Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Valsia, moderator for the conference call. Welcome to Avanti Feeds Limited Q1 FY 2025 earnings conference call. We have with us today Mr. A. Indra Kumar, Chairman and MD, Mr. C. Ramachandra Rao, Joint Managing Director, Mr. A. Venkata Sanjeev, Executive Director, Mr. Alluri Nikhilesh, Executive Director, Avanti Frozen Foods Private Limited, Mrs. Santhi Latha, GM Finance and Accounts, Mrs. Lakshmi Sharma, Senior Manager, Corporate Affairs, Mr. DV 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.
Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touch-tone telephone. P lease note that this conference is recorded. I would now like to hand over the floor to management for the opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you.
Thank you, Valsia. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm C. Ramachandra Rao, Joint Managing Director, Avanti Feeds. I am pleased to extend a warm welcome to all of you for this investor conference call to review the unaudited financial results for Q1 FY 2025. Along with me here are Mr. Nikhilesh, ED, Mrs. Santhi Latha, Ms. Lakshmi Sharma, and DV S, and Mr. Indra Kumar and Venkata Sanjeev are joining through VC from the factory at Kovvur. To begin with, Mrs. Santhi Latha, GM Finance, Avanti Feeds Limited, will present highlights of financial results of the period ended 30th June 2024 of Feeds Division and also consolidated fina ncials of the company for the same period.
Thank you, sir. Good evening, everyone. Now, I'll take you through the consolidated and standalone financial results of Feeds Division for the quarter ended 30th June 2024. Q1 FY 2025 results. The comparative performance of Q1 FY 2025 with that of Q4 FY 2024 and Q1 FY 2024 have been given in the presentation already circulated. Gross income in Q1 FY 2025 is INR 1,541 crores as compared to INR 1,320 crores in the previous quarter, that is Q4 FY 2024, an increase of INR 221 crores by 16.7%. Compared to Q1 FY 2024, there is a decrease in the gross income of INR 1,586 crores.
There is a decrease of INR 45 crores by 2.84%. The PBT is INR 180 crores in Q1 FY 2025 as compared to INR 151 crores in Q4 FY 2024, an increase of INR 29 crores by 19.2%. Compared to Q1 FY 2024, PBT of INR 157 crores, there is an increase of INR 23 crores by 14.64%.
The consolidated results indicate net impact of several factors such as increase or decrease in income, expenditure, and any exceptional items relating to both Feeds and Frozen Foods divisions, which have been discussed in the following divisional performance of these units individually. First, we will go through the Feeds Division standalone financial results for Q1 FY 2025. The gross income of Feeds Division for Q1 FY 2025 is INR 1,298 crores as compared to INR 1,022 crores in the previous quarter of Q4 FY 2024, an increase of INR 276 crores mainly due to increase in quantity of feed sold by 36,313 metric tons , and this is the main reason for the shrimp culture.
The gross income in Q1 FY 2024 decreased to INR 2,298 crores from INR 1,351 crores in the corresponding quarter of Q1 FY 2024, a decrease by INR 53 crores, representing 4% due to decrease in sales quantity by 6,916 metric tons.
The PBT for Q1 FY 2025 is INR 153 crores as compared to INR 118 crores in Q4 FY 2024, an increase of INR 35 crores by 29.67%, mainly due to increase in sales volume and better overhead absorption. The feed sales increased to 158,591 metric tons in Q1 FY 2025 as compared to 122,278 metric tons in Q4 FY 2024. The PBT in Q1 FY 2025 has increased by INR 28 crores from INR 125 crores in Q1 FY 2024, represented by 24.4%. As you know, the cost of raw materials consumed constitutes the major share of cost of feed production. The major raw materials are fish meal, soybean meal, and wheat flour. The prices of these raw materials keep fluctuating since their production is based on agriculture and fish catches from the ocean.
The prices of fish meal increased in Q1 FY 2025 to INR 117 per kg from INR 111 per kg in Q1 FY 2024, whereas there was a marginal decrease from INR 119 per kg in Q4 FY 2024 to INR 117 per kg in Q1 FY 2025. In case of soybean meal, there was a marginal decrease to INR 51 per kg in Q1 FY 2025 compared to INR 52 per kg, and it was INR 54 in Q1 FY 2024. The wheat flour price decreased to INR 28 per kg in Q1 FY 2025 from INR 29 in Q4 FY 2024 and INR 27 in Q1 FY 2024. The present price of wheat flour is INR 32 per kg, which again is a steep hike when compared with Q1 FY 2025. It is pertinent to note that the prices of the raw materials keep continuously fluctuating throughout the year. Sometimes, the prices are incomparable.
While on one hand, the raw material prices are instrumental in determining the margins, on the other hand, the status of aquaculture activity determines the consumption of feed in terms of volume. In case of successful culture for full crop, the feed consumption will be higher compared to shortened crop period due to unforeseen situations like floods, disease outbreak, etc., beyond the control of the farmer. For instance, in Q1 FY 2025, the initial period of about 45 days, that is till mid-May, the shrimp culture was going on smoothly. However, from later part of May, June, and July, there were floods, outbreak of diseases resulting in loss, and premature harvest. Moreover, the quality of the seed was also not up to the standard, resulting in lower survival of the shrimp.
Therefore, in spite of best aquaculture practices adopted by the farmers, these natural calamities do play a vital role in determining the success of shrimp culture. Having faced some challenges during first crop, the farmers have now commenced stocking again as the farm gate prices are showing an improvement, with an expectation that the prices remain stable during the rest of the financial year and also the climatic condition remains favorable. To sum up, in general, FY 2024-2025 is expected to be a challenging year for the aquaculture industry, both in respect of shrimp production as well as global demand for shrimp exports. Now, we'll talk about the company plans, shrimp production, and feed consumption in FY 2024 and FY 2025. So, shrimp feed consumption.
The company's feed sales during the year 2024 was about INR 5.31 lakh metric tons as compared to INR 4.7 lakh metric tons in 2023, an increase of 34,900 metric tons. So, shrimp processing and export business. India's seafood exports touched 1,781,602 metric tons, an all-time high in volume during the financial year 2023-2024. Frozen shrimp remained the major export item in quantity and value, accounting for a share of 40% in quantity and 66% of the total dollar earnings for the country. The country's shrimp exports, in terms of value, increased in FY 2024 compared to FY 2023 by 1.5%, from $4.89 million to $4.881 million. The country's overall export of frozen shrimp in quantitative terms for FY 2024 was 716,004 metric tons as compared to 711,099 metric tons in FY 2023, an increase of 4,905 metric tons, representing 0.69%.
The company's shrimp exports during FY 2024 were 13,443 metric tons as compared to 12,497 in FY 2023, an increase by 946 metric tons. It is estimated that the exports during FY 2025 would be around 16,000 metric tons. Now, I hand over to Mr. DVS 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. Q1 FY 2025 results. The gross income for Q1 FY 2025 is INR 243 crores as compared to INR 297 crores in Q4 FY 2024. It increased by INR 54 crores, representing 18%, mainly due to decrease in sales quantity by 1,063 metric tons, representing 28%. The gross income includes INR 9.92 crores of PLI incentive received during the quarter ended 30th June 2024. The gross income in Q1 FY 2025 increased to INR 243 crores from INR 238 crores during Q1 FY 2024, an increase of INR 5 crores, representing 2% year- over- year. The sales volume during Q1 FY 2025 increased to 2,783 metric tons from 2,658 metric tons in Q1 FY 2024, a marginal increase by 125 metric tons.
The profit before tax before exceptional item for the Q1 FY 2025 is INR 27 crores as compared to INR 32 crores in Q4 FY 2024, decreased by INR 5 crores. The PBT is decreased mainly due to levy of CVD on U.S. imports effective from April 2024 and rising ocean freight rates. The PBT in Q1 FY 2025 is INR 27 crores, decreased from INR 32 crores in the corresponding quarter, that is Q1 FY 2024, as CVD impacted the profitability in the current quarter, that is Q1 FY 2025. So now, I would like to run through the government incentives which the Avanti Frozen Foods is availing. As you know, the company has been availing the following two incentive schemes from the government of India: sales-based incentives under Production Linked Incentive Scheme and grant-in-aid under Operation Greens Scheme.
Production Linked Incentive Scheme, the company is eligible for incentive of 6% on raw products and 10% on value-added products on incremental sales over a period of six years from FY 2021-2022 to 2026-2027, subject to a maximum incentive of INR 79.44 crores with a minimum of 5% CAGR in sales. The company has received an incentive of INR 9.92 crores pertaining to financial year 2023. The total incentive, which is a cumulative incentive received until the quarter ended 30th June 2024, is INR 16.77 crores. The MoFPI team conducted a physical site inspection in June 2024 as part of the investment verification. The company fulfilled the investment obligation and commenced production before 31st March 2024 as committed to the Ministry of Food Processing Industries of India.
The next scheme, Operation Greens Scheme, approval from Government of India for grant-in-aid for the proposed investment in new shrimp processing plants at Krishnapuram is received in December 2022. Maximum grant-in-aid under the scheme is INR 10 crores. The first installment of one-third of grant-in-aid is due from the ministry. The company has submitted all the relevant documents in this regard. And recently, as required by the MoFPI, the company shared the latest update on the project status and the geotagged photograph in June 2024. Now, I hand over to JMD sir for sharing the future outlook of the industry.
Thank you, Satyanarayana. Now, I'd like to share with you on global economic prospects and also the prospects of the aquaculture industry. I have taken some references from World Bank report and also FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization. These international organizations have done some surveys for the future of the industry, and they have come up with the reports, which I have taken some extract from them to share with you. The World Bank's group flagship report on global economic prospects states that this year, 2024, the good news is that global growth is holding steady, having slowed down for the past three consecutive years. Inflation has been cut to a three-year low. The world economy, in short, appears to be a final approach for a soft landing.
The global growth is projected to stabilize at 2.6% this year, despite flaring geopolitical tensions like Ukraine war, Red Sea crisis, etc., and high interest rates. Global risks remain tilted to the downside despite the possibility of some upside surprises. Further, the report states India and Indonesia are two additional examples of robust performance apart from the U.S. economy, which have shown impressive resilience. India's economy has been buoyed by strong domestic demand with a surge in investments and robust service activity. It is projected to grow an average of 6.7% per fiscal year from 2024 to 2026, making the South Asia the world's fastest-growing region. Now, I'll go through the global shrimp market versus Indian shrimp industry.
Global shrimp market size was valued at $68.40 million in 2022 and is poised to grow from $72.6 million in 2023 to $110.75 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 5.5% in the forecast period from 2024 to 2031. In recent years, the global shrimp market has been changing as per consumers' preferences and demands due to increasing consumer demand for seafood, a rise in health-conscious eating habits, and the popularity of shrimp in various cuisines worldwide. The versatile nature of shrimp is a key ingredient in various dishes, and its appeal extends across diverse cultures, leading to the increasing popularity and consumption of seafood choices globally. Moreover, health-conscious consumers are attracted to low-calorie, high-protein food sources of shrimp.
The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024: Blue Transformation in Action. This is a report published by Food and Agriculture Organization that features the activities and initiatives led by FAO taken in collaboration with partners and key stakeholders shall integrate aquatic foods into global food security and sustainability. This will also enhance the quality and adequacy, scientific research and capacity building, dissemination of sustainable practices, technological innovations, and support community involvement. These factors ensure sustainable growth prospects for the shrimp industry. The Indian shrimp industry is a source of healthy proteins, offers employment to over one million people, and contributes immensely to India's foreign exchange. In 2023, Indian exports struck an all-time high, declined by 5.38% in value terms, the major contributing factor being decrease in realization due to global shrimp prices coming down.
The export production of shrimps increased significantly, resulting in an increase in supply over the demand, particularly to the major U.S. market. In order to address these challenges faced by the seafood industry, such as ensuring sustainability in shrimp culture, promoting higher consumption of shrimps for increasing demand, which will balance supply and demand and maintain stable prices for sustainable market and aquaculture activity. The Government of India has been initiating several measures from time to time for encouraging the increase in productivity in all sectors, including shrimp culture, processing and export of shrimps. Apart from the existing incentives of production-linked incentive, which is called as PLI on incremental sales and one-time grant-in-aid under Operation Greens Scheme for setting up seafood processing plants, recently announced a budget for 2024-2025 under the leadership of the Honorable Prime Minister.
The Honorable Finance Minister has announced financial support for setting up a network of nucleus breeding centers for shrimp broodstock and financing for shrimp farming, processing, and export facilitated through NABARD. Apart from these incentives, the Honorable Finance Minister has also announced incentive schemes for employment generation and skilling in a budget for 2024-2025. The scheme initiates employment-linked incentives for three categories of employers implementing EPFO. There are incentives for the first-time employees, job creation in the manufacturing sector, and support employers for a new internship scheme being introduced for top-branded companies. We are sparing no endeavors to be one of these top-branded companies to avail the scheme from the existing ranking of 565 as of 31st March 2024 as per the market cap announced by NSE.
Further, I would like to share with you about the CVD impact on the aquaculture industry, that is the levy of countervailing duty at 4.36% on export of shrimps by the U.S. Department of Commerce effective from 1st April 2024. The U.S. DOC has made preliminary determination of CVD rate on the basis of complaint launched by the U.S. domestic shrimp industry against the imports from India and preliminary data analyzed by the U.S. DOC. In the next step, the U.S. DOC will determine the final rate based on the objections raised by the Seafood Exporters Association of India, Government of India, and other on the data on the basis of data provided by them. The final determination is scheduled to be announced on 6th October 2024. In the meantime, the exporters are required to deposit CVD 4.36% subject to the adjustment of final determination.
However, in this context, I would like to mention that recently this has been kept on hold for some time, but in any case, until the final determination comes, we have to take care of this in our pricing. That is very important. Subject to the adjustment of the final determination. Along with India, other countries, Ecuador, Vietnam, and Indonesia have also been levying CVD at different rates. The Seafood Exporters Association, MPEDA, SEAI, and Government of India are making efforts to get CVD withdrawn at the time of final determination in October 2024 by providing all the necessary information data to the U.S. DOC. Now, I'd like to just make a mention about the diversification of the company's plan into pet food and pet care products.
As you know, the company has tied up with Bluefalo Company Limited, Thailand, a well-known pet food and pet care products manufacturing company in Thailand, for setting up a joint venture company in India along with the transfer of technology. The joint venture company's name is Avanti Pet Care Private Limited, which has been established as a subsidiary of the company. The company has purchased about 30 acres of land to set up the facility. The APCPL, Avanti Petcare will initially commence trading of pet food products in India under the Avanti brand name importing from Bluefalo. After completing the setting up of the manufacturing facility in India, the products will be produced and marketed in India. The trading activity is planned to start before 31st March 2025.
As regards to fish feed, as we have reported earlier, the company has undertaken a market survey of fish feed for various species of finfish or fish and intends to initiate import feed from Thai Union Feedmill Company to begin with and conduct trials under the Indian conditions. Once the product performance is proven, the production in India will be taken up for domestic sale. Thank you. With this, I would like to conclude the general update on the status of the industry, and now I will request you to start the question and answer session.
Thank you, sir. 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 assembles. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. Okay. First question comes from Ronak Soni from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi sir. Sir, what is your outlook for, let's say, feed volumes picking up, going ahead in the subsequent quarters?
Outlook for? Please, can you repeat the question?
Yeah, the volumes of the feed business, how will they going to improve in the subsequent quarters going ahead? Given that there are some volume loss in this particular quarter, how do you see the volume growth rates coming back for the feed industry and for you in general for the next few quarters?
I can see we can tell you the quarter-wide production has changed.
Sir, I think we have lost around 6,916 metric tons when compared with the previous year. But when you're talking about the previous quarter, it is 36,300 metric tons more.
I'll explain to you. I may add to what Santhi Latha said, that it depends upon the consumption of the feed. It depends upon the aquaculture situation. See, what has happened is in the first Q1, it was went well, and after that, in the April, May, there was a lot of floods and outbreak of disease and all, so the consumption came down. In fact, in the normal course, May month and June month are the peak periods for the main crop for the sale. But however, this year, it was not so. But while saying so, I would also like to add that now the farmers have started stocking again, and we expect that assuming that the climatic conditions remain favorable and also the shrimp prices also stable, and definitely the second crop is likely to be successful, which will run.
Now, we started just now, say July, August, September, October, these three, four months, we'll have good crop. As I said, provided we have these two favorable situations.
Right, right, sir. Sir, any scope of taking price increases or, let's say, price cuts given that now that fish meal prices have come down and we've been getting reports that there could be some subsidies coming in in terms of electricity for the farmers over there? So any scope of pricing pass-through going ahead?
So now, just now, the government has come now, and they have to frame the rules for all these tariffs, electricity tariff. And also, as I said, as I explained, the raw materials are very uncertain, and they keep fluctuating. We never expected that the wheat flour price will go up to INR 32 today. INR 32 and some of the inquiries they are quoting INR 32.80, which was there around INR 28, INR 29, has come now INR 32, INR 33. So for no reason, we don't know what is actually happening because it is stable. The condition is nothing, no calamity has happened as far as the wheat is concerned, wheat or wheat flour. But it keeps fluctuating. Similarly, fish meal and also the soybean meal. So the prices of the feed, to take a long-term view of this and keep stable price is definitely a good procedure.
But nevertheless, it happens depending upon that we are taking whatever the burden of additional for ourselves as of now, and there is no increase. And coming to your question as to the prices, which have raw materials come down, will there be any price cut? That's what I think you are asking for. So we always keep it as fluctuating, but there is no such move as of now.
Right, sir. And sir, any guidance for processing remains unchanged versus last quarter or any changes in terms of volumes?
Sorry. Could you repeat your question again?
I was saying that you used to give guidance in terms of processing volumes for the full year, which was, I think, anywhere around 1,500 metric tons, if I'm not wrong. Does that remain unchanged for the full year or you revised the guidance?
I think in the opening remarks, we said 16,000.
Right. Okay, okay. Sure. That is all on my side. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Next question comes from Kunal Ochiramani from Kitara Capital. Please go ahead.
Sir, I just wanted to ask regarding the policies. Does government include us in regarding framing the policies with shrimp as we are one of the major exporters from India? Second, if any other policies have been announced recently, apart from what we are availing today, will we be eligible in future? Has there been any announcement in this budget? That's what I wanted to ask.
See, normally, before framing the policy, the budgetary policy, the departments, agriculture departments will have discussion with the Seafood Exporters Association, MPEDA, and all the major stakeholders in the feed, and they formulate the policies. And recently, the budget has proposed certain decrease in import of certain ingredients, feed ingredients, and also like the fish feed and also shrimp feed and some of the minerals, chemicals, and all these things. Because this policy is framed on many, many factors which are taken into consideration before the decision is taken. They take input from the stakeholders like seafood processing. They take from hatchery, they take from the feed industry, and they take from the farmers' also association. And the overall financial situation also they take as far as the industry is concerned. Whatever the policy that is made is in tune with the inputs that they got.
For instance, recently, they have announced some supports for having brood stock, getting that, and also the clusters, encouraging the clusters by financing them. They are export financing, and all these things are coming. But all these things are made in the budget speech. None of these things have really taken place. They have come in the form of a procedure, regulations, how it should be done. Even for the employment generation and encouraging the manufacturing units, all these things have been mentioned in the budget. We are all awaiting for the outcome of how the NABARD is supposed to be the nodal agency for extending the financial supports. We are waiting for the procedures and regulations for operating these schemes announced by the Honorable Finance Minister. Overall, this is a policy which recently they announced the budget.
I don't think there will be any big announcement as far as the policy is concerned. However, the GST part that has been left to the GST Council. So we'll have to wait for the GST Council's decision, how they monitor the taxes, the GSTs on various products that is going into the manufacturer as far as our sector is concerned, how they are going to make any change, whether they are going to.
[Foreign language].
Next question.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. Next question comes from Mithun Aswath from Kivah Advisors. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Can you hear me?
Yes, yes, yes.
Yeah, yeah. So just in terms of your production has gone up year on year for the quarter one in terms of the shrimp processing. But the revenues and the sales have kind of come down year-on-year on the shrimp processing side. So just wanted to understand that because the volumes have gone up, but the volumes of sales have not gone up, but the production has increased. So do you see subsequent quarters be ramped up in the sales? That was point one. The second question I had was on the duties which have been removed on the fish meal, which is one of your raw materials. I just wanted to understand what is the benefit for you on margin?
And also, if you could give a mix of what are the raw materials involved in the shrimp feed, what percent is fish meal and the wheat and the soya? Because I remember in the last call, you had mentioned that because of the situation in Chile, there was this massive rise in the fish meal prices. So if you could just throw some color on that, that would help us to kind of understand what your margin outlook would be for the current year.
Yes. So I'll take the first question. So on the production, we've increased the production like you pointed out. However, sales didn't increase as much, mainly because a lot of stock is in transit. Now, the transit time has substantially increased due to the Red Sea crisis, so they're taking an alternate route. That's the first part. The second part is that we have a lot of inventory in the warehouse, which hasn't been shipped because I'm sorry, hadn't been shipped because of unavailability of containers, reefer containers. So those were the two main parts of why the production has increased and sales hasn't, but you'll see that catching up in the coming quarters.
Yes. Coming to the feed, I'll raise a couple of questions. Number one is with regard to the impact of the prices, the policy changes that have been made in the recent budget.
Practically, as far as the domestic shrimp feed industries are concerned, there is no advantage at all because the first thing is that they have reduced the customs duty on shrimp feed. What happens is that when the prices come down, we start getting imports from other countries becoming competitors for us in the domestic industry, which is severe competition from them. And we have already more than what is the annual consumption. We have three times more, three or four times more than the requirement of feed, the production capacities in India today.
In fact, we have made several representations to the government also because if you keep reducing the shrimp feed customs duty, basic duty, then it will be a disadvantage for the Indian manufacturers, just giving a very good quality feed for the aquaculture in the domestic feed, domestic aquaculture industry, so that is not at all an advantage, and any basic customs duty nowadays, now we have all the raw materials available in India. Almost every raw material is available. Earlier, we were importing fish meal from Chile and Peru. We give this reference because Chile and Peru are one of the major countries producing the fish meal and supplying to the world over, so that is taken as the general availability of fish meal, there will determine the global prices.
So when there is a price, when there is a good crop in Chile and Peru, the global prices of fish meal comes down. And that indirectly gives an advantage to us because our exports also will get reduced, so that is available for the Indian market. That is the advantage we give for Chile and Peru references. So that is the reason why we give it. And as far as we are concerned, we go by the domestic prices, which again depends upon two factors. One is fish catches. The other one is export demand. These are the two basic criteria on which we have the local prices are based. So when there is a good crop and also there is a global availability of fish meal is good, the demand for export is not so much, then we get a reasonably good stable price.
If there is an increase in the demand, then the prices go up. That is one aspect of it. So similarly, soybean meal and the wheat flour, as I told you earlier, as I explained, it all depends upon the agricultural crops, which is year on year basis during the season. Now, in the October-November month, we get the soybean, the fresh seed. So as of now, the crop is good and everything is going on well. So we expect that the price of soybean meal is stable. So coming to your question with regard to the proportion, how much we do it, is something like a formulation depending upon so many factors and which cannot be determined or disclosed. That can be a confidential information which the company has, and the formulation is made according to the requirement of the particular season and particular area.
That is how it is done. So I think this can be disclosed, this information, because it is not only one formula which is applied universally.
Okay. Sir, just the last question. For the next three quarters, are the raw materials on a holistic basis lower for you compared to the last three quarters of last year, or are they higher? So as to judge how your margins are going to fare over the next three quarters.
Do you mean for the next three quarters?
My sense is that right now, are the prices of the raw materials lower than last year for the second quarter, or are they kind of flat? Just wanted to understand that.
So just I explained the reason for giving so much explanation in our presentation. Initially, it's that to understand how the raw material prices are fluctuating, and it is not actually stable. Suddenly, the fish meal goes up to 121, and sometimes it comes down to 190 sometimes. So it is very difficult in a quarter. You will find in three months in three different rates for all these products, whether it's soybean meal or fish meal or wheat flour. In such a case, it is very difficult to exactly say whether the prices will go up or come down. We do not know. Sometimes, in spite of having a good crop, we are finding the prices going up. For instance, wheat flour, we don't know why it's going. The prices are going up.
The government policies, for example, the procurement by the Food Corporation of India, the wheat is more now, so they want to keep it as a food security policy. So with the result of so much of wheat flour going into the government godowns, the FCI godowns, the open market is not available. The prices are going up. Similarly, the situation in case of fish meal, if the catches are not good, we don't get the prices go up. Similarly, if there is a demand for export, the fish meal producers would like to export rather than to sell in the market. When we approach, they say, "You give us the export price, we will give you." That is what happens, so it is very difficult to really get where we can be predicted with a reasonable accuracy. It is very difficult.
So that's why we keep explaining so much about it.
I understood, sir. At least for the next quarter, do you have a visibility of is it better or worse than last year?
Yeah. It's very difficult to say because yeah.
You cannot tell now because right now, they are soft. But it all depends on the international market situation.
Okay. And one more question I had, if I may, on your new venture on the pet food business. I wanted to understand what is the investment that you're doing here and what kind of scale can this business do? And is it primarily for the export market, or would there be a domestic player as well here?
Yes. Pet products are for only domestic market. It is not for export. It is for the domestic market, and the investment is expected to be around INR 130 crores-INR 150 crores, of which we have land costs. We have invested about INR 35 crores as of now. And also, we had spent about two and a half to INR 3 lakhs, INR 3 crores for other expenditures for the last survey of the demands of pet foods and other branding and other stuff that we have expended. We have spent about two and a half to INR 3 crores now. And as far as the product, as we told you, we are planning to launch before 31st March 2024. CMD may add something you would like to answer .
Yeah. So initially, it will be for domestic market. The market is going up on a drastically high thing. And it's for domestic market. And if we can establish our brand, we will also look at the export markets.
Right. I'm just trying to understand. This is a completely different type of business, right? You will have to create your own brand, a lot of marketing, and all that. Just wanted to understand what is.
Yeah.
Technology-wise, the manufacturing of feed and all, they're similar to what we are manufacturing shrimp feed or something like that, but it's different pet animals. So it's again a formulation and what a pet requires. And regarding the marketing, yes. In the shrimp feed, it is the farmers who buy the feed for the commercial reasons, commercial crops. Then in the pet food, it is like pet owners. It is more of an emotional thing and work in the consumer market.
Right, and if I can squeeze one last one. Whenever these farmers have a bad crop, they've bought this feed from you. Do you see potential losses or write-offs, and how does that work, or is there the government helping fund those purchases?
No. See, the farmer buys feed as per the requirement. If, say, he would always plan his requirement of feed as per his requirement, and he would be taking from the dealers. And see, he would be giving back to the dealers if he has some problem with the crop, and dealer will sell to some other farmer. That's how it goes.
Right. I'm just trying to understand in terms of there would be quite a bit of a loss that you would have incurred, right? Because of the last couple of months. I just wanted to understand what is that impact on?
No. See, they would not return back the feed to the company.
Okay. Okay.
It is only the offtake. See, because as you saw, this year rains are good. The rains are very good, and because of the heavy rain, there was the flooding in most of the areas. Because of the flooding and all, there have been diseases, and there has been overflowing of these shrimp farms. That has happened from the end of last, from June and July, but now it is quite stable. Now the farmers are going back for stocking.
Got it.
Because this is a good rain also, good rains in the country also emphasizes good crops. But when the heavy rains are there, they'll all lose the crop. But generally, the water regenerates, and it's a good sign for the country and for the agriculture and the aquaculture.
Fine, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from Vedant Mehta from QRC Investment Advisors. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good evening. I just wanted to understand, with the EBITDA margin expansion, is it linked to only the raw material prices being the first, or what other factors would have driven that? Thank you.
EBITDA margin, is it linked only to raw material prices or is it?
Basically, the major contributing factors are the raw material prices, so the other expenses, the normal fixed expenses, under other labor and all, we have the standard expenditure, and the normal, the increased expenditure, year-on-year basis, it will be there by increments of the salaries, etc. It will be the overhead expenditure increase that will have an impact on that.
Transportation cost is the major factor in case of frozen food. The ocean freight also affects EBITDA.
Thank you.
Because of the Red Sea issue and the shortage of containers, because the U.S. and the European governments are imposing some tax on the Chinese products from September 1st, shipments received from September, sometimes in September 1st. So they are shipping out all their cargoes before that, it reaches before that. So all the containers have been booked by the Chinese companies, majorly the batteries, lithium batteries, and the electric cars. So the ocean prices have gone up very high because all the space in the vessels have been booked by the Chinese companies at a very high price.
So, see, for us too, as earlier our Executive Director, Alluri Nikhilesh, has said, there is a shortage of containers and shortage of space in the shipping vessels because everything has been booked, which would be eased by the end of this month or something like that because the deadline would be over for the Chinese. And the EBITDA margin, yes, definitely. On the frozen side, definitely, it works on the raw material side. And also, since the shortage of containers and space in the vessels, the ocean prices have gone up almost three to four times high. And on the.
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 Pradeep Rawat from Yogya Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity. So I just wanted to know about the demand outlook in the shrimp processing segment from various geographies, specifically U.S. and EU, and how do you see competition coming out from Ecuador?
Okay. Thank you. I'll answer that question. So on the production from Ecuador, I think, see, Ecuador today is the largest producer of shrimp, but they do not compete in the same categories as the Indian processing industry does. Ecuador does more whole shrimp or headless shrimp, like commodity shrimp, where India is more into peeled shrimp and moving more into value addition. So that way, I don't see that Ecuador is really a threat to India. But there is an oversupply, which is balancing slowly. More efficient producers will stay in the market in terms of producing nations. The demand in the U.S. market, Europe, also the rest of the world continues to be stable. Not great changes. Hopefully, the low pricing of the shrimp, the protein of shrimp, drives in more consumption. There's more marketing activities that are being done.
For the company itself, a strong quality standard and product continues to have good attraction in the customer base. So we will continue to focus on expanding in all these markets.
Yeah. Thank you very much, and wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from Samir Deshpande, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Hi.
Please go ahead, sir. [audio distortion] ? Next question comes from Devam Modi from Ardeko. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. To begin with, could you share the details related to the PLI incentives that the company has received or is eligible for going ahead?
Thank you. We will send an email. You just send an email so that we will reply back.
We will explain in the email. We already explained in the presentation, so we will reply back to you.
Okay, sure. And just like you highlighted on the pet food front, if you can also share on the fish feed front, what is the investment and resources that you will be looking to allocate this year and next year in FY 2025 and 2026?
The fish feed, we have employed some senior executives for undertaking the feed survey, and we are continuing the process with identifying the fish species, which is suitable for India, and for that, the feed, so we want to take up trials to do the trials with the imported feed from Thai Union Feedm ill and first experiment here and see whichever is the Indian conditions is suitable. We would like to start importing and do it initially, and thereafter, we want to produce in India, so we have the civil works ready. It is only the machinery that we have to order, and we can immediately start within a matter of about six months, we can start production. Once we establish the demand, supply, and what is the requirement, what is the species that is in need here, Indian conditions, we will start.
It will take maybe so we are now in the process of the survey and trials. We are going to import some feed and do trials in India. CMD might like to have some adds.
Yeah. The fish feed, we have a lot of fish available in India, which is majorly low-cost fish, and the feed for it is very cheap feed, and anyone can make that feed. But the species what we are looking at is, in earlier meetings, what we said, we wanted to go for a high variety of species, which is only being done in parts of the developing in India, like barramundi, sea bass, or barramundi, or snakehead, or trout, or different varieties of fish, which is already people have taken up culture, and they're doing a lot of trials on it. We are developing feed for that, which is already existing in Thailand, which they are doing in Thailand, which we want to import earlier and start doing trials with the development of the market.
If those varieties of fishes develop, it's a high protein, a bright high protein, a good protein fish, which needs high nutrition. Nutrition value, there's a lot of technology involved. So we want to get into that. Then the commodity grade. See, the question of you asking how much CapEx. CapEx would be around, see, once we decide on that, initially we are importing, and once we decide on that, the CapEx of INR 100 crores would be there.
Okay, sure. And in this case, so based on what you highlighted, this would be more like a high margin but relatively lower volume than sort of the shrimp feed business. Would that be the right impression?
Yes.
And the.
See, there are fish available like rohu and common carp and all, which are traditionally coming in India. Most of the common carp farmers make their own feed because it's very cheap. It comes around INR 15-INR 20, manufactured feed for themselves. And for the rohu species, it is anything, but this variety of fish, people are going to try and doing the trials, are high-quality fish. High-quality fish like sea bass and all, which is a high protein and high nutritious feed of fish, and it requires high nutritious feed, so we have to target that. The volume may in future increase to a higher size depending on the consumption and the development.
Okay, sure. And there would be an overlap in the customers that you would be having on the shrimp feed side. There would be an overlap with the fish feed with the higher-end fish.
No, no. There won't be an overlap. There's a different segment, totally.
Okay. Sure. And just one bookkeeping sort of question. In FY 2024, we see that there is a power and fuel expense of INR 94 crores. How much would be the amount attributable to the power side and how much to the fuel side within that?
Could you send an email, and I will just break it out and send it to you?
Sure. No problem. Thanks. That's it from my side.
Thank you. That would be the last question for the day. Now, I hand over the floor to management for closing comments.
On behalf of the Board of Directors and also the management, I would like to thank all the investors who have participated and made this call very interactive to have more discussions, more questions, and having more clarifications. It is good to have such a session whereby the management, as the investors also, be more transparent in their information, disseminating the information about the company prospects, the profitability, margins, etc. I once again thank all the investors for taking an active part in this session and made it more fruitful. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference for today. Thank you for your participation and for using Door Sabha's conference call service. You may disconnect your lines now. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.