Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to SLC Agrícola's first quarter of 2020 earnings conference call. Today with us we have Mr. Aurélio Pavinato, CEO, and Mr. Ivo Marcon Brum, CFO and Investor Relations Officer. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded and all participants will be in listen-only mode during the company's presentation. After the company remarks are completed, there will be a question- and- answer session. At that time further instructions will be given. Should any participant need assistance with this call, please press star zero to reach an operator. Also, today's live webcast, both audio and slideshow may be accessed through the SLC Agrícola website at www.slcagricola.com.br in the Investor Relations section by clicking on the banner Webcast 1Q 2020.
The following presentation is also available to download on the webcast platform. The following information is available in thousands of Brazilian Real and IFRS except when otherwise indicated. Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of SLC management and on the information currently available to the company. They involve big risks, uncertainties, and assumptions because they relate to the future events and therefore depend on the circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operating factors will also affect future results of the company and can cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now, I would turn the conference over to Mr. Aurélio Pavinato, CEO. You may proceed.
Hello, and thank you all for participating at SLC Agrícola's earnings conference call for the first quarter of 2020. Let's take a look at slide three, please, where we will begin by addressing the COVID-19 situation. The company responded quickly and prudently by forming a crisis committee, which was made responsible for preparing and continuously monitoring our contingency plan and our response guide, which are two important tools for identifying the risks and vulnerabilities and for establishing the protection, control, and containment measures in the case of any spread of COVID-19 in our operations. The main actions implemented are described on this slide. We clarify with satisfaction that to date, we have not detected any case of COVID-19 among our employees. On slide four, we argue that the operating units are naturally isolated, given that they are located in rural zones with a certain distance from the nearest small towns.
In addition, the geographic distribution of the units also proves particularly useful for dealing with such a situation, since it reduces the risk of contagion and therefore the risk of any impact on operations. Our business is part of an industry considered essential with regard to the continuity of its operations. However, the operations are subject to any constraints in the supply and distribution chain that could be imposed due to the pandemic. Nonetheless, we note that to date, no restrictions have been imposed that could cause impacts on the normal functioning of our processes. In relation to possible financial impacts, let's move on to slide five, please. At times like this, concerns with cash and liquidity preservation, financial leverage, and cost control efficiency are naturally heightened.
In this sense, it is pertinent to note that the company started the current crisis with a very comfortable leverage situation, closing first quarter 20 20 with a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 1.9x . The company's debt is 100% denominated in Brazilian Real. In the 2019/2020 crop year, present excellent results in terms of yields. The CapEx plan was revised to further preserve capital. In light of the restrictions currently in force on the movement and gathering of people, the company's board of directors, upon recommendation of the executive board in a meeting held on April 9, decided to postpone the date of the annual shareholder meeting to July 29, 2020, which originally was convened for April 29, 2020.
Moreover, the board of directors approved the advance distribution of a mandatory annual dividend based on the company's adjusted net income for the fiscal year ended December 2019 in the amount of BRL 73.7 million. Now we can advance to slide six, please. Here we present possible impacts in our market. We believe that two key factors should be taken into consideration in this case, the logistics chain and the fulfillment of agreements. In both cases, the risks present are significant but have not yet occurred in practice. To date, there has been no significant disruption in the export logistics. On the contrary, Brazil has posted new records in export volumes. Contractual compliance has, in its original, the strong correlation between the way negotiations are conducted and the players chosen as commercial partners. Now let's move to slide eight, where I will comment on our operational performance.
With the end of our soybean harvest, the final yield obtained for the 2019/2020 crop year was 3,900 kg per hectare or 65 bags per hectare, compared to 3,840 kg per hectare reported in March. The final yield was 8.1% higher than our initial estimate and 19.4% higher than the national average based on May 2020 estimate from CONAB report. Note that for the third straight year, we set a new yield record for this crop, which is in line with the company's current strategy to focus on maximizing operating efficiency. The cotton and corn crops are currently in the boll and grain-filling phase, respectively, and are presenting high yield potential. Now we can go to slide 10, please, where I will make some comments on the international prices of our main products. The first quarter of 2020 registered sharp volatility in international cotton prices.
The economic uncertainties generated by the pandemic, which have readily affected markets in general, led to declines of over 20% in the US dollar prices of the fiber compared to those at the start of the year. However, price recovered over the course of April and currently are down by around 60% from January. The drop in commodities price over the course of the year will impact decisions made for planting in producing countries in the Northern Hemisphere, notably the United States, which currently are in the early phase of sowing. Soybean demand, however, has proved resilient, especially due to the recovery in Chinese imports, driven by expectation of a rebuilding in the pig herds, which has been the main factor supporting prices. Especially after the past cycle marked by the U.S.-China trade war, which contributes to this scenario of depressed commodity prices in international markets.
Following the USDA supply and demand report released in the first few months of the year, the agency revised upwards its expectations for Chinese soybean imports by approximately 13%, from the initial estimate of 85 million tons- 96 million tons. In corn, in the international scenario, the drop in corn price of approximately 15% compared to the first days of the year reflected in large part the expectation for weaker consumption in the United States, notable because of the shutdown of corn-based ethanol plants and the resulting increase in the country's estimated ending stocks. In the Brazilian context, the market proved robust throughout the first quarter due to the demand from the animal protein sector and from export markets. I will now pass it over to the colleague Ivo Brum, CFO and IRO officer, for the comments on the financial for the quarter.
Hello. Please let's move to slide 12, where I will show highlights of the income statement. The net revenue advanced 2.2% from first quarter 2019, despite the 4.5% decline in the volume invoiced. For cotton lint, our product with the highest add value, volume invoiced was 23% higher than the first quarter 2019. Except for soybean, our products registered an increase in unit price compared to the year ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was BRL 183 million, 20% lower than the first quarter 2019. The main factors contributing to this variation in the adjusted EBITDA were the lower soybean volume invoiced and the lower margin of cotton invoiced compared to prior quarter. The lower margin on cotton is explained by the crop's lower yields in 2018/2019 crop year versus 2017/2018 crop year, and by the increase in the cost per hectare between those periods.
Net income, however, comes to BRL 156 million in the first quarter 2020, growing 40% on the prior-year quarter. The main factor contributing to the growth was the variation in the fair value of the biological assets for soybean, which increased by BRL 148 million compared to first quarter 2019. The variation explained by the assumption used the calculation, as commented in the first quarter 2019 earnings release. Following the calculation of variation of fair value of biological assets of soybean 2018/2019 crop year, both the crops price and yield improved, leading the variation of fair value to underestimate the crop results in that year. To conclude, on slide 13, we present our debt position. The company adjust net debt ended first quarter 2020 at BRL 1.4 billion, an increase of BRL 475 million from the end of the fourth quarter 2019.
Net debt was affected mainly by the higher working capital needs, which in turn were influenced by the payments of agricultural inputs for the 2019/2020 crop year. Note that the growth in debt during the period was expected considering the company cash conversion cycle. Leverage measures by the net debt-to-EBITDA ratio closed the quarter at 1.9x and with a cash position of BRL 774 million. I will now hand it back to Pavinato so that he can comment on the outlook for the remainder of the year and also for the upcoming crop.
Thank you, Ivo. On slide 15, we presented the updated table on hedging position for our 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 crop years, with prices already considered in Brazilian Real. We made significant advances on the hedging position both for the current and the next crop year, with prices that are superior to the current market and also higher than those achieved on the previous crop year, especially when converted to Brazilian Real. We also made progress in purchase of inputs for the 2020/2021 crop year. To date, we already have acquired more than two-thirds of our fertilizer needs and more than 50% of the estimated demand for chemicals, with both negotiations registering a significant drop in the US dollar amount obtained compared to the 2019/2020 crop year.
Considering the current scenario for costs and prices in dollar, as well as the current exchange rate, we expect the good level of profitability to be maintained in 2020/2021. Once again, our hedging policy proves to be efficient in protecting the business against short-term price volatility. As a final word, I'd like to close by stating that to be firmly believed that Brazilian agribusiness, and especially SLC Agrícola, will rise even stronger after the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you, and now we open for questions.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and now we will initiate the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please dial star one. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove your question from the queue pressing the pound key. Thank you. This does conclude today's presentation. You may disconnect your line at this time and have a nice day.