarter keeps moving. But for the whole year, we should do well. Also, one last item on the PAT, the reported PAT being negative, was also the fact, and that is covered in the notes, was that we have opted this year to go for the new regime on the taxes at 25%. Earlier regime was 34%, and because of the earlier accumulated losses, we had created deferred tax assets based on 34% future tax rate.
Now the fact that we are moving to the new regime of 25%, that means we needed to unwind some of those earlier deferred tax assets which were created as an asset based on 34%. That impact has already been given. It is a non-cash impact. That got necessitated because of the government circular in February, which said that if you decide not to move, then you could lose all the MAT credit, and we had MAT credit of more than INR 80 crore. Therefore, that decision we have taken, it is a one-time hit. For the whole year number, there was also one time change due to the Indian Labour Codes. Again, that was a non-cash item. Usually in our PAT number, also some of the unwinding of this 0% interest also comes through. That was another INR 80 crore, which was also a non-cash item.
When you see reported PAT, and if you add back some of these numbers, the adjusted PAT comes out to be quite positive for the company. Of course, we need to further do it and further improve it. I think that is where our efforts are. I would like to thank everybody for being patient and listening through almost half an hour of all the review of the business, of where we stand, how 2026 went, and what are we expecting in 2027. As I said, 2027 being somewhat uncertain year because of all these situations. We will continuously monitor what is happening. We are hands-on in terms of where we need to go and where necessary, we are employing within our business and within our data, artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of business, improve training of people. How do we reach out to the dealers?
How do we give more crop solutions to the farmer? A lot of work is going on to create a more robust platform than we had in the past. Thank you, and we would be very happy to take any questions you might have. Thank you again.
Thank you, sir, for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Praneeth from Samatva Investments. Please go ahead.
Hi, management. Thank you for the opportunity. We just wanted to understand in terms of the debt repayment. I understand that you mentioned with cash flow you might be able to service it, but if you see a standalone business where most of our entities are, we don't have that much cash flow. Could you explain how are you planning on servicing the debt, especially when previously the management indicated that you might be shift a portion of it and there might be a fund raise. There were many options given, but it was always vague on how are we planning on specifically paying this liability. Could the management explain what's the strategy now? Whether it will be a restructuring of debt or what is going to go?
Yeah, I think that's a good question. The standalone business which we have does generate a certain amount of cash flow. Even the last year, I think, in 2025, 2026, we generated net cash from operations about INR 350 crore, post-working capital change. Part of what the increase in the receivables, et cetera.
Thank you.
Still, the fact that we would expect to cover these receivables, in fact, should go down about INR 450 crore from the government. With all that calculation, we are expecting the INR 350 crore to grow to almost about INR 750, INR 800 crore, is our anticipation. While that is our clear objective, that from internal accruals of standalone business is what we should be able to repay a majority of this incident itself, INR 20 crore. In addition, we are expecting in the current year in standalone business, about INR 150 crore of the government benefits. This is not linked to the projects, so these are not subsidies. These are special benefits which are accrued, which would be released by the government in the current year. That amount will be also available to pay for its debt.
In terms of the backup options, if things are delayed on the government project or receivable, the backup options are always available about refinancing, backup option about raising of the equity, et cetera. Those are available. We feel fairly confident that we should be able to do through the internal accruals. I would like to say that between 2023 and 2026, since we signed the restructuring, but since 2022, in the last four years, we have also repaid INR 1,300 crore total to the banks, and that was possible. It became possible. So companies are stronger today than, let's say it was three or four years ago. So we feel okay and good that we can do this. In terms of backup options, we are exploring everything, including refinancing, if required.
This scenario of what has happened in March and April necessities some of the additional backup one must do because things are uncertain. We are exploring those, and I think sometimes in July when we speak, we should have more clarity on that. As I also explained, this debt is smaller amount of debt is due in September, and majority amount of debt is due in March. So, it's 10 months away. I think we have necessity where we call to ensure that it will be paid properly.
I understand, sir, but we have always had many of these backup options in terms of asset sales and government receivables and all of that in the past also to pre-pay or whatever it is. But most of them didn't work out. So how fairly confident are you in terms of certain government receivables that it be the benefit or this project receivables? In terms of everything got delayed, I understand the management is doing everything from their end.
It is not very far apart. Ten months is not that long. The next payment is September, that is also not too long. With existing situation, it looks like still to be difficult. We are also doing a lot of CapEx in the food business where it has its own commitments. So overall, this is how it is. Because it got delayed so far, I am just curious on how confident is the management in terms of doing this. Because we delayed with the IPO in terms of liquidity, and we have not, and land also got delayed. Is there any other backup option of the restructuring that is already set? Because getting financing in this market also could be difficult.
No, asset sale actually about the land is also in. We quite have signed the MoU, et cetera. It is based in Tamil Nadu. There were recent elections there, so it is expected to be closed this month, next month. So overall, also you talked about government projects and the delays. The scenario is that, in terms of the government projects, now I think four major projects have been completed. So funds have to come. Earlier, there was still last milestone was not done and so on and so forth. That is in place. The government benefit I talked about, we got the approvals only in July, August. So payment has to only take place this year. It could not have been done earlier. So when I am saying something, it is based on being conservative and also doing thorough analysis.
As I said, September part, we already know how that would happen. The March part, there is some more work needs to be done. I think as I said, we have ten months, and we are very confident that this will be done. No issues.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management will be able to address all the questions from the participants, we request you to kindly limit your question to one question per participant. If you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sanjay Kohli from Goldstone Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Again, as a follow-up to the previous speaker's question about the debt management, there was a recent report by ICRA on the ratings update, which they provided. And in that is mentioned a very advanced level of talks about a sale, which should crystallize sometime this month. Where are we with that, sir?
Yes. I think the sale of the assets, as I said, it is happening in Tamil Nadu. We already signed the necessary MoU or whatever else, so it should happen over next couple of weeks. That's in place. That's what I'm saying. Some of these things are happening now, and we feel fairly confident that that's not an issue.
Okay. That's wonderful news because this should be a very nice near-term catalyst for investors to be also looking at the valuation and-
Sure.
Yes. What progress have we made in the U.K. business and in the bottling plant? Since we made the announcement, from cash generation, from operations, what have we pumped into these businesses so far? The amounts.
Sure.
If you can get a handle basically on the capital working progress or the investment, individually and collectively.
The bottling beverage business, we have invested approximately INR 140 crore over last couple of quarters, December and March quarter. The first project is already online. It is working. We do not have to put any working capital because that is how the business was. Business has started functioning. In terms of the U.K. business, which was a different question, we have grown this year from, I think, GBP 60 million to GBP 68 million on the food side. There were some challenges related to cost because of the growth which we were achieving, there were additional costs attached to it. Those costs, I think, will not be there in FY 2027. I think we should get back to higher level of EBITDA into that business. Overall revenues are protected good.
In a market which is not growing much, that fact that we could grow about 12% was quite nice. As I said, if you look at overall business, the food business, the seasons for onion and mango look good. With rupee depreciation, that should further help. The beverage is a new project which has already started, so that augurs well. The negative which we had in U.K., especially U.K. market and partly U.S. market, should not be there in FY 2027. Overall food business should come back very quite strongly. Even though in the current year, food business did better than the earlier in terms of revenue and EBITDA, both. They grew for 9%. The next year should be better in both.
As I said, because of the current uncertainty, I do not want to talk of any numbers where we will end up, because everything is disturbed one way or the other. Overall, directionally, I think it is quite positive.
Thank you. Participants, thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sumit Kumar from Mega Securities. Please go ahead. Sumit Kumar, you may please proceed ahead with the question.
Hello, am I audible?
Yes.
Yeah.
You are now.
Hello. Sir, my first question is regarding PAT. Lots of hard work is going on and have been done in the past. But still we are on PAT front, we are not on positive side. Still, what side? Can you give me some side that from this quarter we are expected to be PAT positive?
Okay. That's a good-
It seems like we are working just of unpaid employee of banks. Whatever the EBITDA is, management is going for financing the debt, and that is increasing. Rather than decreasing, it is increasing on consolidated basis. Can you give me some timeline that from that quarter we would be PAT positive?
I think that's a good question. For FY 2027, our plan right now is to be PAT positive. I want to just bring attention to one part. That's a pain felt by us also. Whether you are unpaid employees of the banks after doing all the work. When you look at the PAT, for example, for the entire FY 2020, the PAT is at INR -40 crore. But within that INR 40 crore, these were one-time issues, plus the unwinding of these NCDs, which is a non-cash item and not linked to the current year performance. If you adjust that adjusted PAT and which we have given in investor presentation also on slide nine is about INR 133 crore, which was INR 97 crore earlier. There is an improvement in the PAT which we earned on a cash basis. But on a PAT reported basis, it is negative.
I think the whole idea or thought process from next year onwards, is that you must earn the PAT even post any adjustment, if any, to be on positive so that you have a positive EPS. That's what we are striving for, and it should happen from next year.
Thank you. Mr. Kumar, you may rejoin the queue if you have a question. Reminder to all the participants, please limit your question to one question per participant. Our next question comes from the line of Parag Khare from PK Investments. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Yeah. Please go ahead.
Okay. Thank you for the opportunity. I joined slightly late, so I missed some of your opening remarks. How are we doing in terms of bottling plant progress and how much we expect, and if you can just tell with whom which we are doing the partnership and what kind of revenue we expect from the bottling plant lines because this being the summer season, a peak time, so what's your estimate for Q1 from the bottling plant lines?
The two lines which we set up have already started working part of February and March. But of course, there is the initial period trials and all of that. Those have happened. And we already had, I think about INR 27 crore-INR 28 crore revenue clocked before end of March. I cannot give you the details of exactly what is happening now, but overall season is going well. We are running both the lines quite well right now as we speak. As rest of the season goes and all of that, the next year revenue should be good for both of these lines. And there is a discussion that we should do additional three more lines, I think by investment in December or January. But most of that revenue will come.
Some of it will come in the fourth quarter, but most of the revenue for the additional three lines should come into the next fiscal year. That is where we are. It looks very positive and we think this is going to be very good for the overall food business.
Okay. Are we getting closer in terms of doing the IPO for the food division or we are still some distance away?
Generally, we are some distance away because of also merchant bankers tell us that market right now has difficulties and smaller issues, especially larger difficulties. If you have a very big issue, then it is a different story. That is something I think we need to continue to look at markets, and based on the advice from merchant bankers, investment bankers, we will look at it. But I do not see that immediately happening, at least not in the first half. We will see how things change or some of these uncertainties go away in the second half.
Okay, sir. Thank you for the opportunity and all the best for the busy season ahead.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of [Ravi Kumar from Wadhwa]. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I just want the market rumors that the beverage partnership and the tomato puree partnership is with Reliance Consumer Products and Kagome, would management be able to confirm or deny this?
No, we do not want to confirm or deny. In a sense that Kagome is a global international player, and we are working with them. They have been our customers for tomato puree earlier, and we are working with them to increase what you call partnership more. Also we are definitely working with Reliance Consumer. They are also our customers, and we are doing more things with them as we do also, for example, Coca-Cola has been our customers for 15, 20 years. We work with Nestlé, Unilever, all different types of people. The global food companies, Indian companies. Again, I think, as things evolve, we would be discussing more details out there. Things are moving in positive direction. There is a very strong undercurrent of the opportunity which is out there, on the beverages, on overall food business.
Okay. Just a follow-up. Not a follow-up question. Sir, when February 4, when we had our results, for the Q3, I mean, at least at that point of time, we were looking at overall year-over-year 15%, that would mean here in Q4, we are almost short by, in revenue, so we are short by around INR 200 crore-INR 250 crore. I understand you gave details. Would you be just be able to unbox this INR 200 crore, INR 250 crore by various segments? Where did we lose? Just link to that, I mean, Feb end is when this whole uncertainty started, so the March was a troubled one. I can understand we would have had a margin impact because of the raw material price increase. How did it impact the revenue part?
I am sure there must be reasons, but if you can just give us a little bit more detail on that.
Yeah. Usually, if you think the drip and pipe which is sold to the farmers, the first crop, the kharif crop, comes through January, right? January, early February, then the farmers' fields remain open. So our real season starts in March. Then March, April, May, June, before the monsoon, we sell a lot these four months. Then monsoon, there is a lean season again July, August, September. Then post the monsoon, again, business picks up. That is the nature of the business. Early February, when we spoke, we were anticipating, because of the earlier good monsoon, a very strong season happening through March onwards. That is when this war stuck. I have day-wise the details. In the first 15 days, the prices of PVC were up by, I think, 30%.
Prices of polyethylene went up by 30%, 35%, which are the raw materials related to PVC and drip business, which is what kicks in that time. The farmers decided to postpone their purchases. Then they got impacted also because of the lower produce prices for themselves. So the entire reduction, about INR 200 crore, INR 250 crore is linked to this pricing shock in March. Otherwise, our overall revenue for fourth quarter should have been, for standalone, which was about INR 1,000 crore, should have been about more than INR 1,200 crore, INR 1,250 crore, in that region. But despite that, if you see overall margins have remained same. So overall, EBITDA for the domestic standalone business for the fourth quarter is higher than the same period last year. So imagine a scenario, if we had done INR 200 crore, INR 250 crore, EBITDA would have been higher by about INR 25 crore.
Exactly. Sir, but for March, whatever we are producing, we are already having inventory.
Yeah.
Sorry, it is just a late question.
Yeah.
March.
Yeah.
Yes.
I would answer the question more. I heard you. Of course, there is an inventory. The question is the farmers postpone, in general, the purchase decision because when the raw material prices. You average out the pricing. When you are buying raw material at X, then next week or after two weeks, you buy at Y, and then Z. So you always average your raw material price and your finished goods prices. That is the industry practice, and that is what we did also. Partly, as I said, the farmer postpone decisions to purchase also was not just due to this price shock, but the fact that the end produce prices for them went down because the exports of some of these agri and food commodities also went down at the same time because of the shock.
That is the reason, and that is why we fell short because we were planned and ready. But as I said, things have started coming back now. What has gone is gone. We still managed a reasonably good level of EBITDA for the whole year and a growth for this quarter also, but it could have been much better. I think we can move forward to the next question.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of [Ankit Bansal from AV Private India]. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yeah, please.
Sir, how are you looking at the current scenario, like with global environment, with domestic environment? How are you positioning yourself as a company which has been coming from the last struggling four years? How have you seen your businesses? Because you are bringing a lot of businesses. My question mainly is that why not focus on the main part of the business like food beverages? Your pipe business is not doing so in North India. I have not seen any presence of your company. What are your comments on that?
Yeah, I think, see, the company has been configured to operate across agri value chain. Just to quickly refresh everybody, we have high-tech division where we provide to farmers the drip irrigation, the pipe which goes along with the drip irrigation, and also the tissue culture, the planting material. Then we also buy from farmers what they grow, and we process the fruits, make the pulp, and now the beverages. So we are across the agri value chain. We can't pick and choose. That's how company is structured and configured. But your question is valid that how much do we sell in North. So our sales for the piping business are far more in Western and Southern India, but they are growing in North. I think because our base is lower in North, the percentage growth, in fact, is higher now.
We have a manufacturing plant in Alwar, near Delhi and within Rajasthan, and we are adding capacity into that to grow more into North. We are also adding more dealers. So I think the situation that our brand is not visible in North would change over next, I think 12 to 18 month period. But all in all, the pipes are linked to irrigation. They're linked to the farmer. So this is a consolidated offering, and that is the unique point. You mentioned that we have struggled for four years, but within this period, we have also repaid substantial amount of debt. Company has increased its retail business. Company has increased the dealer network. The margins are better today than, let's say, they were three or four years ago. So those are the positives.
Now with this year in FY 2027, the substantial amount of debt gets paid. Thereafter, company can be very focused on the growth agenda because whatever positive cash flow it generates, it can go into the growth. There is still a lot of growth in this country left, and we are also export-oriented. So, in medium-term, if I think of three, four years, we are very positive. Even for the next year, we are being very cautious when we speak because things are uncertain. We do not know what holds for any or all of us, and we will see how that goes, but we are preparing ourselves for that. Thank you.
Okay, sir. One question, sir. About drip irrigation, it's the major technology. Why it is not changed Northern India? I have never, ever seen drip irrigation projects in districts like Haryana, Delhi, Jammu, Kashmir, Punjab. So why it's not changing all over India? Why it's changing only southern part of India? Why it's not capturing all over India? It's a win-win technology, sir. Why everybody is not using it? What's that big hole that country is not adapting to this technology?
Yeah. Again, that's a good question. If I really look at that FY 2026, how much drip we sold where, in terms of different regions. Maharashtra, just to give you a flavor of the number. Maharashtra, we sold INR 700 crore. South, four states put together, we sold INR 400 and odd crore. Then in the west is then Gujarat, MP, that part, Rajasthan, that was INR 250 crore. The rest of the north, we sold about INR 88 crore. It is not that we don't sell, INR 88 crore, and northeast, east part, we sold about INR 100 crore. We are selling, and in fact, if I look at in north, last year sales were INR 75 crore.
This year they're INR 88 crore. There is a 20% growth. East, last year our sale was INR 60 crore. This year is INR 107 crore. There is a substantial increase there also. The reason north has less demand today, and I would underline the word today, for drip, is typically in west and south, if farmer needs to irrigate his farm, and if he needs to take the groundwater, for example, he needs to go down 100 feet, 200 feet, 300 feet. In places like UP and Bihar, a lot of places, you go down 10 feet and you get water. The value of the water understanding is less in north. You talked about Haryana. Let's talk about Punjab. There are these rivers and the canals, and the farmers keep on getting water.
They keep on getting free electricity. They don't want to save. If they are growing just wheat and rice, the government is buying. They're not worried about marketing. The farmers in west and south, they are growing value-added agriculture. They want to make more production, so they want to employ drip because drip just doesn't save water, but improves productivity and production by 50% for these farmers. They make a lot more money. Some of our customers in west and south are making INR 2 lakh , INR 3 lakh , INR 4 lakh per acre per year net profit. Some of the farmers in Northern India are also doing. We have cases of farmers in Bihar, UP, Punjab, Haryana.
Now, number is small, but they are now doing very well. They are growing crops like banana, moving beyond wheat and rice. We have now started drip on the rice also. What happens is that sometimes it takes time, and now I believe. If last 20 to 30 years, Western and Southern India has used drip as a technology to change the farming and to improve the farmer income, I think over the next 5- 7 years, that's going to happen in north and northeast. It has already started. I gave you the number that we are already growing in these areas, but base is small. I think over the next two, three years, as we get more dealers to push forward, and as the farmers also are doing more value-added agriculture, lot more drip would get sold there. Thank you.
Okay. Sir, one question. Last question. Sir, coffee MoU, [non-English content ] how far it has gone that you have signed with J&K government?
Yeah. The coffee MoU, we signed with the Coffee Board. There our first drip irrigation system have been delivered to the coffee grower. Again, it is happening for the kind of first time in the world that coffee, they are using these advanced irrigation methods. We already have good sales in J&K. There, the MoU was to work with the irrigation technologies into crops like saffron and apple. That is what is grown more in Northern India. There also, we have a good success, and we think J&K using the technology can modernize its apple garden and apple orchards. Then India does not have to import apple, because today our productivity is quite low. So we are working with the local farmers there to change the entire package of agriculture practices into a product like apple. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I would like to hand the conference over to the management for the closing remarks. Over to you, team.
Yeah. I think already just to summarize what I said. Last couple of months have been challenging into the business, but things are stabilizing. So there are green shoots. Growth is back. Farmers have started coming with orders, so that is positive. Overall, food looks as a much positive year for 2027. Drip continues to remain quite good margins and profitable for us. Our focus this year is on cash flow as the one most important priority to ensure that we are able to take care of the significant amount of debt which is falling due this year. But we are very confident that it would happen in time, and we have taken necessary steps, and we have backup options to ensure that we will come through well on that.
2028 onwards, business is focused purely on growth because internal accruals and cash flow would provide the huge support for the growth across all three businesses we have. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of DRChoksey Finserv Private Limited and Jain Irrigation Systems, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.