Thank you, Mike. Good morning, everyone. We are very pleased that you could join us today. Speaking to you is César Miranda, Investor Relations Associate at Alicorp. Our presenters today, we will have Mr. Alfredo Pérez, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Manuel Romero, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Patricio Jaramillo, Vice President of Consumer Goods and Innovation, and other members of the senior management team who will join us during the Q&A session. Today, we will be discussing the first quarter 2023 results after the financial results and earnings report were issued on Tuesday. If you have not received a copy of the earnings report, please visit us at www.alicorp.com.pe, where you will also find the webcast presentation to accompany our discussion during this call. Please be advised that today's call is for investors and analysts only. Therefore, questions from the media will not be taken.
If you are a member of the media and wish to direct any question to the company, please contact our team directly after the call. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that forward-looking statements may be made during this conference call. These forward-looking statements are based on several assumptions and factors that could change, causing us to report to materially differ from current expectations. We ask that you refer to the disclaimer located in the earnings release prior to make any investment decision. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Alfredo Pérez, Chief Executive Officer of Alicorp, who will begin the presentation. Alfredo, please go ahead.
Alfredo, we do not hear you at the moment. Just please a small reminder, if you are on mute, to turn your mute line off.
Thank you. Apologies for that. Well, again, good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Alicorp's 1st quarter 2023 earnings call today. In today's call, we will discuss the first quarter of 2023 results. I would like to start by giving you an overview of the most important events that have taken place over the last few months, followed by a macro overview of the main geographies where we operate, and an update on our key corporate efficiency efforts across our company. We will move on to our consolidated results. Patricio and Manuel will afterwards cover our financial results by business unit. At the end, before the Q&A session, I will take the floor again for an update on our guidance for this year. Let's move on to slide five to cover the most relevant external factors impacting our business performance.
As we covered during our last call, the failed attempt to dissolve Congress by the former president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, led to a severe political and social crisis since early December of 2022. Social unrest escalated rapidly, turning protests violent and resulting in a large number of roadblocks, mainly in the southern part of the country. Unfortunately, after the holidays, protests resumed in January and quickly became more violent, increasing the death toll related to these protests. The situation lasted until February, not only had a negative impact on the distribution of our products, but also on the national activity during the first two months of 2023. Although the social crisis and protests are now under control, the new president and Congress continue with very low approval rates.
One of the most affected transit routes by the blockages was the border between Peru and Bolivia at Desaguadero. Desaguadero is the busiest border between the both countries and one of the most important routes for Bolivian exports to pass through Peru. This border remained closed for almost the entire first quarter of 2023 due to the social unrest. This affected our crushing business materially, reducing volume sold to third parties in the first quarter of the year. As a temporary solution, we decided to use lower capacity alternative routes, which represented incremental logistic costs. Fortunately, by the end of March, most of the transit restrictions in the border were lifted and economic activity is gradually recovering.
On the climate front, by late February, Peru's northern region was hit with intense rainfall, causing floods and river overflows, leading to the declaration of a state of emergency in 17 regions in the country. As a result of these climate-related events, demand and distribution of this region was affected. The combination of these effects added pressure to the Peruvian economy, which according to the central bank estimates, will contract during the first quarter. Although we do not see a high likelihood of a return of protests or roadblocks, high inflation rates and the higher possibility of El Niño in the 2nd half of 2023 will probably continue adding pressure to an already weak private consumption and consumer confidence, adding challenges mainly in the demand front. Let's move on to slide six to discuss the challenging outlook in Peru.
As mentioned earlier, the complex scenario described in the previous slide led to negative GDP growth estimates for the firstt quarter of 2023. Excluding the pandemic, this has been the 1st quarterly GDP contraction since 2009. Inflation continues well above the central bank's target, reducing real wages and disposable income of the end consumer. Moreover, our clients are experiencing lower liquidity due to higher interest rates. As a result, in the 1st quarter, we experienced volume contractions in key categories, a reduction of out-of-home consumption, and a shift to more affordable products. In this adverse scenario, at Alicorp, we have remained disciplined, attempting to continue recovering our rough profit per ton, while carefully managing our account receivables, which continue to show healthy levels.
Despite the economic situation and the aforementioned factors, Peru maintains important macroeconomic strengths, such as an appropriate monetary policy with a stable reference interest rate for the fourth consecutive month, a prudent fiscal policy, and a strong currency. Moreover, the risk of radical leftist policy has been greatly reduced following Castillo's vacancia. Hopefully, President Dina Boluarte will be able to work closely with Congress to reactivate the economy after this challenging period. Now, let's move on to slide seven to discuss the outlook in other two main geographies, which are Bolivia and Ecuador.
The political and economic outlook in Bolivia and Ecuador also represent significant challenges. Bolivia is currently facing severe macroeconomic challenges as a result of a significant increase in public spending and consistent reductions in exports, leading to structural deficits, which have been financed with public debt and international reserves.
The situation has become unsustainable as access to further debt has become more restricted and international reserves are dwindling. This led to a speculation in Bolivia regarding access to the U.S. dollar, which added some pressure to the local government. As a result, restrictions to limit access to U.S. dollars have already been implemented. The government has ruled out an official devaluation and has approved laws that will allow the central bank to sell gold reserves.
According to specialists, the Bolivian economy could face a parallel market scenario for the exchange rate. Regarding Ecuador, President Guillermo Lasso is facing an impeachment process for alleged acts of corruption, which could lead to two possible scenarios: the censure of the president, where President Lasso will be replaced by the vice president, or a scenario where President Lasso calls for early elections, both for Congress and the executive branch.
Despite the fact that Ecuador's macroeconomic indicators, such as its deficit and international reserves, have improved over the past couple of years, this political instability has led to an increase in Ecuador's country's premium by 7% so far in 2023. As a result, Ecuador's economic growth outlook has been reduced and financing conditions have tightened. It is important to mention that despite the adverse macroeconomic and political context described for both geographies, our main businesses in these geographies, crushing and Aquafeed, mainly serve international export markets. Both the soy industry in Bolivia and the shrimp business in Ecuador have become strategically important for each country as they try to reduce the deficits. In the case of Bolivia, our soybean business accounts for around 70% of total revenue. In Ecuador, our shrimp feed business represents almost 90% of total revenue.
Therefore, Alicorp's exposure to macroeconomic risks is largely mitigated. Despite this, we continue to monitor these risks and their potential impact on our operations. On slide number eight, we'll discuss the implementation of efficiency initiatives in this challenging context. As we are continually describing our earnings call, inflationary pressures and complex sociopolitical contexts in our main geographies have impacted the end consumer and our profitability. This has led us to launch several corporate efficiency programs in order to mitigate these impacts through strategic prioritization, design- to- value, and reductions in SG&A across our businesses. In 2021, we launched our multi-annual efficiency program, aiming to deliver more than PEN 200 million in run rate savings by 2023.
As can be seen, compared to 2021, we have reduced our last twelve months SG&A revenue ratio by 2.1 percentage points while compensating inflationary pressures across all of our expenses. In 2022, we achieved a rationalization of approximately 20% of SKUs of our portfolio and implementing strategic design to value initiatives in certain categories such as edible oils and pastas. Our target for 2023 remains ambitious. In addition to our portfolio optimization and design to value initiatives, we will focus on our revenue management with a special focus on key categories such as detergents and pastas in Peru, with the objective of strengthening the value of our brands, providing the right product packaging, and presentations to the market. Now, let's discuss our consolidated results for the first quarter 2023 on slide number 10.
Consolidated revenue reached PEN 3.3 billion in the first quarter of 2023, exceeding a slight decrease of 0.6% when compared to the same quarter of 2022. As we mentioned before, this is mainly due to the relevant volume contraction of 10.6% year-on-year. This contraction was mainly explained by the crushing business, although our other business units also experienced volume contractions. Excluding the crushing business, revenue grew 5% year-on-year, with revenue per metric ton increasing by 14%, mainly reflecting carryover pricing from 2022, and some more modest additional pricing initiatives in certain categories executed in the first quarter. Let's review our consolidated gross profit for the first quarter of 2023 on slide number 11.
Consolidated gross profit increased 20.8% the first quarter of 2023, mainly explained the performance of our crushing business due to lower volume and a relevant reduction in crush margins. Excluding the crushing business, gross profit was almost flat, with a 0.7% reduction explained our Consumer Goods International, B2B, and Aquafeed units, partially offset by Consumer Goods Peru. It is important to mention that our gross profit per metric ton, excluding the crushing business, increased 8% year-on-year, which reflects our focus on profitability to compensate market and volume contractions. Let's now review our consolidated EBITDA for the first quarter of 2023 on slide number 12. Consolidated EBITDA reached PEN 235 million in the first quarter, a 44% year-on-year decrease.
80% of such decrease is explained by the reduction in the crushing business gross profit. Excluding our crushing business, which is cyclical, EBITDA decreased 16% year-on-year. This reduction is mainly explained by lower volume, high SG&A expenses related to advertising leases to fuel growth in strategic initiatives such as the launch of our personal care brand, Amarás, and the fact that in 2022, we had positive one-offs related to the sale of real estate. These negative impacts were partially offset by higher gross profit per ton. Let's now review our consolidated net income for the first quarter of 2023 on slide 13. Consolidated net income decreased PEN 154 million from PEN 160 million in the first quarter of 2022 to PEN 6 million in the same period of 2023.
It's important to mention that decrease is mainly explained by a lower operating profit driven by the performance of our crushing business, as explained before. To a lesser extent, net financial expenses increased due to higher hedging costs. This was partially offset by a lower income tax expense. Now, let me pass the floor over to Patricio, who will discuss the operating results of our CGP and CGI businesses.
Thank you, Alfredo. Let's begin with an update on CGP market dynamics on slide 15. Peru has faced a very difficult first quarter during 2023, as explained earlier by Alfredo. Our national GDP is expected to decline 0.3% for the quarter, which marks the first negative results in 20 quarters, with private consumption expected to post also a modest 1.6% increase, showing a significant slowdown versus previous quarters. Signs of a struggling economy driven by constant political turmoil after President Castillo left office, ongoing social unrest with strikes, roadblocks, and protests across the country, coupled with rain and flooding from El Niño global weather phenomenon, are becoming more evident and have affected our shipments during the quarter.
Despite volume declines, our revenue per metric ton continues to increase year-over-year, up almost 15%, driven mainly by pricing and revenue growth initiatives that are helping us to recover our historical margins in the year-to-date versus last year, and also versus quarter four, 2022, where we see improvement in our gross profit per ton, EBITDA per ton, gross profit margin, and EBITDA margin indicators. Declines in Peruvian spending power have also driven our main market to post declines in consumption versus last year. In 2023, salaries in the private sector, excluding inflation, have decreased almost 9% versus 2019, and have remained flat versus last year. In the informal sector, which accounts for more than 75% of workers, declines are close to 13% versus 2019.
As of our first January, February reading, consumption markets that are average 5% below last year, with heavy declines in categories such as canned tuna, sauces, edible oils, margarines, and bleach, with per capita consumptions almost returning to 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Within this context, we are gaining or maintaining market share across most categories, both in the modern trade and traditional trade, which show that our category focused on defending our core brands is working. We will continue to strengthen our efforts on highlighting our value-added products, differentiation versus key competitors, coupled with multi-tier pricing strategies to maximize our top and bottom lines. We have also reignited innovation efforts across many categories such as detergents, sauces, cookies, and stain removers.
Importantly, we see share increases in edible oils, bleach, margarines, and shampoos, driven by the recent introduction of Amarás, which continues its positive momentum in this extended summer period. Finally, regarding channel mix, the split continues to favor the traditional trade channel, which contributes greatly to our profitability, allowing us to continue to increase our gross profit per ton, while lower our cost to serve in that channel. On this end, we will continue deploying digital strategies under the Día a Día initiative to accelerate its growth and double down on maximizing visibility, assortment, and product mix of key categories at the point of sale. Let's move on to the financial performance of our consumer goods unit on slide number 16.
Volume for the quarter is down 6% year-over-year, driven by lost shipments in January and February due to roadblocks, protests, and floods explained earlier, with net revenue increasing 5% driven mainly by pricing initiatives to offset raw material increases in soybean oil, wheat, and palm oil, and better product and channel mix. Our gross profit per ton increased 15% year-over-year, with a higher gross margin per metric ton of PEN 1,635 versus PEN 1,427 for the same period last year on a per ton basis. EBITDA for the first quarter decreased 10% year-over-year due to higher SG&A expenses due to, one PEN 5.7 million of corporate expense reallocations, and two, PEN 6.6 million of additional advertising and trade investments to fuel growth.
Adjusting for these two items, our EBITDA is flat versus last year, despite volume declines explained earlier. Let's move on to slide number 17, Consumer Goods Bolivia Market Dynamics. Bolivia's economic scenario has also deteriorated during this first quarter, with fears of devaluation and ongoing political instability. From 2014 to 2022, Bolivia has experienced a prolonged exchange rate and inflation stability with a GDP growth of around 4%, higher than Peru and LatAm averages. Economic growth was fueled by the income from natural resources, mainly gas exports. However, lack of public investment has reduced export income and has therefore triggered higher public spending, increasing the fiscal deficit from 3.4% of GDP in 2014 to 7.3% in 2022. This translates in debt levels of above 80% of the GDP compared to 60% in the LatAm average.
The international reserves have declined to less than $3.5 billion for the first quarter 2023, compared to $13 billion in 2014. Consumers' confidence has also decreased from 35 percentage points in September 2022 to 23 percentage points in March 2023. Today, less than a quarter of the population has an optimistic view, while 77% of the population have a either pessimistic or neutral view of what will come afterwards. The Bolivian households are increasingly becoming more concerned with basket prices, considering that more than 50% face a reduction in their income and are reducing purchasing frequency and favoring down-tiering in many categories.
According to Kantar, consumption for the first trimester in Bolivia is down 2.1% versus last year, continuing a 10-trimester decrease, which is mainly driven by foods with 3.2% decline and home care products with a 0.8% decrease. Alicorp's categories basket, comprised of 20 categories, also decreases at the same rate. The volume platform is still at a higher level than pre-pandemic levels. Within this environment, Alicorp grows in volume and value shares across all of its categories, mainly in detergents and in bleach and all-purpose cleaners, where we have reached record highs. Importantly, in detergents, we are very close obtaining market leadership versus Unilever. Let's move on to performance of the Consumer Goods Bolivia on slide 18. Bolivia's revenue increased 5% for the first quarter, 2023, versus last year's same period.
In our home care platform, revenue increased 31% and gross profit 32% versus last year, reflecting the positive results of market share gains in detergents, bleach, and all-purpose cleaners. Our EBITDA posts negative results versus last year, explained mainly by PEN 4.6 million of negative EBITDA coming from the edible oils category that, as mentioned before, has price controls and higher SG&A expenses to fuel growth with advertising and trade initiatives in our home care platform that has driven growth. Excluding these two items, EBITDA for the quarter would increase 11% versus last year. Let's move on to slide 19, Consumer Goods Ecuador Market Dynamics. In Ecuador, we continue to highlight the positive role of our go-to-market strategy that has enabled us to reach 50,000 clients.
This is a significant increase versus the 5,000 clients we reached at the beginning of 2022 with our previous distribution model. This is a consequence of years of experience and learnings gained in Peru and extraordinary efforts of the strong local leadership teams that have leveraged corporate capabilities under the One Alicorp mindset. Despite a 6.3% market decline, our share continues to show positive momentum, growing this first trimester in detergents and sauces in value and across all categories in volume. The new normal is still 15% above pre-pandemic per capita consumption levels. Finally, the discount for channel continues to grow with El Rosado TuTi, which now represents almost 4% of total market sales. There are now 310 stores nationwide. Let's move on to the performance of consumer goods Ecuador on slide number 20.
Ecuador's revenue grew 34% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023, fueled by volume growth of 39%. EBITDA versus last year same period decreased due to higher SG&A expenses, mainly due to PEN 5.5 million in advertising and PEN 2.5 million in additional headcount expenses incurred to fuel volume and revenue growth. Now, let me pass over the floor to Manuel, who will discuss the operating results for our B2B, Aquafeed and crushing businesses, as well as our liquidity and credit ratings.
Thank you, Patricio. Let's move to slide 22 for an update on our B2B market dynamics. As we mentioned in our previous call, the number of out-of-home consumers continues to be impacted by inflationary pressures, social political instability, and climate-related disruptions. Moreover, during the first quarter, the tourism sector has been severely impacted by the protests and roadblocks. Therefore, this year, we are seeing market contractions in key categories such as edible oils, lard, and flour. In contrast, we have positive expectations on sauces given the resilience of the chicken rotisserie segment. Our strategy in this category is to support its growth, maintaining good profitability, especially in the sachet format. In this context and backed on our competitive advantages, we managed to gain or maintain market share in core categories such as edible oils with an increase of more than 4 percentage points on sauces.
On the other hand, a decrease in bulk bread consumption impacted our lard and flour categories volume. However, we managed to gain profitability and increase our gross profit per ton in both categories to compensate volume reductions. Our strategy to recover our shares in flour and lard will be focused on the revamp of our Nicolini brand and the development of the pastry market. Given this complex scenario with market contractions and volume reductions, we have been very disciplined in order to avoid value destruction. We remain focused on our digital initiatives and technical assistance for our clients, attempting to strengthen our brands and customer loyalty in these turbulent times. Let's move on to slide 23 for an update on our B2B financial performance.
Despite the challenges mentioned in the slide before in terms of market size and impacts in consumption, we managed to increase our gross margin by 0.3 percentage points. As a result, our gross profit per ton reached PEN 643, which represents a solid increase of 16% year-on-year. Despite lower volume and lower revenue, we achieved this higher per ton gross profit, thanks to our higher focus on revenue management activities and better product mix. EBITDA for the first quarter reached the amount of PEN 50 million, slightly lower compared to the first quarter of 2022. Next, we will cover the Aquafeed market dynamics on slide 24. In Ecuador, shrimp exports grew 23% in the first quarter of 2023 versus the first quarter of 2022.
Export growth was above market experts' expectations, and this was mainly due to the impact of harvest delays in the fourth quarter of last year that were finally exported in the first quarter of this year. In the last weeks of the first quarter of 2023, we have seen a slight uptick in export prices as China continues to regain ground among Ecuadorian shrimp exports. Ecuadorian trade for continued to improve despite low prices when compared to the first quarter of 2022, and higher costs due to higher fuel prices and expenses related to heavier than usual rains. Farmers continue to invest in automation and new technologies, which include Vitapro's new digital ecosystem, as well as aerators and automatic feeders. Exporters are also improving industrial facilities in order to produce value-added presentations to better cope with future demand from the U.S. and Europe.
Regarding the salmon feed business, during the first quarter, Chilean farmers saw improved production conditions thanks to the absence of algal blooms, which had been a recurring seasonal problem in previous years. Thanks to this, they were able to extend their harvest days in order to achieve higher final weights, and therefore, higher production volumes. In Norway, a reduction in growth rate is expected due to the government resource tax, which is limiting investments in the industry. For the first quarter, prices were higher compared to the first quarter of 2022 because of lower harvest in Norway, because of lower yields, concerns on the Norway tax, and lower offers of wild salmon. Despite these higher prices, demand seems to stay firm in retail and in food service. Current price levels are attractive and healthy for Chilean producers and their profits, which could incentivize farmers to continue sowing.
To compete successfully in the Chilean salmon industry, Vitapro continues to deploy its differential go-to-market strategy in order to capture new tenders in 2023. All in all, in the first quarter, we continue to see growth in both the shrimp and salmon industries, and we expect this trend to continue throughout the year as well. Feed Pro continues displaying growth, especially in Ecuador. This growth, plus our differentiated feed products and strong brands, allow us to continue to create value for Alicorp. Let's move on to slide 25 for an update on our aquaculture performance. In terms of business performance, Feed Pro posted a 12% revenue growth, mainly explained by price initiatives introduced to compensate for the increase in our raw material prices, and the queuing up of our portfolio to value-added feed, mainly in Ecuador.
These initiatives were partially offset due to less volume sold in our major account in this specific quarter. We expect to recover this volume during the second quarter of 2023. Gross margin decreased 2.1 percentage points, mainly due to an increase in our net. EBITDA increased 2.9% year-over-year, mainly due to the reduction of SG&A expenses and a reduction in corporate expenses allocated to the business units. We will cover the crushing business financial performance on slide 26. During the first quarter, our crushing business faced supply chain disruptions caused by blockages at the Desaguadero border related to the sociopolitical instability in Peru. In this context, we had to lower our volume processed, which resulted in a decrease of 13% year-over-year in our sales volume to third parties. Revenues for our first quarter resulted in a 21% decrease year-over-year.
Regarding EBITDA, the Q1 saw a decline of 92% due to lower volumes processed, and more importantly, a relevant decrease in our crush margins caused by a price reduction on commodities. Even though we had already anticipated a reduction in profitability for this business unit in our previous earnings call, the profitability challenges endured so far have exceeded our expectations. In this context, the business will continue to develop strategies to mitigate these lower crush margins, such as delaying grain purchases and managing payment terms with farmers. Moreover, our agricultural solutions business achieved an increase in sales of 27% versus the Q1 of 2022. Now, let's move to slide 28 to discuss our liquidity and credit rating.
Regarding our liquidity levels as of March 2023, we exhibited a comfortable cash position, which amounted to PEN 1,210 million, PEN 270 million more than as of the end of 2022. The increase is mainly explained by pre-funding the working capital needs for our crushing business. Despite the challenging environment in Bolivia during the first quarter of 2023, we issued a promissory note for the equivalent of $14 million in local currency to the capital market with a remarkably competitive rate. As of March, our cash position covers 1.01x our current debt, and if we consider the committed credit line for $120 million, such ratio would be 1.38x .
As always, we remain active in exploring opportunities to improve our maturity profile through the extension of our liabilities to secure liquidity. Even though we have several alternatives to do so, we do not believe that the timing is adequate to issue long-term debt due to higher interest rates worldwide. Our ratios show our comprehensive and prudent financial strategy, which has led us to maintain our local rating at the highest possible rating level in Peru, as well as maintaining our rating by two global agencies, Fitch and Moody's. Moving on to slide 29 to comment on our debt metrics. Regarding our debt metrics, the first quarter of 2023 has been a challenging one, yielding a lower EBITDA than expected. Nonetheless, the company managed to partially offset this effect with several working capital initiatives.
As a result, our net debt to EBITDA ratio increased only by 0.3x since the Q1 2022, from 2.6x- 2.9x . Finally, let me circle back to Alfredo to wrap up today's presentation with a view of what we expect for 2023.
Thanks, Manuel. Let's turn to slide 31 to wrap up today's presentation with a glimpse of what we expect for our full year 2023 results. First, I would like to share with you our main assumptions behind our guidance. The first quarter of 2023 was conditioned by external events that strongly affected our sales volumes, mainly in our crushing business, due to the blockage in Desaguadero, in addition to lower crush margins. Furthermore, the normal distribution of our consumer product was also affected by roadblocks and climate events.
Finally, inflationary pressures continue to affect household disposable income, impacting our out-of-home consumption. Taking these factors into account, we expect low to middle single-digit year-on-year growth for revenue, mainly due to challenging volume in our consumer markets and lower volume for the crushing business, as we will probably process less volume due to the lower expected crush margins.
Regarding EBITDA, we expect a mid-single digit decrease for the full year, mainly explained by a higher than expected decline in our crushing business profitability. In this challenging context, we will expect our consumer segment and Aquafeed business to continue increasing profitability, offsetting most of the decline in our crushing business. As for investments for the year, capital will continue to reflect our efforts to accelerate growth, reaching $145 million, including Aquafeed. If exclude Aquafeed, CapEx is estimated in $76 million. Finally, for leverage, we continue to estimate a 2.4x net debt EBITDA ratio by the end of 2023 on the back of solid free cash flow generation. This concludes our presentation, and now we welcome any questions that you may have.
Thank you very much for the presentation. We'll now be moving to the Q&A part of the call. If you have any questions and you are dialed in via the telephone, please press star two, that's star two for any voice questions. If you are dialed in via the web, you may also ask a voice or a text question. We'll now give a moment or so for any questions to come in. Just a reminder, once again, star two for any questions. That's star two for questions. You may also ask a voice or a text question if you are dialed in via the web. Thank you very much. The first question comes from Felipe Ucrós from Scotiabank. Please go ahead sir, your line is open.
Thanks, operator, and good morning, everyone. Just a couple of questions on my end. The first one relating to the protests in the border between Peru and Bolivia. I think you clearly laid out last quarter what the disruption was for crushing. Just wondering if you can give us any detail about whether the disruptions are affecting any of the other businesses. For instance, any flow of finished goods for the consumer business in Bolivia or maybe any flow of commodity inputs for your consumer businesses in Peru. Just wondering if those disruptions are affecting anything else other than crushing. Thank you.
Thank you, Felipe. It's Alfredo here. I will ask Lucio to elaborate a little bit more on the impacts on our crushing business. Overall, yes, it does affect obviously volumes flowing from Bolivia into Peru, and then from Peru for their export business. Also affects volumes going from Peru into Bolivia to, for example, provide finished products that we sell in consumer products in Bolivia. Let me just turn it over to Lucio, who will elaborate further on the response. Go ahead, Lucio.
Thank you, Alfredo. Thank you, Felipe, for the question. I think, Felipe, you were also interested on a little bit of color on the flows of commodity inputs into Peru. Basically, a couple of flows that we have from Bolivia into Peru from the point of view of sourcing commodities. One, it's related to the vegetable oils, the second one related to soybean meal. What we have done, Felipe, in this last quarter was to get access to soybean meal from Paraguay, from Argentina, and even from the U.S.A. Given the higher liquidity on both Paraguay and the U.S., to some extent, some liquidity in Argentina, despite the fact that the crop has been impacted by climate change.
We were able to source Vitapro from other origins. In the case of soybean oil as well, most of our crude oil, not all of it, but most of our crude oil, both soybean oil and sunflower oil, come into our plants in Peru. We origin that from Argentina, and we have not had a disruption from that flow. Hello?
Yes. Sorry, I was on mute. Thanks for that. That addresses one of the two questions I had, which was the flow of commodities from Bolivia to Peru. Just wondering if you can give us some details also on the flow of finished goods from Peru to Bolivia. I imagine you keep some inventories for your HPC categories in Bolivia, but just wondering if you expect any disruptions in Bolivia consumer business due to the disruptions.
Right. I don't know, Patricio, if you want to complement, but basically on the same token that we have looked for different routes for the soybean meal that goes to Peru from Bolivia. We have also looked at different flows and different routes at higher cost, of course, of finished products and, and other raw materials needed for the production of finished products in Bolivia. I would let Patricio and Alfredo comment on that.
Yeah. Thank you, Lucio. Yes, definitely, Felipe, we had actually very minor disruptions on the finished goods and there are good products and goods from Peru to Bolivia, mainly in the laundry and home care division and also some pasta and sauces that we do also export to Bolivia. Fortunately, we were able to manage, you know, different routing alternatives, as Lucio mentioned. The inventories that we had in Bolivia.
Pretty much compensated for the initial disruptions that we had. However, we do have had impacts in costs in terms of shipments because, you know, these additional routes are coming in at a higher cost versus the original ones that we had. From Bolivia to Peru, we actually export also, one brand of edible oils that sources the southern part of Peru. Our factory in Lima was able to compensate that production without any disruption.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll be moving to the next caller. The next question is from Mr. Alonso Aramburú from BTG Pactual. Please go ahead, sir. Your line is open.
Yes. Hi, good morning and thank you for the call. I wanted to ask about, potentially what, you know, what's happened after the quarter, whether there's a normalization of sales and costs at the beginning of 2Q, especially in Consumer Goods Peru. Related to that also, how do you see the evolution of expenses, which, you know, you mentioned, you call marketing expenses, to call in some segments. Can you please give us some color on both of that? Thank you.
Hi. Hi, Alonso. Let me ask first, Patricio to answer the first part of the question, and then Manuel to just complement on the SG&A side. Patricio?
Thank you, Alfredo, and thank you, Alonso, for the question. Yes, we are seeing some improvements in terms of shipments during the second quarter of the year. Obviously, we are fortunate that we do not have roadblocks up to this point. Also the flooding and the severe raining that we have had in the northern part of the country has stopped, at least for a while. We are seeing some normalization in terms of those shipments. We foresee that perhaps that will continue to happen.
We are more concerned nowadays in terms of markets and the way that those markets are declining. Obviously, we've only received, you know, the first January, February reading, but we are concerned that given the, I would say, slow economic recovery that Peru is having, those markets will continue to be affected in the short term. You know, on one hand we have a recovery of shipments driven by open roads and, you know, our ability to reach those point of sales. On the other hand, we have consumers that are not necessarily, you know, buying and purchasing as much goods and products as they were doing so in the earlier part of last year.
What we have had, you know, if you compared our quarter one last year, it was a very high quarter in terms of consumption. We had a lot of, you know, money, I would say, in the market that traduced to consumer looking for goods and services, which is not necessarily the case during this year. We are, you know, we are very cautious of what will happen, you know, in the upcoming quarters, and we are obviously acting accordingly. In terms of advertising expenses, as you mentioned, we are, you know, we continue supporting Amarás, definitely, which is, you know, a recent introduction, which has had, you know, great results.
We are also very, being very selective in, you know, any other pieces of communication and advertising and trade promotions that we're putting in the market so that it does reflect positive ROIs on an investment side.
Thank you, Patricio. Manuel?
Hi. Hi, Alonso. Yes. On the efficiency side, we remain very focused on trying to reduce our SG&A, especially with focusing on administrative expenses. This year we're having pressure obviously because of inflation that is affecting most personal expenses. We remain very focused trying to mitigate these inflationary pressures on our SG&A. Regarding marketing expenses, obviously, I think Patricio described it pretty well.
We have higher marketing expenses in Peru because of Amarás and in Ecuador because of the launch of key categories as we continue trying to accelerate organic growth. In Bolivia, because of the situation we described, we are trying to be very disciplined and trying to prioritize our marketing expenses. I'm not sure if you want me to dive deeper into any of the expenses?
No, no. I mean, thank you for that. I was just curious on, I mean, do you think you will grow SG&A expenses above inflation in Peru this year, given the marketing expenses you're doing?
no. Our focus is to try to compensate or mitigate inflationary pressures. Our goal is to have a more modest increase in SG&A.
Great. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you very much. It looks like we have a follow-up question from Mr. Felipe Ucros from Scotiabank. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you. Yes, I think the line was cut before I could ask the question. It was a follow-up on Amarás. I think Alonso asked about it already and you addressed the SG&A piece of it. Just wonder if you could give us an update on how you guys are performing versus competition, market shares and any other metrics you can share with us on that launch. Thank you.
Patricio, go ahead.
Sure. Thank you, Felipe. Yeah, the launch is progressing beautifully, I would say. You know, we are receiving market shares results, you know, on a weekly base from the modern trade and, you know, there were times, you know, there were weeks where we actually were the highest selling brand in the modern trade after just, you know, five, six months of the launch. It, you know, it is gaining a lot of momentum. This is the particular time of year where Amarás can gain strength given the summer. In the traditional trade, we are also reaching almost 60,000 clients, mainly with our sachet, you know, presentation, which is very common in that traditional trade.
First readings actually that we have had out of the total market put us at almost 3 or 4 percentage points in terms of share, which is significant, I would say, and it's above our initial estimates. Volumes continue growing on a per month base, that is, you know, indicative of the amount of acceptance the product is having, and turnover at the traditional trade is also increasing significantly. This is kinda like the first phase of the launch, we are entering our second phase now with the introduction of new products that are coming up during the upcoming months. You know, to continue with the launch. Our initial, you know, results have been super positive.
We are, you know, super excited on the results that this has had. We have been actually invited to speak at Cannes, at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in July about the success that Amarás is having, because obviously, as you know, we are competing against, you know, very big and strong multinational companies within that platform. You know, everything's great. It's been a good ride.
Great. Congratulations on the launch again, and thanks for the availability for questions.
Okay. Thank you very much for that. We have a text question that came from Sebastian. This is Sebastian from Seminario. What is your outlook for consumer goods in Peru regarding revenues and EBITDA growth for this year?
Patricio, please go ahead.
I would be very cautious with that forward-looking statement. I would say that, you know, in terms of revenue and in terms of EBITDA, we are planning to get growth. You know, we have had a tough first quarter, I would say, but our comparable base, you know, during the first quarter last year was very high, and then continues to soften, I would say, as we move forward through the remainder of the year. You know, I would be very cautious on that because, you know, there are many things that could affect, you know, those numbers. We are preparing, as Manuel and Alfredo have said, to provide those additional growth rates, you know, during 2023. You know, growing, definitely.
We're still calibrating in terms of, you know, how commodities are gonna perform and also what the market is gonna be, you know, looking for. Fortunately, we have a very balanced portfolio. Winter has, I would say, somewhat started in Lima, which is very positive for many of our categories, especially pastas, sauces, detergents. We are a very seasonal company in terms of winter, and that is also, you know, it seems that temperatures are starting to decrease, and that is very positive for our business outlook.
Thank you very much. Looks like we have no further questions at this point. I will pass the line back to the Alicorp team for their concluding remarks.
Thank you very much, everybody, for participating today's call. As we have mentioned throughout the conversation, we remain as a company cautious with respect to this year. There are a number of headwinds associated with how markets are performing, how volumes are performing. There's still some risks associated with potential protests going down the road. Hopefully, they won't happen. Our expectation is that the government and Congress will work jointly in pushing legislation that will help reactivate the economy and then provide more resources for consumers going forward. Those are elements that we'll continue to monitor closely, and obviously from a company standpoint, to be very, very disciplined in the execution of our strategies, building on a course of our brands and the different businesses we have.
Again, if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us, through our investor relations office. See you around for our next call. Take care. Bye-bye.
Thank you very much. This concludes today's conference call. We'll now be closing all lines. Thank you and good day.