Welcome to Camil's video conference to discuss the results of the Q1, 2024. Presented by Flavio Vargas, CFO, and IR officer, and the company's investor relations team. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded, and all participants will be in the listen-only mode during the company's presentation. At the end, we will open for questions from analysts and investors. We would also like to emphasize that any forward-looking statement that might be made during this video conference, related to Camil's business outlook, projections, and financial and operating goals, are based on beliefs and assumptions of the company's management, as well as information currently available. These may involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as they refer to future events, and therefore, dependent circumstances that may or may not occur.
Investors must understand as such, general economic industry conditions and other operating factors may lead to results that differ substantially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. We will start the presentation with Mr. Quartiero, followed by Flavio's presentation, and at the end, we will open for the Q&A in approximately 15 minutes. Thank you. Mr. Luciano, you may proceed.
Hello, welcome to the comments on the results of the Q1 ended in May 2024. On Slide 2, we show the categories in which we operate and the main indicators for the quarter, consolidating Camil's position as one of the largest food brand platforms in Latin America. Our operations resulted in a quarterly net revenue of BRL 2.9 billion, up by approximately 9% year-on-year, and also 8% sequentially.
Our EBITDA stood at BRL 255 million, a 28% increase when compared to EBITDA in the Q1 of 2023, with a margin of 8.8%. In terms of volumes, we grew 20% sequentially and fell by 5% year-on-year. That was mainly due to a temporary mismatch in exports in Uruguay, which led to lower international volumes compared to the previous year. In Brazil, we saw year-on-year growth in volumes with 6% increase in high value. We will go into this in more details in the next few slides. So now let's move on to Slide 3. Brazil's operating highlights start with high turnover, made up of grains and sugar. In the sequential comparison, growth in the category was driven by higher volumes of rice due to the resumption of purchases by retailers in the period.
This effect usually occurs during this period, with greater demand from customers during the rice crop season. Still, on this category, two important events marked the quarter. One was the late harvest in Rio Grande do Sul, caused by the effects of El Niño, which impacted the planting window at the end of 2023. The second effect came as a result of the floods in Rio Grande do Sul, as the rice fields were almost all harvested. The most significant impact, among other effects of the tragedy, were the logistical difficulties in the region. Camil's production plants were not affected, and despite the challenging environment, we did our best to distribute the product and serve our customers during this period of increased purchases by retailers.
We continue to mobilize resources and efforts to help those most in need in the region, and we are certain that together, we will find the strength to rebuild our communities. As for sugar, we continue to face a challenging and more competitive scenario in Brazil's domestic retail market. Moving on to the high-value category, which includes fish, pasta, coffee, and cookies, the highlight of the quarter was the launch of the Camil Pasta line in the state of São Paulo, reinforcing the strength of the brand and the high quality of the products already recognized by the market. We continue to record good profitability in the category, and we are confident of its growth through Camil's launch, and also other avenues of growth with Santa Amália, Don Sapore, and Speciale.
Now, in regards to coffee, we recorded higher sales volumes with the conclusion of the capacity expansion linked to the sales growth strategy of the União brand. We achieved a market share of over 4% in the São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro regions. The launch of União Gourmet Coffees in the quarter also marks a new phase in the expansion of our coffee portfolio, increasing the added value of the category and further promoting our brand. As for Mabel, in the cookie segment, we posted sequential growth in volumes and proceeded with our plan to improve profitability and sales. With regard to fish, we reported annual growth, but with a sequential reduction due to the seasonality of the category in the Q1 of the year.
The high-value category represents an important step towards further strengthening our position as a food platform, with leading brands and a variety of higher value-added products. In the international segment, on a year-on-year comparison, we recorded lower volumes, mainly due to a temporary mismatch in exports in Uruguay. However, we saw growth in the segment's consolidated profitability. At the same time, we are focused on executing our optimization and expense review plan, aiming for greater efficiency and identifying new synergies from the acquisitions made, both in Brazil and extending the analysis to our international businesses this year. We have managed to maximize the synergies and profitability of the 2021 acquisition so far, exceeding our targets and reinforcing our confidence in the growth of the new businesses.
We are gradually working on gaining scale and profitability, leveraging the results of the new categories, and also absorbing price movements in rice for the high turnover segment. We remain confident that we are on the right track to achieve our growth and profitability objectives. Now, I will let Flavio comment on the financial results for the period. Please, Flavio, you may proceed.
Hello, everyone. Moving on to the financial highlights of the period, as Luciano mentioned, we reached net revenue of BRL 2.9 billion, an increase of approximately 9%. Cost of goods sold grew by 8%, mainly due to the high turnover in Brazilian grains and the high value of coffee. As a result, our gross profit amounted to BRL 626 million, with a margin of 19% in the quarter.
Nominal SG&A was flat, representing a drop of 1.3 percentage points of SG&A relative to net revenue for the period. International SG&A, specifically in Uruguay, showed slight growth, which was partially offset by the drop in SG&A in Brazil, with a reduction in personnel expenses. It's worth noting that the company has been carrying out plans to optimize and review expenses, which is a project that we continue to pursue this year and which has yielded good results within our scope of general and admin expenses. We have managed to maximize the synergies and profitability of the 2021 acquisition so far, exceeding our targets and reinforcing the trust in the growth of our businesses. In other operating income and expenses, we totaled BRL 2.9 million in the quarter, mainly due to the reimbursement of claims expenses.
With regard to EBITDA, it totaled BRL 255 million, an increase of 28% over the Q1 2023 EBITDA, with a margin of 8.8%. Sequentially, we highlight the 8% increase in net revenue and stable EBITDA when compared to the Q4 of 2023. While on the operational side, there was an increase in the top line, as already discussed by category, there was also an increase in port and freight costs due to higher logistics costs in Rio Grande do Sul, as already discussed by Luciano. Now, turning to the debt position, the company's net debt reached BRL 3.2 billion, with net debt to EBITDA for the last 12 months of 3.3x in the quarter. It's important to note that our covenant reading is always annual, with the next one being in February 2025.
We always have a relevant working capital seasonality throughout the quarters, more specifically in rice. As such, the Q1s of the year usually see higher cash consumption, while the Q4 usually sees a release in working capital and consequently, an improvement in leverage. As a subsequent event, in June 2024, the company concluded its 14th issue of debentures backed by CRA. The issue consists of simple debentures in three series, totaling BRL 650 million. With this issue and other fundings carried out in the last period, we are comfortable with meeting the company's commitment for the coming months. CapEx for the quarter totaled BRL 62.9 million, with investments in our new grain plant in Rio Grande do Sul, Nova Cambria , and some investments in the pasta business.
Regarding ESG, we are consistently pursuing the actions carried out by the company, with our most recent highlights being our entry into the ISC at B3 and our direct support of 7,800 food baskets sent to Rio Grande do Sul. We remain strong in our social pillar, with one of the highlights of the quarter being the conclusion of the first cycle of the school, Escola de Negócios Grãos of Camil. In partnership with the Asta Institute, we empowered businesses in underprivileged communities. In this first class, we trained 24 businesses, providing courses in financial management, cooking and marketing, among others, over the course of 4 months. On the environmental front, we continue to use 100% of our energy from renewable sources.
We continue to promote mentoring programs for young people in socially vulnerable situations, and carry out other programs, such as volunteering at Mesa Brasil, and donations from our employees to AACD in Orthopedics Hospital. In closing, as Luciano has already pointed out, we are working hard to boost our efficiency and gradually grow in scale and profitability. We are confident that we are on the right track to take the company to a new level of scale and profitability. We will now be able to take your questions, in case you have some questions or comments. Thank you all very much.
Thank you. We will now initiate the Q&A session for analysts and investors. In case you have questions, please press the Raise Hand button. If your question is answered, you can leave the queue by clicking on the same icon again. Please wait while we collect the questions. Our first question comes from Gustavo Troyano, from Itaú BBA. Gustavo, you may proceed.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. T he first question I have related to rice. In your initial comments, you said that retailers were resuming their purchases. I just want to get an update about that selling in the Q2, and also to get a better understanding about the logistics issue, because I know that there was a lot of volatility in the past quarter, and whether things in Rio Grande do Sul are back to normal, and whether this will impact your sales in the Q2. And the second debate is more related to pasta. What are your first impressions about the launch of the Camil brand?
T his is a very important step, because you are using the brand with in a new category. Therefore, I would like to listen to your view about the performance, or maybe whether you see something relevant in your main POSs. What is the pricing point of the brand when compared to your peers, and what is your market share? Just to see whether this is aligned with the, with the expectations and whether you see further opportunities. Your first impressions will be really nice. Thank you.
Good morning, Gustavo. Thank you for your questions. In terms of rice, I briefly said that our plants were not impacted. We had that major impact in early April and May because of the floods and the blockage in the roads. We had issues related to power outage.
So early April and May were challenging months, and logistics also. I t took about 3-4 weeks to get things back to normal. We were seeking for alternative routes. Therefore, there was still, there was still some carryover issues, but today, things are back to normal. Everything now is back to normal. T he main topic here is that because of the impact in the planting of rice, because there was excess rain, we had a very strong El Niño last year. The planting window was delayed by 30-40 days, and as a consequence, harvest was also delayed by the same number of days.
So in the Q1, t hroughout the Q4, our Q4, which is from November through February, and our Q1, f rom March to May, in the Q4, there was a drop in sales of rice. And this is typical from that period, because retailers reduced their inventory and everybody reduced their inventories, as you put it during your question. And that recovery, or maybe when things begin to change, that change happened when harvest is almost 50% done. So this is considered like the price level, and then retailers begin buying again. So the effect when customers are not buying that much, the effect is up to the middle of March. So at the end of March, retailers start buying again to replenish their inventories. And April and May, the inventories are being replenished.
With the delay in harvest, the same thing happened with the retailing process when people are buying again. So instead of happening in March, it started to happen in the middle of April. And our order volume was between 8 to 9 days in the beginning of April. So ten days later, on April 25th, our portfolio was over for 45 days. So this reflects a movement that often happens. And then at the turn of the month. We had rainfall again, and all of the climate effects that we mentioned before. So in early May, logistics and the difficulties in logistics reduced the number of deliveries. So usually, what happens in April and May, it happened in May and June. There was a delay. So this effect of replenishing inventory on the part of retailers was concluded at the end of June.
T hat answers your question. Retailers started buying again before the event in Rio Grande do Sul, but a total replenishment on the part of the industries took place later due to logistics difficulties. But again, T hat all of that is already solved, even the lower inventory from retailers. T here was a perception that there was a lack of product. Other things came into play, but time went by, and it became clear that it was not a matter of speculation, it was just because of that given moment, but all of that has been solved. Now, speaking about pasta, Camil's launch occurred in the second half of May. The first registers every time we have a new launch, we get two or three partner customers, and then we look at pricing and the shelves and how things are performing.
And in these two or three customers, in only two weeks, we went from 10% of share. W e went above 10% of share of sales in these customers. This proves that not only we had a very good relationship with the customer, and that helped us boost sales, but again, also, we saw that our clients recognize the brand. T hroughout June and July, we are now posting the product in other places, but the first responses were quite good and encouraging. Drawing a comparison with coffee, we go through 60-90 days of a very difficult process when we have to register the product, put it on the shelves to get the pricing right.
When you ask about the pricing point, we are now considering, i n terms of pasta pricing, the premium that Camil has with rice and the brand perception that our consumers already have. The pricing is on tier one and tier two. I'm not comparing ourselves to major international brands, but in terms of the domestic brands and domestic comparison, domestic peers, we are on tier one. So for the next 90 days, we still have to register the product and place it on the shelves. Some competitors were quick to react to our introduction. So now we have to follow up to see what will happen in the second purchase and third purchase, and this will be a good indicator of end user perception.
But I'm very excited and very optimistic just by looking at the initial introduction of the Camil pasta brand in São Paulo.
Perfect, Luciano. Thank you very much. That was very clear.
Our next question is from Thiago Duarte from BTG Pactual. You may proceed, sir.
Thank you. Good morning, Luciano. Good morning, Flavio. I would like to start with a follow-up on that explanation that you just mentioned about rice during the quarter. Let's try to conciliate that with the high turnover performance. The impression I see is that the stable volume year-over-year was being pushed by grains. So despite that delay in terms of rebuilding inventories on the part of retailers, there was a growth. W hat is left now is sugar. And probably, volumes were down because of what happened in the other categories.
I want to understand whether I'm having a nice reading of the events. And also, I would like to hear from you what are your initiatives and your reaction in this segment, where I, I believe that margins remain under pressure? Whether this is a decision that you made to, to preserve market share or whether you have something else in mind that makes sense. So, my second question now is that I want to understand how that mix effect on the international segment, that mismatch of, i n Uruguay translates the drop in volumes. Because the margins are expanding year-on-year, mostly based on a lower SG&A year-on-year, not so much so in terms of gross margin. How that mix year-on-year explain the margin? T he one-off issue of Uruguay may no longer be present going forward.
And finally, I would like to hear your views about the wheat segment, c ookies and pasta. Since the category entered your portfolio, the company started to accommodate prices of raw materials, especially flour. And now we see that flour prices are being more stable or maybe increasing a little bit because of the appreciation of the exchange rate. So how do you see this move in raw material impacting the margins of this segment of pasta and cookies? I understand that, that the margins are quite healthy, but I would just like to hear your views going forward. Thank you.
Thiago, thank you for all your questions. They are very provocative, because we are talking about a high turnover and high value, but you were, t aking me back to these two.
In terms of high turnover volumes, when we look at the rice sequential, there was an increase. W e had a weak Q4, and the Q1, we see this replenishment, which has to do with what I mentioned in my previous answer. But when we look at rice, the Q1 of this year, and how and compared to the Q1 of last year, it was lower. Mostly due to the fact that, that harvest season was delayed, the numbers were lower, and this should have a positive impact going towards the Q2. Beans, there was a sequential and quarterly increase, and sugar, we had increases in sequential and seasonality quarter on quarter, and this reflects the sugar landscape because it is the same difficulty that we have been encountering in the past quarters.
In the case of sugar, you have to factor in the drop in international prices, because this helps us to be more competitive here, but this is not yet the ideal scenario. We are in the third year of this scenario in terms of the sugar segment. Now, speaking about the international segment, there's a slight impact coming from the mix, because when you look at the export volume, the margin is lower when compared to other operations. But on the other hand, we see gradual recovery coming from Peru in the past quarters. This still remains the case. We are not yet where we should be, but we are significantly better when compared to what we were a few quarters ago. So Peru remains, i n that recovery path. Chile is now resuming its historical levels, so that has been consolidated already.
Now, in this quarter, the numbers are quite consolidated. And the change in pricing we did in Uruguay, despite the fact that that is a small operation, we are getting lots of synergies in terms of rice distribution within Uruguay. The segment that we acquired has higher margins, and we are able to capture synergies, and this improves our distribution. So we do have an impact of the mix with lower imports, and we have also seen other improvement factors that really helped us with the numbers for this quarter. Now, speaking about wheat, pasta, and cookies. In these two categories, we have volume improvements, both sequentially and also quarter-on-quarter. There is also the fact that that wheat prices in the last two quarters, prices were slightly lower, and now we have a feeling that there will be an increase in wheat prices.
We haven't been in this market for too long, but we believe that the event that happened in Rio Grande do Sul will certainly impact the Rio Grande do Sul harvest, and this could have an impact on prices. So we see a trend of higher wheat prices. We also believe that our prices, both for cookies and pastas, starting this month and next month, we anticipate an increase. An increase is not yet in place, but this is something that we will try to implement in the market for these two categories. There is another factor in terms of cookies, and that is cocoa prices. Cocoa prices increased significantly in the past few months. Prices were reduced a bit, but are not yet in the levels of the past. Pasta margins are still higher.
Maybe they will get back to normal in the Q2 due to two things: one, is the fact that wheat prices are increasing, and the price, the time that it takes for us to transfer that increase, and the Camil Pasta brand in São Paulo. O ur plant is in Minas Gerais. Therefore, there's still a slight logistic inefficiency when compared to other competitors operating in the state of São Paulo. S o far, has no solution. So what I'm saying is that the Camil São Paulo brand margins will be slightly lower than what we have in Minas with the Santa Amália brand. So therefore, the margin of the segment should be around historical levels. W ith that, I answered all your questions, Thiago. I don't know whether you still have anything else.
Yeah, you did answer. Thank you very much.
Our next question is from Thiago Harduim from Citi. You may proceed. Your microphone is available.
Thank you. Good morning, Luciano and Flavio, Jennifer. Thank you for taking my question. There are a few points that I would like to go over with you, and the first maybe is a bit more sensitive, but relates to the rice auction, which is now being discussed. I would just like to hear your opinion about that auction. The second point, and this would be like a long-term view for Camil. I would just like to pick your brain about, well, Camil's long-term margin. Many things have been discussed, both on, in terms of efficiency and synergies, and we also see the sugar business performing slightly below historical levels.
When we look i n the long run, what could we anticipate in terms of having a sustainable margin for Camil? The second point is just a curiosity. We'd just like to hear from you whether you have any comments that could be even preliminary in terms of Nova Cambari plant, the plant in Nova Cambari, whether you have any idea of impact or financials so that we could have something in our radar here. Thank you.
Thiago, thank you for your questions. T he rice auction, that's a topic that was quite known. I would just like to go over a few topics that are relevant.
As I said in previous answers, when we had the event in Rio Grande do Sul, retailers were out of stock because they were delaying their purchases, and then when they resumed their purchases five days later, they encounter logistic difficulties, and that delayed things. Retailers back then, when the rice topic started to pop up, we saw two things happening. People were concerned of not having enough rice, so people buy a lot to, to have inventory at home. Also, a lot of people bought products to donate to Rio Grande do Sul. This increased demand in supermarkets at the time when supermarkets did not have enough products, and that's why they were limiting the number of purchases by company. We also had issues of power outage in May. Our plants were not affected by the floods, but we had power outages issues.
There was also something that was not extensively mentioned, but for three or four days, we couldn't issue invoices because there was a problem with the main issuer of invoices, because they were located in Porto Alegre. There were some competitors in the most affected regions that were impacted by the flood, so the supply was affected. It was a moment of high demand, many difficulties to replenish the shelves, and that's why there were so many increases. Let me give you three numbers. T he crop season brought the bag price to BRL 100. The peak during the three very challenging weeks led that number to spike to BRL 130. That was the price that we paid, and today we're paying something around BRL 115 per bag.
Now, looking from the outside, i f you look at what happened in the industry and the changing prices from BRL 100 to BRL 130, if you're not present in the chain, you may have seen that as speculation. But this is something I already referred to in previous questions, but there was no speculation. What happened is that there were many setbacks. We had to look for alternative logistic routes, and these were much more extensive rides, routes. Not only the trucks had to to cover longer distances, but there was, there were many other options , coastal transportation, which is a lot more expensive. So there were many things that impacted logistics, and that led to price increases. The government was concerned with the price increase.
The government was also worried with the impact on production, but at the end, the Brazilian production was slightly higher than that of the year before, so there is no problem with supply. And those that operate in this industry, they believe that this was a one-off situation, as in fact, it proved to be. But the government was quick enough to act, and they removed the import tax for countries outside Mercosur. This helped to ease the market, and it removed some of that pressure, and then things went back to normal.
The Brazilian Association of Rice Producers, together to the Growers Association and the government, they all met after the canceling of the last auction, d uring that meeting, all the members of the industry were quite sensitive because of that spike in prices, and everybody in the chain is trying to reduce that impact. So this is just a summary of what happened. When the crop seasons begin again, I n one of the calls I said that we, we believe that the average price for this year will be slightly higher than that of last year. And rice average price last year ranged between 100 and 101 BRL. And our expectation early this year is that the average price for this crop season will be slightly higher than what was before, ranging between 100 and 101 BRL.
But with the current events and increases in the exchange rate, just consolidated our expectation that prices should be slightly higher than that of last year. And I also talked about—with that, I talked about all of the things that happened in the period. There was a lot of noise, but all of the measures helped to remove that pressure. Now, going to your second question about our long-term margin, I will try to refer to a few points. We do not give any guidance, but I would like to be more direct. Some of our categories are performing according to plan. Sugar, as you said, is hurting a little bit because sugar profitability is slightly below historical levels.
T he last two years are not historical years because we are experiencing a different scenario because prices are higher, and we also had the introduction of the new categories. Pasta, we are performing above what we understand would be the long-term expectation, but on the other hand, coffee has not reached the level we wanted, and the same thing goes for cookies. T here was a turnaround with cookies. We are significantly better when compared to the initial months, but we are running at 75%-80% of the margin that we believe that that sector has. Now, both coffee and pasta, and cookies as well, these three segments, they are operating at higher margins when compared to Camil's historical margins. We still have a lot of synergies to capture in all of the categories.
We've had significant gains in terms of reducing production costs in the three segments. Coffee, we are running below 50% of our capacity. Cookies, it's around 50%. Pasta, we expanded our capacity, so that means that we still have an idle capacity, not as much as with coffee and cookies, but significant. Therefore, growth in the next coming quarters and years in these three categories will be determining factors when it comes to improving the margins of these three segments. These are. We had significant gains of industrial scale. Therefore, I believe that the current sugar moment. With the current sugar moment, it's not reasonable to think that it will continue to perform like this. When we compare sugar prices this year with last year, they are lower, and this is better for our competitiveness.
But we still have a few steps to move forward to recover sugar profitability. We still have to capture gains and improve margins, and we still have further cost dilutions to capture. Maybe the trend I can point out to you is that we believe that our margin, our normalized margin of the new categories, will lead our margins to hit higher levels, higher than before the IPO. Before the IPO, and this is a historical number, it was about 10%, give or take, 10%, give or take. So going forward, once everything is normalized, we believe that the company will run above that percentage. Maybe I'm not giving you the number you would love to hear, but this is all I can tell you right now. About Nova Cambari, I will let Flavio answer that. Thank you for the question.
Nova Cambari, we continue to execute our expansion project, and w ith the situation in Rio Grande do Sul, we also—we're also discussing whether we should stick to the schedule or not. But in practical terms, the expectation is that the plan should be ready in the next 24 months, but maybe there will be a delay because of what happened in Rio Grande do Sul. But at the moment, we are hiring the team for the engineering part, because a fter we get everything in place, we will be able to install the equipment. Speaking about the operating impact, t here will be no impact in the next 12-24 months. But in terms of the financial impact, CapEx, as we indicated, is around BRL 300 million, half of it to be spent this year and the other half next year.
Wonderful. Thank you, Luciano and Flavio. Very clear. Thank you very much.
Our next question from Pedro Fonseca from XP. Pedro, your microphone is on. Hello, good day, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity.
Thank you all very much. Thank you for taking my question. The first point I would like to exploit, in fact, is a follow-up on Luciano's answer on the rice category. We talked about rice exports. It was not a super volume, but that was a measure the company was adopting, trying to mitigate the issues in the rice front. My question is whether this still makes sense, or whether we should expect some additional export volume? This is my first point. My second question is about receivables. We saw some tightening in the quarter. Maybe if you could elaborate a bit on that receivable side, and what we could expect going forward. I also have a third question, if you allow me, and it's about liabilities. The company is going through a deleveraging process.
Can you please share with us, w hat would be your plans going forward? Maybe we could think about, a reduction in the cost of the debt. Thank you.
So for [foreign language] , you're talking about exports or imports? Luciano, é açúcar, tá? Exportação. Sugar. Sugar exports. Okay. Já que eu entendi arroz, falar rapidamente de arroz, e eu vou pra- Since I understood rice, I will start with rice, and then I'll, I'll jump to sugar. The, the rice export volume, f ollows the historical line. We have two lines, the finished product, so that's exported to other countries. Also, the other line refers to product in bulk. É um mercado que a companhia- Process. That's a market where the company has been operating in a recurrent way, so nothing new there. Now, sugar exports.
We do have a set volume, and this will take place in the Q2. We already have a set volume related to the period from March to July. So this export volume will take place in the Q2 and in our Q3 as well. So this continues to happen, our supplier has been a great partner. This export will have an effect in the Q2 and also in the Q3. About receivables and liability management, I will let Flavio tell you more about it. Now, in terms of receivables, the main effect here has to do with a higher concentration of sales at the end of the quarter. Because of everything that happened, especially in regards to rice, because this had a higher impact in that receivables account. But when it comes to working capital...
Como o negócio não teve nenhuma mudança na política. As a business, there was no change to the policy. Things remain the same, i t's business as usual. I n the Q1, there is a higher capital allocation, and until we reach the peak, and in the Q4, there is a release in working capital. Therefore, we are going in the direction that we've always gone. So there was an impact this quarter because of the events already mentioned, but it's just like business as usual. In terms of liability management, I believe the company has tried to be very active in the past 18-24 months. So we managed to reduce our debt level. The CRA market is available again, even with the most recent changes to our legislation, the company was not affected.
Therefore, we will continue to use this resource in our management. We took advantage of this market opportunity to seek for further cost reductions and the spread of our debt. The same thing in terms of extending the debt profile. A year and a half ago, we had a CRA of 2.5 years, and in the last two issues, we tried to do 5, 7, and 10 years. That was the first time that the company issued securities with that maturity date, indexed by IPCA.
In terms of cash, we have enough cash for all the payments in the more than 12 months in terms of maturities, and the liability management process is continuous. We always look at the next 12 months to have the necessary liquidity to be able to serve the debt. This is a continuous process. It has been very, very active in the past few years, so certainly, we will do the same thing in the next coming years.
That's very clear. Thank you, and congrats on your results.
Thank you. Our next question is from Guilherme Palhares with Santander. Mr. Palhares, you may proceed.
Good morning, Luciano and Flavio, and the other members of the team. My question is simple. Luciano, thinking in terms of the portfolio, the company is having lots of launches, now pasta, the gourmet coffee on the União side. So given the increase in capacity for coffee and pasta, I would like to know whether your product portfolio is already enough, t o fulfill this entire capacity, or you see any further opportunities for new launches? Also, I would like to hear, i f you look at the legacy portfolio, when you acquire Santa Amália, and if you look at all of the launches that the company did since then, how much, how much revenue you are getting from the recently launched products?
Guilherme, thank you for the question. When we look at our pasta portfolio and coffee as well, we had the launch of Camil Pasta within the SKUs that the company already had. So items that were already being produced, but now with new brands. When we look at coffee, we launched gourmet coffee. At the end of this quarter, we should also launch the coffee pods. And there are other things in the coffee category that will come along as well. The company is not inventing anything. We are doing the so-called benchmark with, benchmark with the competition.
There are other avenues yet to be exploited with soluble coffee, cappuccino, et cetera. In the coffee category, there are a few other items, but I would like to remind you that they, that they do not move the needle in terms of revenue, because these are niche products, but the margins are interesting. With time, the company will continue to launch in these new fronts. When we look at the cookie segment, here we still have a long way to go. We are very much focused in recovering volumes that Mabel had in the past with the current products. But our cookie, cookies portfolio is still limited when compared to the competition, so there is still a lot of innovation to be made. Santa Amália, when we acquired the company, had a large portfolio, almost as though they were like a distributor.
We simplified Santa Amália's portfolio in the last 2-3 years, T hat's just a natural process. To launch products, test, h how the customers are receiving the product. We look at the margins, whether i f products do not have a healthy margin, we eliminate the product. This is what happened with some of Santa Amália's products. So to interrupt the product is part of the cycle of any company, but maybe the main takeaway is that we still have new products to launch. The company is doing that very carefully, because our main goal is to extract synergies from operating all these categories and SKUs we have in an efficient way. The focus, therefore, this year, is in executing the sale. We still have a lot to exploit in-house when compared to what we already have.
So new products is quite slow, but we still have a lot to do, and we will a ccelerate once we capture everything that we have to capture. So that's all I had.
Okay. I just have a follow-up on that, about the commercial execution. W e've been following up all the acquisitions, and one of the points you mentioned before had to do with commercial synergies and the fact that the sales rep would be able to sell different categories. So in this roll-up process, this is what you envision, and what you would envision is already being materialized, or you need to change the structure of your teams to sell per category? The point is, your sale per customer, are you increasing your share with new products, or you still have a lot more room in your current customers? Or whether it will be reasonable for us to think that without increasing your headcount, whether you could deal with this new volume with the company, with the current team.
In terms of the commercial execution, I am dissatisfied all the time, because I know that we still have a lot of opportunities to exploit. So the belief that you, that you have one sales rep working with all categories, this remains the same, and this brings synergies, and the synergies are relevant. And the same thing, like with, with the cost of the promoter, promoting different categories, this is quite interesting as well. Our representation or representativeness in our customers in terms of financial volume, this is growing, obviously in quantities as well. But customers look at the financial volume more often, so this representativeness is increasing. I t's not ideal, not yet, in my view.
So to answer your question, we have a lot of opportunities in our current customers in terms of exploiting the categories we already have. Rice in São Paulo, our potential is quite consolidated. Yeah, that's right. Pasta, well, we still have a long way to go. Coffee, are we in the place we wanna be in São Paulo? No. The same thing with cookies. So the company is focusing its efforts in these areas. With what happens in São Paulo, there are different weights in different categories, and the same thing that happens in São Paulo happens in other states. We still have a lot of things to do, but the model that we understand to be ideal remains the same. So this is a good takeaway.
Excellent, Luciano. Thank you, and have a good day.
Our next question is from Pedro Fontana, from Bradesco BBI. Your microphone is already on.
Good morning, and thank you for taking my question. M ost of the subjects have been already clarified. I just want to understand whether the Uruguay issue should be solved in the Q2, or whether you anticipate any other movement?
Pedro, thank you for the question. Uruguay, sales volume fluctuates from one quarter to the next, but when we look at the year number, it is consolidated. Maybe the Q4 is strong, or maybe it will be the Q2. But when we look at the annual number, it's pretty much in keeping with our projections. The projection for this year is that volume will be very similar or slightly above the volumes of last year. This may change in terms of what is sold every quarter, because it depends on export dynamics, but i n the year, it works well.
July was a good month in Uruguay, and part of July is well underway. But again, this is a very dynamic process. This is something very exclusive and typical of Uruguay. So to answer your question, I would just like to say something else. The evolution of the tax reform... This week, there was some progress in terms of that topic. And the way things are today, if you look at our categories, we have tuna. Tuna had a 60% reduction in the tax rate. Cookies, it's a 100% tax with the IVA tax rate, but when we look at rice, beans, sugar, sardine, coffee and pasta, the tax rate is zero. These categories with zero tax rate account for about 85%-90% of sales in Brazil.
The way things are up to today, a llows us to be very optimistic because this brings about competitive advantages. W e do not see, a ny disadvantage vis-à-vis other companies, and this should expedite the consolidation process in the market. I'm sure that there will be a consolidation period because it will be extended until 2032. But as things are today, the scenario is very positive. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you again for taking my question.