Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Thalviya, the moderator for the conference call. Welcome to Avanti Feeds Limited Q3 FY25 Investors' Conference Call. We have with us today Mr. C. Ramachandra Rao, Joint Managing Director, Mr. A. Sanjeev, Executive Director, Mr. Aluri Nikhilesh, Executive Director, Avanti Frozen Foods Private Limited, Ms. C. Santhi Latha, GM Finance Accounts, Ms. Lakshmi Sharma, Senior Manager, Corporate Affairs, Mr. D.V.S. Satyanarayana, CFO, Avanti Frozen Foods Private Limited. As a reminder, all participants will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.
If you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touch-tone telephone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand over the floor to Mr. C. Ramachandra Rao, Joint Managing Director. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Patricia. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased to extend a warm welcome to all of you for this investors' conference call to review the unaltered financial statements for quarter-ended financial year 2025. Mr. A. Venkata Sanjeev, Executive Director, Avanti Feeds, and Mr. Nikhilesh, Executive Director, Avanti Frozen, have joined from the plants. Along with me are Mrs. C. Santhi Latha, GM Finance Accounts; Mr. D.V. S. Satyanarayana, CFO of Avanti Frozen Private Limited; and Mr. K. Srinivas Reddy, CFO of Avanti Feeds Private Limited.
To begin with, Mrs. C. Santhi Latha, GM Finance Accounts, will present highlights of financial results at the period ended 31st December 2024 of feed division and also consolidated financials of the company for the same period. Thereafter, Mr. D.V. S. Satyanarayana will present the financial highlights of shrimp processing and export division. After that, Mr. Srinivas Reddy will give you the status of the Pet Care project as of date. After presentation by all of them, we will take a question-and-answer session.
Thank you, sir. Good evening, everyone. Now, I will take you through the consolidated and standalone financial performance highlights for the quarter and nine months ended 31st December 2024. Consolidated financial results for the quarter-ended Q3 FY25. The comparative performance of Q3 FY25 with that of Q2 FY25 and Q3 FY24 have been given in the presentation already circulated.
Income in Q3 FY25 is INR 1,405 as compared to INR 1,397 in the previous quarter, Q2 FY25, an increase by INR 8. Compared to Q3 FY24 gross income of INR 1,287, there is an increase of INR 118 by 9.17%. The PBT is INR 184 in Q3 FY25 as compared to INR 162 in Q2 FY25, an increase of INR 22 by 14%. And compared to Q3 FY24 PBT of INR 116, there is an increase of INR 68 by 59%. Comparison of performance for nine months ended December 2024 with nine-month period ended December 2023.
In nine months of FY 2025, the total income increased to INR 4,343 from INR 4,184 in nine months FY 2024. The PBT in nine months FY 2025 increased to INR 526 from INR 386 in the corresponding period of the previous year, mainly due to increase in revenue and decrease in raw material costs and better overhead absorption. The consolidated results indicate net impact of several factors, such as increase or decrease in income and expenditure relating to both feed and frozen divisions, which have been discussed in the following divisional performance individually.
Stand alone financial performance of feed division Q3 FY 2025 results: The gross income for Q3 FY 2025 is INR 1,077 as compared to INR 1,118 in previous quarter of Q2 FY 2025, decrease of INR 41 due to decrease in the quantity of feed sold. Gross income in Q3 FY25 increased to INR 1,077 from INR 958 in the corresponding quarter of Q3 FY24, an increase by INR 119 due to increase in sales quantity by INR 15,731. The PBT for Q3 FY25 is INR 166 as compared to INR 145 in Q2 FY25, an increase of INR 21 about 15%, mainly due to decrease in raw material cost.
The PBT in Q3 FY25 has increased by INR 90 from INR 76 in Q3 FY24, represented by 180%. The feed sales decreased to 132,049 MTs in Q3 FY25 as compared to 134,897 in Q2 FY25, and 116,318 MT in Q3 FY24. Comparison of nine months performance of December 2024 and December 2023: In nine months FY25, the total income increased to INR 3,493 from INR 3,373 in nine months FY24 due to increase in feed sales and other income.
The PBT in nine months FY24 increased to INR 465 from INR 288 in the corresponding period of the previous year, mainly due to increase in sales and other income and decrease in raw material costs and better overhead absorption. As you know, the major raw material prices are fish meal, soya bean meal, and wheat flour. The noticeable development in this quarter is softening of two major raw materials, that is, fish meal and soya bean meal prices, resulting in improvement in the profitability. The prices of these raw materials keep fluctuating since their production is based on agriculture and fish catches from the ocean. The price of fish meal decreased in Q3 to INR 93 per kg from INR 105 per kg in Q2 FY25 and from INR 128 in Q3 FY24.
In case of soya bean meal, their prices reduced to INR 46 per kg in Q3 FY25, from INR 49 in Q2 FY25 and INR 53 in Q3 FY24. However, the wheat flour prices increased to INR 35 per kg in Q3 FY25, from INR 32 per kg in Q2 FY25 and INR 31 per kg in Q3 FY24. While on one hand, the raw materials are instrumental in determining the margins, on the other hand, the status of aquaculture activity conditions, such as climate changes, diseases, etc., determine the consumption of feed in terms of volume, which will have an impact on the overall performance of the industry.
Favorable climatic conditions supporting farmers to re-raise made the farmers to re-harvest from September, extending the season up to December 2024, raising higher consumption of feed during Q3 FY25 compared to that corresponding period of the previous quarter. To sum up, in general, FY 2024-25 was expected to be a challenging year for the aquaculture industry, both in respect of shrimp production as well as global demand for shrimp export. In spite of the challenging conditions, your company had better capacity utilization for the plants for 2025 and the shrimp feed consumption in 2024.
On the basis of estimated shrimp production of about 10.5 to 11 lakh metric tons of feed consumption is estimated in the year 2024. The company's feed sales during the nine months FY25 is INR 425,537 as against INR 409,689 in nine-month period FY24. So, shrimp processing and export: India's seafood exports stretched at INR 1,781,602, an all-time high in volume during the fiscal year 2023-24. Frozen shrimp remained the major export item in quantity and value, accounting for a share of 40% in quantity and 60% of the total dollar earnings.
The company's shrimp exports during FY24 were INR 13,443 as compared to INR 12,497 FY23, an increase by INR 946. It is estimated that the exports during FY25 would be around INR 15,000. An update on the fish feed plant: As reported earlier, the company will import fish feed from Thai Union Feed Mill Limited and conduct trials of fish feed under Indian conditions. Once the product performance is approved and accepted in the market, the production in India will be taken up for domestic sale of fish feed. Now, I will hand over to Mr. D.V.S. Satyanarayana to present highlights of shrimp processing and export division.
Thank you, madam. Good evening, everyone. Now, I would like to take you through the financial highlights of shrimp processing and export division Q3 FY25 results. The gross income of Q3 FY25 is INR 328 as compared to INR 284 in Q2 FY25, an increase by INR 44, representing 15%, mainly due to increase in sales quantity by 420 metric tons, representing 12%. The gross income in Q3 FY25 decreased to INR 328 from INR 330 during Q3 FY24, a decrease of INR 2, representing 0.6% year-on-year. The sales volume during Q3 FY25 decreased to 3,843 from 3,990 in Q3 FY24, a decrease of 147 metric tons. Although volume decreased in Q3 FY25 compared to Q3 FY24, the sales value remained almost the same due to higher average selling price realization and favorable tax rates.
Profit before tax for Q3 FY25 is INR 18 as compared to INR 23 in the last quarter, that is, Q2 FY25, decreased by INR 18. PBT decreased mainly due to increase in raw material prices and also the ocean freight. PBT in Q3 FY25 is INR 18, decreased from INR 40 in the corresponding quarter of Q3 FY24, primarily due to increase in raw material prices, impact of CVD, increase in ocean freight, and also depreciation price from the new plant. Comparison of performance of nine months ended 31st December 2024 with nine months ended 31st December 2023.
The gross income for nine months during FY25 was INR 865 as compared to INR 820 in the corresponding nine-month period of previous year, that is, FY24. An increase of INR 35 in the gross income during nine months of FY25 is mainly due to increase in sales quantity by 428 metric tons, representing 4.3% growth. PBT in nine months FY25 is INR 68 as compared to INR 104 in nine months FY24. The decrease in PBT is INR 36. It is mainly on account of CVD increase in raw material prices, higher ocean freight during the year, and also new plant depreciation. Now, I hand over to Mr. K. Srinivas Reddy to update the status of the food project.
Thank you, Mr. D.V.S. Satyanarayana. Good evening, all. As you know, the company has signed up with Bluefalo Company Limited, Thailand, a well-known pet food and food product manufacturing company in Thailand. We are setting up a joint venture company in India with equity investment by them along with the transfer of technology. We are pleased to inform that Avanti Pet Care has successfully commenced trading in cat food in January 2025. It is our first product range under the Avanti Pet Care brand, that is, Avanti Pets, starting with cat food.
This is a significant milestone in our strategy to enter the Indian pet food market, as we have a plan to import pet food products from the Bluefalo Thailand. In such time, the Indian factory commences production and sales. Currently, our products are available in five cities in India, that is, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.
We are working diligently to expand our reach across the entire country, ensuring availability in markets in the near future. As informed in our earlier investor con call, the company has purchased about 20 acres of land to set up the manufacturing facilities. The planning for the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Hyderabad is in progress. Now, I am handing over to JMD Sir for sharing a future outlook of the industry.
Thank you, Mr. Srinivas Reddy. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to give a brief of what is happening in this year, both shrimp culture as well as the shrimp processing and export. To start with, the season has started, the first season, which is the major aquaculture season for India, that is, started from almost the middle of January, and it is progressing really very well. So, the climatic conditions and other factors have helped to take off very smoothly, and with the good farm gate prices, the farmers are very much interested to increase the area cultivation and also total.
There will be good feed we are expecting. The production will continue successfully throughout the first season without any disturbance. As we see today, we do not have any major hurdle as far as the culture is concerned. We expect that the production would be on the same levels as in the last year, and maybe slightly about 5% more than what was in the last year. As regards the value-added processing, as we move to value-added products, we see value creation as not many competitors are focusing on what people will have ready to eat as well.
However, the levy of CVD, which is at 5.77% by the U.S., is an additional burden to the export of shrimps to the U.S., which is the largest export market for the company. Keeping this factor in view, the endeavor of the company is to expand its global markets to other destinations like Japan, Korea, EU, Middle East, for which all efforts are being made by the company.
Overall, the global market for shrimp is expected to be stable in 2025 compared to 2024, maybe with a marginal increase by about 5%. The focus is on demand for value-added products, which is gradually increasing, and processors are seeing better margins in value-added products. The company is working with this objective to maintain its margins. I think with this conclusion, now we will take up the questions from you. I think we'll try to start with the question-and-answer session.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you have a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad and wait for your turn to ask the question. If you would like to withdraw your request, you may do so by pressing star and one again. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. We will wait for a moment while the question queue is formed. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. First question comes from Nitin Awasthi from InCred Equities. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Question from my side. Could you tell the timeline for pet food plants in Hyderabad?
Yeah. We are expecting that the land has been purchased, and we are in the process of getting the approvals, survey, and other things, and also, we are in consultation with Bluefalo Thailand. We are preparing the drawings of the factory and a list of plant and machinery, indigenous, imported, and other civil works. All this planning work is progressing, so once we start, we are expecting that by the end of 2026, we should be able to come out with our own production by the end of December 26. Okay. Nitin,
I want to ask you, what are the things that are asking as of now? And with all that, if I'm not wrong, all of the strategies have come on screen, right? Yes. Which one you are saying? Processing. Yeah, I think in English. Yeah.
Yeah. Please complete the question, Mr. Nitin.
Yeah, yeah. So, in the processing side, we were working on the strategies. All of the strategies are completely on screen right now. So, cumulatively, what would be your strategy on the processing side?
Nikhilesh, would you like to take this question?
Hi. Hi, Nitin. Right now, we're scaling up the production with a labor-intensive process. We have over 2,000 workers working at these facilities. We need to train them and everything. I would say, currently, using the season, there are few capacities. Off-season, because there's no raw material during, it's a very seasonal business, we would say about 60%. Net net through the year, we're about 60%-65%, and this will be scaled up to at least 80% in the next four to five quarters.
Could you give the number over here, metric ton-wise?
Maybe a different number to give, Nitin, because there are different products that we run. If you say, for EMSA, it would require a lot more manpower, and the production would be much slower. So maybe we can have a discussion with you through email to give an exact number on the metric ton. It's a lot of assumptions.
I agree with you. The nature of the country and the variation. If we were to act on the manual output, I agree with that. And even if you cannot give a number, if you can give a range, that would also work.
We're talking raw material about 28 to 30,000 tons in the next four to five quarters.
On the raw material side?
On the raw material.
Okay. So once we get the questions from this, I'll ask you,
yeah, depending on what product we're positioning on.
The last question from my side. You have continued to call out the strategy in which major raw materials are used in the shrimp feed because of costs. If you could just shed some light on the current trends in all the shrimp products.
Please do the answer.
The fish meal price is slightly going up. It is expected around 96-97. And the soya remains stable. What we are worried about is the wheat flour, but we are expecting the fresh crop. So the wheat flour is around INR 36 right now.
Understood.
We are expecting a fresh crop in March. So we are expecting it a little bit reduced. That is the only thing which I've seen, increase in trend. Otherwise, the rest remains stable.
Okay. As you know, I may add to what Shanti said. As you know, the fish meal is majorly dependent on the fish catches and also the export market. These are the two major pricing influencing factors. So we have been seeing that the catches have been pretty good. And also, because in production in Chile and Peru, which are the major supplying countries of fish meal to the world, they are producing more, and there is no demand for exports from India.
So that is one of the reasons where the prices are looking more stable. With maybe around INR 100, we are expecting that it should be varying between INR 95-INR 100, that's what we are looking for as far as the fish meal is concerned. As far as rightly said by Shanti, that we are worried about wheat flour because India has been producing substantial quantities of wheat.
However, the policy of the government for food security reasons, all the crop is being purchased by the FCI, by the government, by making MSP, minimum support price, and the millers have been given only a limited quota for milling and making the flour, and we are basically buying the flour, so the prices of these wheat and wheat flour are dependent on the pricing by the FCI, so earlier, the policy of the government was that the FCI was allowed to sell a portion of their total wheat stocks as an open market sale. That was the policy that the government of India had given to the corporation, but now, the government has stopped that open sale, and the entire production of wheat is being purchased by them.
We are hoping that somewhere in this year, the government may look for a portion of it to be for open sale. When the wheat is available in the open market, the prices are likely to be lesser compared to the FCI prices. We'll have to wait and see how the number one, the total production, how much FCI policy for procurement on behalf of the government, and what is going to be open sale.
This is one area where we are really worried. But we looked at, we see that it should not go abnormally high. It should be around INR 26, INR 27. It should be 35-40. It should be in that. But it is really a bit of concern. As far as the soya is concerned, we are pretty stable, and we have been able to get the quantities. As you know, our margins are mainly dependent on these raw materials. As long as we see good margins, as long as the prices remain at this level, I think this answer will answer your question.
Yes, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from Kamal Sharma, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Thanks, ma'am. So the question is about the fish, sorry, the pet feed business. So earlier, you had stated that you will share the numbers related to the overall market size. And maybe just to that, do you have the visibility on what is the kind of revenue that you are expecting in this business segment and the kind of margins that you will get?
I think, do you have Venkata Sanjeev? The numbers? Yeah. Are you having it ready? I think we are also looking for it. We have the data we can share with you. Total in Avanti will read it out.
The pet population in India is around 40 million. Out of that, dogs are 32 million, which is 80%, and the cats are 8 million, which is 20%. The market size is expected to be around INR 50,000 million, growing at a 20% CAGR year- on- year. It is expected to go between 15%-20%. The total market size is around 221,000 or around 225-3,000 metric tons. We are expecting to make an entry into the market. We are, as of now, sure. The market size is 3,000 metric tons overall.
Yeah.
Pet food market.
Can you throw some light on what is the present market situation and what are our objectives to get entry into the market and what are our strategies that we are going to have?
Because on this 3,000,000, also 50% is an imported feed, or more than 50% is imported feed.
Yeah. Over to Venkata Sanjeev.
As Santhi Latha just said, the market size has been increasing at 20%. We just launched our cat food recently, three in a month. The acceptance of the cat food is very good. We are placing it in stores in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore. We are looking to further expand to the north of the country after consolidating in the south.
Also, we are going to launch. We have only launched one flavor as of now, and we are going to launch a few more flavors in the coming months and also the dog food in July. How much? How? What will be the turnover and revenue we have to look at after the first six months? Because we are also very new to the market and just entering. We have to see the acceptance of the market, etc.
Yeah. Let me add to what Venkata Sanjeev said, that it is true that because we are the new entrants into the market, and we are very confident that because the first launch has been as a very promising entry beginning, so we'll be working on that. And gradually, by July, we will get into the dog food also, which is exactly volume-wise, it is higher, 80% total consumption of feed. So that is where the value comes from. And our endeavor is that our brand should be established before we start the production on our own. That makes us much easier to get into the market at higher volumes down the line by end of December, by end of 2026. That is what our target has been, and we are very confident of it.
Does it offer better margins than our other focus lines, or is it similar, lower?
Yeah. Please go ahead.
As of now, we are reporting that the margins would be lesser, and also, we are spending a lot on marketing. So as the volumes go up, the margins would go up. But as of now, the margins, I think, would remain low. We have to look at the first few months to understand how much is the margin.
Okay.
Yeah. The market is something like three times. Super stockists, retail, and all of the chain is very big, very long. So we have to see how much the total margins available, how much sharing among the stakeholders that we'll have to see. And we're only slightly told by Mr. A. Venkata Sanjeev; only our experience in the next six months or one year, we'll get more clarity on that.
Okay. Thanks.
Thank you. Next question comes from Jasdeep Walia from Clockvine Capital. Please go ahead.
So thanks for taking my question. In the shrimp feed business, exports is what is in the scenario as of now, and will shrimp feed be the exports to the feed business going forward in the next three to five years?
Yeah. The export to feed, we are making a lot of efforts. We went to the Middle East, and we are exploring the markets there. So there are Bangladesh, there is a little always some troubled state which is getting, and Sri Lanka is like that. So initially, we have a very good response from Bangladesh, but simultaneously, we have in the Middle East also. We should be able to increase our exports, and they are giving good results. Venkata Sanjeev, can you throw more light on this export to our Middle East?
So we've already been looking for the Middle East, and we have gotten good results. We are searching for good partners. We're getting a lot of inquiries about the feed. I think we'll start increasing in the coming year.
So what are exports as a percentage of volume in the feed business? Is that what level as of now?
As of now, it is around 1%-2%.
Okay. Got it. And any target you have there to increase this number to some level in the next five years?
Yeah. Around 10% we would like to reach.
Okay. Got it.
And so could you also throw light on what has been happening in stores and what's your sense on whether they will increase in production or there are some limitations here on the ground on account of which you expect that production is going to be a little bit subdued in the next year or so?
Yeah. In case...
Hi. So right now, Ecuador is the largest producer of shrimp, whether it is from raw material, whatever. India, Ecuador are bigger in the products that we offer. We specialize in peeled and cut material, whereas Ecuador specializes in head-on and headless material. So when we go into India's moving more into value-added products, and you will see that happening in the next two, three years that India produces more value-added products in the income stream map. And Ecuador, because of the limitation of population, that population is about 30 million, if I'm not wrong, whereas India is 1.2 billion. So they just don't have enough of the workforce to do value-added and peeled and cut material, even though they do a small quantity of the production.
So my question was not on the shrimp processing business. My question was on just the shrimp production part, that's it. So how do you see shrimp production scenario in Ecuador as of now?
It's quite stable right now. They won't be increasing, scaling up the production like 50% like they were doing in the past. So we have to see what will happen. But I think it's going to be a fairly stable year for them and not much increases.
Got it. Got it, sir. And so also, could you tell us when is your fish feed plant coming online? And what are your—what kind of investments have gone in? What kind of feed turnover can the plant produce?
So as of now, we've just started our trial. We're going to start our trials. So after the trials are done, we're going to plant the investments into the plant.
Okay. So there's no formal investment proposal for the plant on the ground as of now? It's just based on the market, right?
We're testing the feed. We're importing the feed from Thailand and testing it. We're testing the results.
Yeah. It's acceptance and adoptability of the feed to Indian shrimp fish culture. So only once we get, once we get a foolproof because there are many species also. It's not one. Am I right, Venkata Sanjeev? There are other species also. We have to nearly identify which feeds are going to be more profitable, more in demand, and there's a lot of work that is going on that trend to see that the fish feed really, when we start it, it should make a very successful project. That is our endeavor, is that we are working for that. In fact, some samples have already come, and we are now so we want to start as soon as possible.
And once this testing process will be completed, then you would think about what kind of feed you want to put into the business.
Exactly.
So we have identified certain fish culture farms with different species, and we are trying to test the feeds of different types for each of these. Over a period, we will see the results and how it is and cost results, what is the benefit that is going to come. All these factors have been taken into consideration. An estimate of the market also is required to be made, what pricing compared to the local prices that feed manufacturers are offering. So all these aspects, we are working on that. And when we come out, we should come out with a good feed where the farmer gets a benefit out of it. That is the work which we are doing now.
Got it, sir. Thanks a lot. That's all.
Thank you. Next question comes from Mithun Aswath from Kivah Advisors. Please go ahead.
Hold on. Hold on. This whole division, you mentioned that you are improving and putting in the market. What plan does this undergo? And when do you expect the plant to be ready? What results will be used for the next 10 years?
The first question I have, I'll come back on that. The plant which we are expecting will be ready by end of December 2026. We are working for that. It will be completed by 2026 and start December 2026, and commercial production will start then. But the first question which you asked, I didn't get it. What was that?
No. I just want to understand what the plan is which you started.
Okay. A. Venkata Sanjeev, can you explain that?
I'm sorry to interrupt. He got dropped from the call. I'm connecting himself.
Oh, dropped?
Dropped.
Okay.
The participant's line is straight connected. I'll reconnect Mr. Sanjeev on the call.
Venkata ?
Sorry. The line got cut, sir. The brand's name is Avanti Pets. We will launch, cat food has already been launched, and the dog will also be launched on the same name, A-V-A-N-T-S-U-R-S-E.
Okay. And just to understand, this plant is opening up. Is it possible to tell me what is the metrics?
We are working on those details because we want to see what type of feed, how it should be, how much capacity depending upon the market, so we work what is the optimum capacity, what we can produce, and what type of machinery and all those things. We are working on that, maybe next week it will take about minimum, I think, three to six months to come to a concrete numbers on that, and as we have started just now, we'll also see the market reaction, how much we are able to take, and all these things, what is the requirement, and then we decide what are the numbers. Because there are already well-established players in the market, so we need to update with them, so it will take some time to give you the numbers.
So the fish feed plant, mainly for the domestic use, it will not support.
No. For the present, it is only for domestic market. Because as just now my colleague told, so there is a lot of demand for the food in India itself. There is the growth of the population and also the demand for the ready-made food that we were giving it. So I think we need to concentrate more on the domestic market now and establish ourselves. Then we can think of exports. As of now, we don't have plans to export.
Right. And during the nine months, the margins of the shrimp feed business and the shrimp processing business have changed a bit, sir. I just wanted to understand what is the outlook for the coming year?
See, I think I made this remark in my earlier question that the margin mainly depends on the raw material prices. We have seen that. If you look at our track record for even nearly past three, four years, we have seen that the price is going up and coming down because of the raw materials. So the raw materials really have softened, and it is now like fish meal and soya. These prices are good because all the three products, fish meal, soya, and wheat flour, constitute the major portion of the raw material. If the raw materials' prices are stable, we continue to maintain the percentage. We'll be ranging from maybe 7%-10%. We keep our margins. It all depends on how the raw material prices are.
Right. And some more on the processing side, we've averaged between 13%-15%. But I think this year, nine months, we're at 7%. So yeah, just wanted to get a sense on that part of the business. I've seen on the shrimp feed price has been.
I'll answer that question. So see, the duty, the CVD that was imposed by the U.S. government, it's a new duty, right? If you remove that duty, I think it's like 5% the margin to move up. So that's an important factor. But this duty is periodically reviewed where we give our arguments to the U.S. Department of Commerce, etc. And then it's usually like in the past, we've seen that they revise it depending on the quality of information given. And it includes the government, the association, the different stakeholders, etc. So in the short term, even though there's a margin pressure, in the long term, this will slowly stabilize, point number one. And point two, see, the price increase is a gradual process. The price transferred into the consumer. It doesn't happen overnight. So slowly, the price transfer to the consumer is happening.
We can see that higher prices in the U.S. market and buying levels are higher price point. So this is a slow, step-by-step process. So short term, there might be pressure, but long term, again, it's going to be again stabilized and get back to normal.
Okay. My last question is for the fish feed production and sales. We've been operating from FY18 about 450,000 to now 450,000, and FY22 was 540,000. I just want to understand, what is the kind of growth that one can envisage over the next three, four years? Is it going to be a little bit up and down, or is it going to be more steady pace? Will it grow on a year-on-year basis?
See, I think there are several factors to answer this question. One is that the basic thing is the area of culture on a year-on-year basis. So once the area of culture increases, automatically, the feed consumption also increases. That is number one. Number two, even in the culture also, it is not necessary that every farmer who has a farm, the pond will go for culture. It depends upon the market price. What is the farm gate price? And the third one is the climatic conditions, which will have a great influence on the culture. So there is always these factors keep the entire aquaculture activity in more or less the same level, stable with 5%-10% up and down. There will not be a serious, I mean, a big jump of 20%, 25% year-on-year basis.
It will be stable because the area is more or less disabled, and the climatic conditions keep changing, and the market prices are volatile. All these things into consideration, we do not exactly say that this is going to be the trend which is going to increase. And as Mr. Nikhilesh said, the global market is also there. So these factors will actually rather work, influence the total production of the shrimp feed on a year-on-year basis. So we normally expect next year, we are expecting about a 5%-10% increase. But because this year, the culture is good, the prices are good, so this year, we are expecting that it will be better by 5% than last year, which is how the projections and budgets were made for the feed.
Okay. Right. I'm just trying to see longer term for the company as a growth driver. Obviously, these businesses of shrimp processing and shrimp feed will be critical. Would the growth drivers be your pet food and the fish feed foray that you're looking to enter? Those would be the growth drivers?
The philosophy of the company is that we should focus more on the areas where we are strong, like organic growth, let us say, feed, feed-related, food processing. These are the areas where we have a lot of experience, expertise, and they are good collaborators with us so that our union, which can in association with them, we can only grow in these areas. For example, in the marine products, we have already the export market, value-added products. We are increasing on that trend. Simultaneously, we are also working on the domestic market, and this is going to be a really good business, but it requires a lot of work because it has to be on par with the pricing levels in the local markets. So it is our endeavor to keep on these things expanding.
And also, fish feed is another very big and very good area where we can really achieve because we have the experience in our dealership network or in the feed manufacturing and raw material economies of raw material. All these factors go a long way in really strengthening our pet food also. So I think fish feed, pet food, and then the domestic market will be the future growth drivers for us so that we can strengthen our value to the company and shareholders, of course.
Thank you.
Thank you. I request the participants to restrict with two questions in the initial round and join back the queue for more questions. Next question comes from Samir Deshpande, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Congratulations for the excellent results, and from your commentary, it seems the outcome seems to be good for the coming quarter and the next year also. Based on the current raw material prices and the culture season, which has become on a good note, I want to know what exports as a percentage of our sales. Last year, we had INR 5,500 crores of revenues. So total exports were how much?
20%.
20% will be our export.
Gotcha. And out of the USA, continues to be a large market for us.
Yes.
Gotcha. And so, as you mentioned, that countervailing duty, which was levied on our Indian products, was higher. So currently, the margins are under pressure in the short run. Will the prices improve in the U.S. market, or we are in a position to reduce our costs by some means? Is it correct?
Nikhilesh, can you answer this question, please?
There are two things that we're doing. First, we're reducing and trying to optimize our costs. That's already started. Let's point number one. We have some general cost optimization efforts that we're putting it as one of the main goals for this year. Second, we're concentrating on higher value products, which is going to drive duty. So that is the second. We've always told in the past several quarters that value-added products is what we're focusing on. So that's what we're doing right now to mitigate the risk. And the third one is also focusing on other markets. In the past, we used to have a lot more focus to the U.S. But now, we're looking a lot more into other markets as well.
We can see over the past few quarters that the U.S. market share has been coming down slowly from what it was averaged in the previous years. So those are the three types of efforts that we're exactly.
Europe and Middle East, and etc., which you mentioned.
Exactly. And Asia. Yeah.
Okay. Customs duty in the market was reduced on products significantly, by around 20% to 55%. Does it help us in any way reducing our raw material costs?
Yeah. See, as you're referring to the raw materials, but the raw materials did really affect not much because the effect was, in fact, the reduction of customs duty on feed import is actually a disadvantage for us because if the 15%-5% have reduced, so the imported feed competition will go up. So in fact, we have made a representation to the government because India has more than adequate capacity to produce shrimp feed, so much, much higher, more than five, six times by the annual consumption we have got the production capacity.
But we told them that there is no need. Already, most of the foreign companies which are known for this feed are already present in India. And so they're already producing the feed and supplying to the market. So we need not have to import and take concessional rates. So the prices, which these things have brought to the notice of the government, it will take its own time to realize and take corrective action.
As far as the most of the products, the raw materials nowadays, we have started when we are using domestically, and very limited items are being imported. We have got good fish meal, I mean, good fish oil, good fish lipid oil. We have got minerals, vitamins, and pre-mixes. Everything is available in India now. So there's not much of imports involved, and it does not really make much difference by reducing the duties on that. Okay.
Can I ask a last question? It is regarding this PLI benefits which we have been receiving. So did we receive anything in this quarter? And would it be expected to be anything in the next quarter also?
Yes. Mr. and I will answer the question. So PLI is not a quarterly benefit. Basically, it is an annual incentive which is given by the government on incremental sales, as per the guidelines of PLI.
Yes. Yes.
For the last financial year, we have filed the application with the government. It is under review, which is being expected to be released in the month of April 2025.
April 2025. So it's not likely to be received in this year?
No. No.
Is it quite substantial, around INR 20 or INR 30 crores?
No. No. It is not substantial.
Okay. Thank you.
I request the participants to restrict with two questions in the initial round and join back the queue for more questions. Next question comes from Sachin Paul from NC Research. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. I just wanted to understand what's the plan for the production as well as the network look on the.
Your voice is not audible. Sorry. Please just speak a bit louder.
Yes. So I was saying that I just wanted to understand what's the outcome for the production, where the market sizes on the domestic front. Since you've had a pickup, we had a close pickup of shrimp feed volumes in Q1, and we had a pickup of 40% growth of shrimp feed volumes in Q3. So how do you anticipate the farm gate prices and the production on the domestic front?
We are expecting that 2025 should be a stable year without much overprice, at least for the first crop. Our expectation is that it should go on smoothly because the farm gate prices are as of now good, and the feed prices are also good, and climatic conditions are also good. They are able to really go on stocking very aggressively in the last one month.
So we expect that the first crop, which will go up to June, July, will be very good. That's what we are expecting. But of course, always with this thing that anything can happen, like climatic conditions may change, farm gate prices may change. But by and large, we see that first crop will be very good, and the same levels of prices are maintained. Even the second crop also will be good for total taking year 2025, definitely stable than last year and maybe slightly more than last year.
So we see some softening on domestic versus feed volumes of the production, and it's worth bearing in mind that.
Your voice is again breaking.
I think we've seen some softening of the prices on the farm gate side, so that the volumes are pretty consistent feed side.
No, that is very difficult. I think, Nikhilesh.
It could be a difficult question. Could there be some softening of the market prices and shrimp feed volumes over the production levels in the next couple of months?
We don't anticipate any major price decrease. Our policy as a company is to ensure that the farmers get the fair price, and we sell at a fair price at the market as well. So we don't anticipate any large price decrease in the farm gate price.
Okay. Understood. And the second thing regarding the shrimp processing, so we've had a slight increase rate for it domestically. So how is that shaping?
I'm sorry. I'm not able to hear you.
I was thinking on the shrimp supply side, the market has been impacted by higher feed costs, so how have they been recently? Do you think that there is some opening of the Suez Canal, and they have been increasing internationally?
I don't think still there's a large number of shipments passing through the Suez Canal area. The prices are still firm, but we expect to get a lower reduction this year when things normalize. The Middle East has been quite turbulent last year with the Israel war and everything. So things really changed in that part. But I think this year the prices are softening as well.
Okay. What would be the trade cost as a %?
Mr. Sachin, your voice is not audible.
Do you think the trade costs are at this point of time?
Do you want to answer that, Nikhilesh?
Yes. It is around 8%, 8%-9%.
Okay. Sure. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. The last question of the day comes from Thomas Caraville from Geosphere Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Regarding the seafood, do we have any planned CapEx? What is the CapEx already done, or what is the planned CapEx for 2026?
CapEx, yeah. So CapEx, we have already incurred a land purchase of around INR 36 crores. Further, the planned commissioning will be around INR 60 crores.
So the major expenditure so far has been on the land. We have acquired about 30 acres of land near Hyderabad. So we have bought the land, and we are now getting it surveyed, and all those things are happening. But the work of doing the drawings and civil works, plant and machinery, imported and domestic machinery, all these details are being worked out in consultation with the Bluefalo Company Limited, Thailand. So it will take some time to give the exact numbers as to the cost. What is going to be the cost of the project? How much is the civil works? How much is it in other utility buildings? All these things, I think it will take at least four months for us to come to definitive numbers. We have at least representative numbers. We'll be able to share with you maybe next or after that quarter meeting.
One more question was regarding CVD. You had mentioned that some higher value products will not add to CVD. Is it RTE products?
Nikhilesh?
No, it's not RTE products per se, but it's higher value products, value-added products like ready-to-fry, something like that.
Ready-to-fry?
Yeah. See, it's value-added products with CVD, right? You look at breaded shrimp or something like the tempura or the samosa, something like that. It's not just commodity shrimp. It's value-added shrimp.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call for today. Thank you for your participation and for using DoorSebas' conference call service. We disconnect your lines now. Thank you and have a good day.