Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome everyone to Três Tentos' earnings call relative to Q2 2022. Here with us today we have Mr. Luiz Osório Dumoncel, the company's CEO, Mauricio Hassan, the company's CFO and IRO, and Mr. Eduardo Matar, RI manager. This event is being recorded and has simultaneous translation into English. During the call, all participants will be connected in listen only mode as the company makes its presentation. After that, we'll have a Q&A session. Before moving on, we'd like to state that forward-looking statement made during this call concerning the company's business outlook, financial and operational targets, and also to the potential of growth of Três Tentos are based on beliefs and expectations on the part of the company's management, and are also based on information currently available.
These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not materialize. Investors should have in mind that general economic conditions, agribusiness conditions, and other operating factors might affect the future performance of Três Tentos and lead to results that will differ considerably from those expressing these forward-looking statements. I'd like to turn the conference over now to Mr. Luiz Osório Dumoncel. Please, Mr. Luiz Osório Dumoncel, you may carry on. All right.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for once again, giving us this opportunity to share our results with you all. Now, talking about Q2 for 2022. I will be talking more about the year up to date, what's been happening, what are our main results and expectations. This year we had a severe drought in the south.
We harvested corn in January, February, March, and soy from February through May, and we had important failures in those two summer crops. Still, the company has preserved strong growth in inputs that can be seen irrespective of the overall drought scenario and other factors that might have impacted the industry. The company continued to deliver to farmers, and we had important growth in wheat crops in the south, in the southern half, portion of the south especially, of the state especially. In Rio Grande we have over 30% of area, of acreage increase. That increase in inputs comes from that expansion, or rather a consolidation or even the start of a consolidation process across our new stores, new units. Realize farmers coming our way, our sales consultants approaching them, and result is coming from that.
We have opened five new stores, four in Rio Grande do Sul and one in Mato Grosso. In Mato Grosso, in Alta Floresta, I'd like to highlight that only the Alta Floresta region has about 230,000 hectares of soybeans, and Três Tentos is already there building a unit to receive grains, to stock crop protection products, seeds, fertilizers. We have now leased an area to start working and finding clients and doing business. This second quarter of 2022 already points to success with those five new stores, and the expectation that by the end of the year we will have reached the level of 59 stores operating across Rio Grande do Sul and Mato Grosso and being very well received by farmers. Several works in Mato Grosso as our pledge has made us all very proud. We are delivering today.
Today we are able to communicate with investors, with the market, and we can say that 70% of construction of the Mato Grosso factory in the city of Vera, close to Sorriso, 70% concluded. When we've been going there once a month to visit the works and we see we have a plant which is destined to high performance, which is destined to the production of energy through biomass, with surplus energy that can be sold back to the grid. It is a plant with zero effluent. This is very exciting for us, not only for Três Tentos and our team, but also all growers, the surrounding communities in the area. It will be generating 300 jobs in very little time.
That 70% of construction concluded is very important, and by June next year, we will be producing meal, oil, biodiesel, glycerine at this plant and sending that to markets. This year, starting in late January, we have already started receiving the corn crops, so the grain unit is already up and running. We have already originated that corn because the second crop is already over. We are now shipping loads, and that's yet another step that we take towards high-level delivery for growers. It's also worth mentioning the crop failure for grains in Rio Grande do Sul, but this is a given. This has happened over 50% in soybeans. What's important for us to highlight the strength of our model, of the Três Tentos model. Amidst a scenario which is quite challenging, we preserved growth across all segments. Grains, of course, at a lower pace.
We still have to put things into perspective. The three segments that we have, they continue to grow. Grains, of course, we destined all that grain towards to industry, and we are in a position to continue going irrespective of this challenging climate conditions. We have been able to deliver results to our clients, to the company, and consequently to all stakeholders. Also, in the second quarter, it's important to mention, TentosCap, our financial institution, which belonged to the founding family, it was sold to Três Tentos. We went through a process through the board of directors and the audit committee that did a very deep investigation. It's all fair and well done. TentosCap is now part of Três Tentos. It is our financial arm, so to speak. We still depend on the Central Bank to have the final authorization.
We're only waiting for their green lights to carry on. For TentosCap, our expectation for 2023 is to reach the end of the year with loans with credit given to growers of around BRL 150 million. The way towards 2025 is to reach BRL 1 billion in providing support to growers, financial support. We believe in this high level of synergy. Today, we have several farmers that appreciate this understanding that Três Tentos have when we integrate finance/agricultural management, and that has provided them with an interesting competitive advantage. We want to help growers link finance on the one hand and agricultural management on the other. The numbers I mentioned now are part of our projections, which we have announced, operating projections, and we are working hard to be able to reach those objectives.
Our expectations for the second half of the year are quite firm. We'll continue to grow. Earlier today in the morning, I was talking to a friend, talking about our numbers, and two-thirds of our results come in the second half of the year. If we were to break the year down in three, the first half is a very challenging half, where we have the harvesting season for the summer crop. We have all that movement around those grains, and then we're able to sell inputs, grains, and then the larger volume is reserved for the second half. We are very positive as we move into the second half. We expect to have strong demand. We're talking about energy and food. We do not see a slowing down in soybean, corn, rice, wheat for inputs.
We know that those inputs will remain in high demand, and Três Tentos is positioned to service our growers. I need also to highlight our new units, our new stores. I now like to share with you that the feeling we have along with growers, and of course, several of them are watching us now, the return we have from them as we arrive at new regions. We are characterized for being very close to growers. We take new technologies and new products to the field for better agricultural management, and our values include the field. The field or fields form one of the pillars of our company, and we have felt a very positive return from growers, a very high level of acceptance. That's, of course, mutual. Those were my opening remarks.
I'd like to move on, please, to page four of our presentation, where we can see a breakdown of revenue. The highlights for the first half, Q2, of course, is already contemplated there. If we look on a quarter-by-quarter, year-by-year basis, if we go back three- four years, it is interesting to see that they have a balance between inputs, grains, and industry. Of course, there is a dynamic shift across quarters, across different years. We see a very consistent balance. When I talk about our work in achieving that balance, I talk about the people that are working in production, people who are working together and are closely linked.
We provide balance and therefore an assurance that shows clearly in net revenue where we confirm demand, which is very good, high level of demand, I'd say constant and needed demand. We see adjusted gross profit where we can observe the health of the business. I have said this before, and all the factors that are involved in this first half of 2022, and I'd say that the health of the business is there because of our know-how, because of our dedication especially, and because of our hard work. That is all reflected in those numbers. It's the commitment of Três Tentos managers, the board, the whole Três Tentos team, around 1,600 people today. That number varies because of those temp workers, but it's a team which is highly committed to delivering results, to delivering growth, and providing financial health.
As for the EBITDA, the EBITDA reflects those BRL 217 million that you see there on the slide, reflects growth and it reflects resilience, of course, of our business. That's how I see that figure. We have, of course, worked with finance, with Mauricio, Eduardo, the whole finance team. We have conducted deep analysis, then I do my own analysis. I take some notes so that we can exchange impressions and perceptions with you. I see that EBITDA reflecting resilience of the Três Tentos business, the resilience of agriculture in Brazil, that demand for food and energy. Of course, along with that resilience, along with that challenging scenario that we've enjoyed in the first half, I see an opportunity going forward, or huge opportunities, if I may, as we move towards the future.
Scenarios shift and change, our characteristic is to be strong in times of change, and that, of course, excites us all. As for net income on the right-hand side, it points to a scenario that reflects pandemic, war, drought, but the high investments are also reflected there in expansion. We have invested strongly in expansion. Três Tentos have never left track. We are within track, within plan. If we took a detour, it was for the better down the road. As I close my opening remarks, I have to say that the trust that we have in the company and in the industry is very, very high. I'd like to turn the floor over to Mauricio. Please, I'll be around if you want me to help, just let me know. I'll be back at the end for the final remarks. Over to you, Mauricio.
Thank you, Luiz. Good afternoon, everyone. I'll be talking about on slide number five, I'll be talking about our performance in the Ag Inputs segment that impacted the company's results, both in revenues and in gross profit in this quarter. In the quarter, a growth of 128%, 128 in revenue and a gross income of BRL 80 million, 117% above last year at BRL 80 million this year. Most of those numbers and inputs are due to price and volume. We see that in the growth of the seeds. Seeds at 41%, fertilizers growing 28% in volume in the quarter. The performance of Três Tentos, and just as a reminder, we are. The second quarter was the start of the winter crop.
There was an increase in acreage in wheat, and Rio Grande do Sul state as a whole came out at 15% according to official data, and Três Tentos was there at a very good position in terms of footprint in the state with new units, new stores. We were able to deliver and meet demand for the increased wheat acreage. Also the high level prices for ag inputs, we anticipate in the previous two earnings calls, we were saying that the year 2022 would start the second quarter, actually, would start at higher price levels because of negotiations with the input industry. That would happen. When we look at the impact of prices on ag inputs in the second quarter, it seems to distort a bit, somewhat, our expectation of seasonality.
As you can see, in the chart, blue, light blue and dark blue. It is a very powerful combination of growth and volume combined to a growth in price for ag inputs across the board. For the year, you were looking at 2021 to the, in the blue, in the dark blue, bar, 2021, you have a second half which is quite stronger than the first half of the year overall. This year we'll have even stronger prices for ag inputs, sustaining the level of growth we have presented until the first half of the year. In the year, we have a slight expansion in margin of 1.5 percentage points, sorry, 2.5 percentage points, getting close to 21.4%. A highlight to the, inventory management and logistics, which has driven the company in a very positive way.
Now talking about grains on page six, if you will. The performance in the grains segment in the second half of the second quarter and in the year has been characterized, as Luiz said, early on, we had a crop failure in soybeans for 2021-2022, a crop which was closed in May. There was a crop failure that led to a lower volume of soybean being originated. As a consequence, the amount of soybean negotiated was lower. The practical effect of that was offset by the volumes of corn and wheat, which were sowed in the quarter, in the year, and that we expect to sell in the coming half of the year. Those are stronger volumes for wheat and corn to offset the crop failure in soybeans.
With that, we reach a revenue which grew in the first half of the year by 30%, reaching the level of BRL 621 million, a gross profit of BRL 54 million, a margin expansion of 0.5%, closing at 8.7% gross margin. On slide number seven, when we talk about the industry, the industry segment, it's worth mentioning that we had a quarter with higher revenue, a growth of 26% quarter-on-quarter, due mainly to meal volumes growing 15% in the quarter. The biodiesel volume is lower when compared to the previous quarter, the second quarter last year rather, which can be explained by the fact that with the current margin levels for biodiesel, the company opted to not buy oil from third party suppliers.
We only traded biodiesel produced from the oil processed at three centers. When we look at the volumes of crushing going towards the end of the year, also in line with our projections, which we announced a couple of weeks ago, 950,000 tons of soybean to be crushed in 2022. With that, I think we have reached both our volume of meal, which was projected, and also the projected volume for oil and biodiesel. As for industry margins, we have been witnessing recently, because of the crop failures we've seen, we have witnessed a worsening of the quality in grain origination. When I say worse quality, this needs to be taken with a grain of salt. This has been a year where we bought less soybean from growers.
It's a soybean where we can add some value when compared to drying and cleaning and storing also. Also, when you have a higher share of soybean coming from growers, we have a higher capacity to add volume in the industry segment. When you need to supply their needs, we ended up having a higher volume of available soybeans when compared to previous years. That at the end of the day has a small impact on margins. It does contribute for margins not expanding that much in the second quarter. The worse quality of the grain also is reflected in a higher logistic cost. We had a much wetter soybean being harvested because of heavy rains during harvest. Higher moisture level that led to higher logistic costs, and that of course impacted margins on our industry segments.
On page number eight, slide number eight, when we talk about the company's EBITDA, speaking specifically of the chart on the left-hand side of the page, the company moved from a EBITDA of BRL 122 million to a level of BRL 163 million or close to that million, a growth of one-third compared to the original base. That growth, we're starting from a delta of BRL 70 million coming from the company's gross margin, including AVJ. If we eliminate AVJ from that delta of BRL 70 million, we were talking about an increment of BRL 25 million and you have an increase in sales expenses of BRL 29 million in the quarter. The highlight here is this view. All the expansion process of the company has been unfolding organically. Organic expansion is the one where expenses is always a bit ahead of revenues.
With that, out of those BRL 30 million in expense increase year-on-year, BRL 14 million are due to structure or readjustment for the company. The company is growing towards Mato Grosso. We're investing in people and in infrastructure in Mato Grosso state. The company is becoming stronger within its region where it operates, Rio Grande, Mato Grosso. We have an increase in expenses of sales for new stores of almost BRL 8 million. That's a delta when compared to the previous year. Only BRL 6 million of non-recurring expenses, basically consultancy services for tax purposes. With that, we maintain SG&A at a very low level of variation, and we close the quarter with BRL 99 million of SG&A. Leaving at the quarter on EBITDA margin of 10.9% as you can see on the top right-hand side.
On the chart on the right is a comparison of deltas for an increase in expenses for the company when compared to the whole semester. The semester has sales expenses growing BRL 79 million as opposed to BRL 30 million in the quarter. In other words, the increase of that variation in expenses year-on-year has been going down, so that's good news for us. That's something we have been seeking relentlessly. It's hard work, daily work of growing a company and controlling expense management at the same time. Speaking of EBITDA and turning that into cash on slide number 9, once again, in the second quarter, seasonally, that's the quarter when the company spends more working capital.
When you look at the variation of net debt, we move from a positive cash of BRL 290 million in December 2021, December 31st. Throughout the semester, we consumed BRL 694 million in working capital, especially driven by inventories. Working capital consumption is seasonally higher now, the second quarter this year, and to the question of crop failure, this year it was this specificity. There was less grains to be fixed with growers, which of course has an impact on our purchase. We had to purchase cash, right? For investments, BRL 309 million invested in the quarter, most of it in Vera, the new factory. Factories in Rio Grande do Sul, that's the conclusion of an investment plan.
Most of those BRL 36 million is also allocated in Vera and BRL 80 million for new stores. I highlight, as every quarter I like to mention, our capacity to convert cash of our EBITDA. More than 100% of our EBITDA is converted into cash, and that is the driving force to sustain the company, to generate sustainable cash for our business. When we look at that, it usually is the case when we look at the historical line for three or four years going back, you will always observe that the cash generation coming from the operation, the EBIT cash as it were, has been more than enough to pay back the investments in working capital.
That has been happening the previous years, and that's what we expect to see happening this year again, to have a growth in EBIT cash as you close the year. For working capital, seasonally it'll go down as we move towards December, and we have the EBIT cash being once again more than enough to cover investments made in working capital. The CapEx for expansion is then partially funded by the internal cash generation from the company. On slide number 10, talking about return levels. When we talk about cash generation and think about in terms of how to compensate that capital, one of our main mantras, if I may, growth, margin and return, always. Growth, margin and return. What we see in a very clear fashion is that all organic expansion has an impact both the numerator and the denominator.
As the numerator expenses are ahead of revenues, as I said, and as for the denominator, you have concentrated all the investments, which, especially in our case, have large investments having been made, in an industry that when it starts operating, it'll bring the expected returns back to historical levels. Speaking of the new factory on page 11, since the IPO, we have been very successful in our deliveries. We have consistently reported to the market our physical schedule of construction. Expansion goals have been achieved. Today, we have more than 70% of the construction concluded. As per the original project, 65% were expected to be concluded by now, so we are ahead of plan. In July, the factory started originating corn for the second crop in Mato Grosso. It was a very i t was a landmark event for the company as a whole.
A lot of hard work to be able to deliver that. It was an important milestone to achieve. It was important to start our relationship with local growers to understand for them to understand our ability to originate and receive grains. In this case, we're talking about corn, but for the coming crop, in March, we're going to be receiving soybeans as well. The operation as of June next year, just as a reminder, we have a biodiesel operation with a capacity of 1,000 cubic meters per day and a capacity of crushing starting at 2,600 tons per day.
On page 12, when you talk about the company's expansion plan, we closed the year, just to confirm, 57 stores we will have finalized at the end of the year, a growth of 19% in the number of stores when compared to 2021. If we stop and take stock, when we look at 2020, we had 40 stores. We grew almost 50% in two years. We will close the year with a capacity, static capacity of 1,372,000 tons of static capacity. A team of 145 consultants, all allocated at the new units and also older units and covering an area of 9.1 million hectares of acreage, planted area, soybeans, corn, wheat, and rice.
We only need to open in Rosário do Sul, which will happen now in the third quarter of the year. In Mato Grosso do Sul, we still have to open another unit, which will happen in the fourth quarter as well. With that, I'd like to give the floor back to Luiz for him to talk about the outlook for 2022. Back to you, Luiz.
All right, Mauricio. Thank you. Also on page 13, our closing slide, I will comment on the outlook for the year. The representativeness that we have already in Mato Grosso with inputs for us, this will vary on a monthly basis. Of course, it'll depend on delivery times. Três Tentos does not include in those numbers we have shared orders or intention of purchases, if you will. We have just included real actual numbers.
They can be checked against invoices. They refer to products which were sold and delivered. We're now expecting for the end of 2022 a stronger participation of Mato Grosso at about 12% for inputs revenues. We're quite confident in that. We know that inflation is also present in inputs, and we related that with commodities. They go hand-in-hand, commodity prices and inflation, not totally close, but quite similar. They sort of walk hand-in-hand both upwards and downwards. Três Tentos is always very confident in working with our results. We work not based on commodity prices going up or down, but based on a well-delivered, well-done job in-house that brings about positive margins. The verticalization of our businesses, we have this broad portfolio. In the case of ag inputs, I see the company as a whole. The buzzword is opportunity.
We have the opportunity in a country where we have the largest soybean growers in the world, we can continue to work what we do. In the case of grains, we saw an important growth in the percentage of new stores. We have been well-perceived, well-received by growers. They see, they perceive the value that we deliver, they understand the value of our technical consultants, the support we offer to their management. They understand and perceive that. As for corn in Mato Grosso, Matupa and Vera, they received lots of grains, corn, tens, dozens of growers knocking on our door, bringing their first loads, sending their employees to talk to us, starting a relationship. We're quite happy with this, with these first steps, and we are sure that this will happen also with soybeans as we come to December.
An increase in the wheat acreage. Market has a number, Conab has another number, but what we know for sure is that acreage for wheat has increased significantly in Rio Grande do Sul and also in Paraná because of that higher demand for that product, both for human consumption and for animal feed, that's specifically abroad. A lower soybean trading, this will be the case for the remaining of the year. The soybean we would originate until the end of the year is soybean for us to reach that number around 1 million tons of crushing. In the case of industry, it's the lower consumption of third-party oil. We decided to channel all the produced oil, or almost all the oil we produce, we channeled it to biodiesel instead of trading, right?
Buying and selling oil because that margin, because of the droughts, because of energy issues, that scenario is not so favorable for that now. That's the way we found to sell our oil with a slight positive margin, right? Bringing that volume to our crushing capacity. In case of soybean meal, that's depending on supply and demand mechanisms. With the crop failure in Rio Grande do Sul, the first half has already seen a rush on that product. We know that the second half of the year tends to be much more favorable for soybean crushing than to exports to the U.S., and we already see some concern that they have with climate. As I said, we escaped. We try to stay away from price issues.
We are focused on the opportunity of having a good trading of our products in our industry segment in the second half. An increase in our storage capacity and the processing capacity is also consolidated. We moved from 3,000 tons a day to 4,000 tons a day. That's important to say, and it's important to say that. Just as in Mato Grosso, we see in less than a year we'll start a factory which will be one of the most cutting-edge factory in Brazil. In Rio Grande do Sul, we have two plants, one in Ijuí and one in Cruz Alta, which is also high-performance plants. That has been bringing important results for the company, for the clients, be they biodiesel client, soybean meal clients, glycerin clients, and so on and so forth.
We are really producing high-quality products for growers. That, of course, leaves us all very excited. That's the first year for us as a listed company. Last July, we had our B3 event, our Três Tentos day last July. The climate in the company is a high-performance climate, and high performance for the company, for the clients, and for the other stakeholders, the shareholders. We know how confident they are in the business, and we want to continue this way, and it will continue this way, because we have a team which is increasingly more connected and knowledgeable of the importance of the work we are delivering to growers and to the market. Those were our remarks, and from now on, we are available for questions or comments you may have. Thank you. We'll now start the Q&A session.
Questions can be sent through audio by clicking on the raise hand icon, in the bottom part of your Zoom screen right now. A prompt for you to unmute your mic will appear, and you click on Unmute. To send your question in writing, just click on the Q&A icon also available in the bottom part of your Zoom screen, and just type in your question. Questions in English will be received exclusively in writing. Our first question comes from Mr. Guilherme Palhares from Bank of America. Please, Mr. Palhares, you may carry on.
Good morning, Luiz. Good morning, Eduardo. I have two questions, if I may. Number one, in our retail. You saw in this first quarter, an average price per ton of fertilizer is slightly lower actually, but virtually flat quarter-over-quarter. I'd like you to comment, how much is that coming from mix and how much of that is coming from price? We see fertilizer prices and now as we go into the summer and the winter, in Europe, how can we expect to see things happening in the second half? Also about the industry, we saw losses happening in Rio Grande do Sul because of the crop failure, and we still have a whole year, or almost a whole year, until we have the next soybean crop going to field? You did comment on bringing more grains from third-party suppliers.
If you could comment on the price difference. When you talk about buying grains from third-party suppliers, as compared to the origination within the system, what can we expect to see once we have grains coming from third-party suppliers until we arrive in the next season? Thank you.
Thank you, Guilherme. Thank you, Mauricio, would you like to start with fertilizer? I can talk about the industry.
I 'll start with fertilizers, Luiz. Guilherme, thank you for your question. Fertilizers in most. It was difficult to separate mix and price. Across the three components, urea was the highest consumption in the period, if I'm not mistaken. If we look, it's much more related to pricing than to mix. There's nothing specific in terms of special components or special materials that might have a higher added value. Over to you, Luiz.
Still about fertilizers, it's important to say, Mauricio, we have been growing volumes, so because of the growth in our area. That concern we had before, Guilherme, with the war and logistics with disruption and pandemic. The market, because there was a need for that product, not only in Brazil, but in other food-producing countries, we observed that this market is very active. The market sought other origins, other alternatives. Today, we are already able to deliver those products.
The winter crop has been planted with the necessary fertilizer level, maybe with a slightly smaller investment in Rio Grande do Sul, where we could explore nutrients which were already in the soil. We saw a growth in volume, which was important for the company. As for pricing going forward, we see urea resuming previous levels, I mean, going up, in other words. As for MAP and DAP, there was some reduction. Of course, it is 100% linked to the foreign exchange rate when we convert that tonnage into BRL. As for industry, we'll continue to buy grains from the market for this remainder of the year until December.
When January comes, we will have soybeans arriving in the Midwest of the country, and we have an important volume, which is important for us to internalize coming from other states. January already starts with a soybean offer, which is higher than it is in November and December, of course. As for margins, just as we see soybeans. Well, I was thinking to myself, thinking about that percentage. That percentage is difficult to gauge or calibrate and talk about in terms of numbers, Guilherme. Is it 3% or 8%? I wouldn't know the percentage, to be frank. When you talk about soybeans that remains in inventory with us already or by third-party companies, ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus. It's already there.
They are processing the grain, receiving the grain with high moisture level, impurity, and then process it to deliver it at industry grade. That margin is difficult to calculate. We know it's more expensive, of course, but at the same time, it allows us to avoid that expense of processing soybeans. We are confident that the demand for soybean meal will continue to grow, and we also have this lower offer of meal. We are well positioned to deliver and have a better second half of the year when compared to the first half.
Okay, thank you.
Our next question is from Mateus Infante from UBS. Please, you may carry on, sir.
Good afternoon, Luiz, Mauricio. Thank you for taking my questions. My first question, in terms of CapEx, a very important inflation level as of recent. I'd like to understand if you perceived that impact in Veras. Could have a CapEx overrun for Vera, the new factory, and also for the opening of new stores, or can we expect to see BRL 10 million-BRL 20 million per new store as projected in the expansion plan? That's the first question. My second question, in terms of the biodiesel issue, we saw headlines, and we saw the market expecting to see an increase in mix for biodiesel. Could you share your view on that? I know you are in negotiations with associations, so what do you expect to see in terms of mix for next year, mandate changes, and so on?
If I may, a third question, if you could follow up on the previous question. I would imagine that the soybeans which will be processed in the second half is the very same soybeans which is already coming at a higher cost, right? So I could imagine that the impact on margin in the industry segment will continue in the second half. Correct. Thank you.
Thank you, Mateus. I'll start with the last question, and then Mauricio will address the other two, if it's okay. I apologize if I was misunderstood. Most of our soybean is already in-house coming from growers to be stored. It has been processed or treated. When I say treated and/or processed, it's already ready to go to the industry. So that surplus cost won't happen.
Complements will be made with the available soybeans, as we call it, for coming from cooperatives or grain elevators or even a trading company that might come to the market selling. We are now in a purchasing moment. We would buy that batch to complete our inventory for the next months, taking into account that, of course, we are coming from a crop failure of 50%. We will be reassured to close the year at a comfortable position. That purchase of what's available will happen and will decrease as we move towards the end of the year. I hope I have answered your question, Mateus.
Yes. Yes.
As for the other questions, please. Mauricio will now.
Just as an illustration, Mateus, we have originated 877,000 tons of soybeans. We traded 104,000 of soybean. We still have left to originate until the end of the year something close to 170,000 tons to reach the target of 950,000 tons in industry. To put it in context, we are close to the target. Cost has already been internalized, right? About the expansion plan, your question about the CapEx overrun, the concern is less intense at Vera. We started building the factory, and we had an impact of a CapEx overrun early on. I have mentioned this before in previous calls that the capital management, the capital raised by the IPO, we had a separate cash, if I may, in the company. Part of it was being compensated via IPCA and part by CDI.
That CapEx overrun is more than offset by the remuneration of the company's investments. The CapEx overrun did not exceed 12%. Speaking of Vera and the other units, the first unit is already delivered so far. Now looking forward, we have a different scenario going forward. The units we are now opening in Mato Grosso are higher level units. They have a higher capacity, and we had to redesign those units. We have units which have higher capacity in Mato Grosso, units that initially were smaller. Naturally, those numbers will be slightly above BRL 20 million, which was the larger size we had, right? Mato Grosso, we have units that we call G. We call them G extra large, XG. G from G to XG, which requires a slightly higher CapEx.
Some lack of creativity there in terms of naming, but the number will sit at 35-40 million, depending on local factors. Otherwise, small, mid-size, and large stores all fall into that interval between 14 and 20 million barrels, if I'm not mistaken. As to your question about biodiesel, I think it has been answered, right? We do not have any expectations on this part of the company on that. We actually do have expectations, but we cannot share them now in terms of percentage of the mix for next year. There is some political work being conducted by the associations, by Congress also, the Biodiesel Caucus. They've been doing a great job, and we expect to see important returns coming from them to the industry.
Mauricio, we can be sure that we know that Brazil has internal commitments with the law, of course, which is to reach the 15% mandate with biodiesel, but also international commitments, different treaties, by which Brazil takes on other commitments. We know that biofuels are important for us to reach those mandates. We have been focusing our work also on ESG. We are on the right track also on that front. We expect this year the company will become a B Corp.
This is not the moment to talk about that now in detail. Just as a spoiler, but biofuel brings the company the start of a new journey where we will work to offer everything we can offer to the market when we talk about the environment and we're gonna talk a greener style of management. Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Mr. Gabriel Barra from Citibank.
Hi, Luiz. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two questions. One about the competitive scenario. When we look at Três Tentos today, that question was asked about M&A. We've seen some players which are part of the chain as Syngenta, Nutrien, being part of some M&A movements in Brazil, and the question which was asked at the time during the Três Tentos day was, how do you see that scenario? Is that a possibility for you?
Based on your answer at the time, you focused on the M&A of people and not so much on M&A of companies. I'd like to understand that. As we see the strategy of those players, how do you see that competitive scenario? Also, how do you see M&A, including companies, not only people? If you could address those two issues, I'd appreciate it. Also, one of the things we have insisted on is the issue of returns. Those have been dropping in the company. There is a mismatch when we compare with investments, and that hurts our returns. A lot of investments which have not matured yet, so the return metric ends up being hurt. It's a sort of source of concern for me personally to see that number going down.
When do you see that number resuming growth? One of the impacts is coming from the working capital, of course, and what would be, in your opinion, a normalized level going forward, a normalized level for returns or ROIC? Thank you.
Okay, Guilherme, thank you. Hassan may start, and then I'll take over.
I'll start with the easy one, okay, and I'll leave you the more difficult one.
No. Answer both, and I'll do whatever is left.
Okay. Good questions, Barra. Return levels. Fundamentals are correct as you have laid them down. Expenses coming ahead of revenue. The denominator is getting the brunt of the impact. In our case, in particular, we have the combination of two components. One is more discrete and one more continuous.
When we talk about the factory at Vera, we have the ramp-up of operation in late July next year. When we start operating the company, we start generating revenue and then returns and results to contribute for the bottom line. That helps right off the bat. It's a discrete moment. As to what is more continuous is the evolution of the sales curve coming from the new units, the new stores. We always have a time lapse for maturity, which is around three years for you to have a good level of maturity for all the units. Of course, it is profitable right from the start, but not at the profitability level that we expect to achieve when it matures in three years' time.
Having said that, we start seeing an inflection point next year, a turning point as of next year, when the factory will be helping support gains in that front. As for M&A, it's the same. No changes. We continue to pay attention to the market, looking at several opportunities. When we look at the business at Três Tentos, because we have this complete ecosystem, the opportunities that we identify are related to several business areas. We do the math, of course, to deliver that level of return that we have set out to provide to shareholders. We cannot think about M&A for M&A's sake. It does need to make strategic sense. It needs to go and pass the make or buy test to think about returns also. Okay. If you could.
I could complement, Barra, you mentioned other companies who are also doing M&A moves, large multinationals in the chemical sector trying to integrate or incorporate, and also starting to work closer to growers, and also other companies that do wholesale M&A approaches, as I call them. We prefer to carry on down our path, which is more organic, without closing doors to potential M&As, M&As that would make sense for us. We are actually looking at some smaller scale opportunities, but we are always paying close attention to that. It's a changing competition. We do not feel a difference at the level of the grower, of the farmer. We do not see, well, they have changed everything because now they're working with A, B, or C. We respect the competition, of course. We are operating in the markets.
We think we can work well and conquer a good slice of the market. We try also to deliver distinguished services to our clients. We have managed to do so in the past, previous periods, so we know where we are, and we know the track we have to follow. As for returns, we're talking about 27 years, Barra, in February 2023. 27 years where we will have been working. Throughout those 27 years of hard work, we have always seen the power of the synergy that we have, the power of integrating businesses as we do at Três Tentos. The things we have built throughout those decades, little by little until we got to this point and from this moment onwards.
That integration of segments, inputs, grains, and industry that we have at Três Tentos, that integration allows us to have result generation which is quite consistent, and that's why we can offer we can present those levels of 30% we've seen in the past few previous periods. We will pursue those high levels of returns, and we know that this moment is challenging. As we knew before we started investing, before we started this large expansion movement, we knew this was gonna happen. It is happening, but it is all within control, all within what was expected.
Thank you, Luiz, Mauricio. Thank you for your answers.
Our next question comes from Henrique Brustolin from BTG Pactual. Please, you may carry on.
Good afternoon. Two questions. First, about the renegotiations with clients because of the crop failure in Rio Grande do Sul.
The question is: what are the terms of those renegotiation talks? If historically, what's the default rate historically when compared to the current operations? Do you see higher risk now around those BRL 93 million compared to your normal operation? A second question, as for the input business, ag inputs. In the first half of the year, we saw relevant growth in volume, especially for seeds and fertilizers. I'd like to understand if you could give us some more details on the contribution for that growth in volume. If we think about same-store sales, in other words, excluding the new stores which were opened in the period, what was the growth like when you think about maturation of the stores which were already in your store base? That's it. Thank you.
Hi, Henrique. Thank you for your questions. I'll address the first one, and then Mauricio will address the second one. I wouldn't have the numbers to give you for the second question, so the same-store sales. We have that somewhere, and Mauricio will fetch that for you. As for renegotiations with growers, actually, it is a very atypical year, totally atypical, because of that severe drought that we had in the south. Growers really suffered. Those BRL 93 million is a shift in our revenues. We renegotiated the whole thing. Most of those CPRs have a real guarantee, and we have maturities with wheat now coming up, and the contract signed for a payment is still in 2022, and we do believe that will sit around 50% of the whole amount, and the remaining 50% will be paid back by April, May next year.
A longer term, of course, also with real guarantees coming from growers. We built those solutions with growers. We're just shifting revenue, as I said, which was supposed to come in in May this year, put together, of course, with a financial cost which was shifted to November 2022 and May 2023. When you compare this with previous years, we know that the level of renegotiation/default here it's close to zero because our relationship with growers as we monitor them end to end, that allows us to be in that comfortable position, a position where we can help them manage their farms, even higher farms. Our economists are in constant contact with them, and we are dealing with this atypical year as an atypical year as it is. This was well managed by our commercial/financial area.
I am totally at ease on that front. I'd like Mauricio to please jump in and complement if I've forgotten something, and then address the second question.
Yes, Luiz, I think you've covered all. Henrique, he'll not have the whole answer to give you. The concept of same-store sales for us, we use a three-year period. It's difficult to use a lower period or a smaller period than that. Here I am going back to last year, the last final year we had. We have 47% of same-store sales so far, as opposed to 67%, including new stores. That for ag inputs for 2021. When we look, well, they end up being very close actually, not major changes.
2021 is when we had a higher difference when you look from the standpoint of previous years because of the higher increase in the number of stores. For the second quarter, we did not have that information at hand because it's a very small number when you look at the quarter alone. Another way to look at the same thing is we are announcing our budget for acreage that we serve is 9.1 million hectares, so an increase of area of 26%. If you take the growth of seeds and fertilizers, those are above that growth in acreage. We grow within the regions where we already have a footprint. It's not growing by acreage. When I make that comparison, it's not perfect of course. The new areas are not well-serviced yet.
They have just been opened for us, just been created for us. As a consequence, to grow volume more than covered area by itself makes the task difficult. In any event, I'll get back to you offline, and I'll give you all the numbers, okay? Sure. Sure. No problem. Very clear. No problem. Henrique, we can also comment. I'll just make an observation that as I visit different units and talking to managers at the different stores, I realize that in Rio Grande do Sul, Três Tentos as a supplier acts very fast. We're faster in the Rio Grande. In Mato Grosso, it takes a little longer because we are still becoming known there. This whole ecosystem is now being known by local growers.
It is slower at, on the one hand, but the scale is much larger, and we are quite optimistic with Mato Grosso and also with Rio Grande. I have to consider that in Rio Grande, year-on-year, we already see major impacts much faster.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you for the question. Once again, to ask a question through the app, click on Raise Your Hand icon on your screen. To send a question in writing, just click on the Q&A icon on your Zoom screen and type in your question. We now close the Q&A session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Luiz Osório Dumoncel for his final remarks.
I would like to thank all of you for this yet newer opportunity for us to present our results. We'd like to show our appreciation to the market, the market who now follows up on us. I remember back in the day when we invested time in explaining what the company was and teach people what Três Tentos was about and sharing what we're doing today. We are going straight to you to talk about the market. At every quarter that goes by, we come here, and we do this assessment together, and I am confident that our dedicated work will always deliver, and I need to appreciate the work done by our team. This will continue as we move forward. You can expect the same level of dedication, same level of deliveries, always valuing farmers.
I am very happy to be here, very happy that we are getting closer to the capital markets, closer to Brazilian investors and also international investors, people who believe in the Brazilian agribusiness. Our journey is well known to us. We know where we are. We know where our challenges are. We know of the scenarios. We know what can be controlled, what cannot be controlled. We do have the tools in place to choose the best ways to follow, and we're quite confident not only in the present, but also in the future which lies ahead. Três Tentos will continue to contribute to that bright future. Thank you all very much.
Thank you. This concludes Três Tentos' earnings call presentation. Thank you all for participating. Have a nice day, everyone.