Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Godrej Agrovet Limited Q3 FY 2026 earnings conference call, hosted by Equirus Securities Private Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Shivansh from Equirus Securities Private Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the Godrej Agrovet Q3 FY 2026 earnings conference call. From the company, we have with us Mr. Nadir Godrej, Chairman of the company; Mr. Sunil Kataria, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director; Mr. S. Varadaraj, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Burjis Godrej, Managing Director, Astec LifeSciences; and Mr. Arijit Mukherjee, Chief Operating Officer, Astec LifeSciences. We would like to begin the call with brief opening remarks from the management, following which we will have the floor open for an interactive question-and-answer session. Before we start, I would like to point out that some statements made in today's call may be forward-looking, and a disclaimer to this effect has been included in the earnings presentation shared with you earlier. I would now like to invite Mr. Nadir Godrej to make the initial remarks.
Over to you, sir.
Good afternoon, everyone. I welcome you all to the Godrej Agrovet earnings call. Now, I will comment on the business update for quarter three, fiscal year 2026. Godrej Agrovet delivered a strong performance in quarter three, fiscal year 2026, with consolidated revenues growing by 11% year-on-year and profitability accelerating sharply, reflected in a 23% year-on-year increase in profit before tax with four exceptional items. This was driven by disciplined margin expansion, operational efficiencies, and strong contributions from the Vegetable Oil, Animal Feed, Poultry, and Processed Foods businesses, alongside a sharp turnaround in Astec. For the nine months ended 31 December 2025, the company reported consolidated revenues of INR 7,900 crore, an increase of 9% year-on-year. Profit before tax, excluding non-recurring and exceptional items for the period, was INR 482 crore, marking a healthy 17% year-on-year growth.
Coming to the key financial and business highlights of each of our business segments. The Animal Feed segment delivered another quarter of strong volume-led growth, with volumes up 12% year-on-year in quarter three. Notably, cattle feed volumes grew by 21%, contributing meaningfully to the overall expansion. The underlying segment result grew 17% year-on-year, and underlying EBIT per metric ton improved to INR 2,020 per metric ton in quarter three, fiscal year 2026, from INR 1,937 per metric ton in quarter three, fiscal year 2025. Our Vegetable Oil business continued to deliver stellar performance, with segment revenue growing 27% year-on-year and 25% growth in segment results, driven by improved fresh fruit bunch arrivals and a better oil extraction ratio.
The Crop Protection business delivered a 37% year-on-year revenue growth, driven by higher salience of generics and select specialty products. Segment results were flat, reflecting the impact of lower volumes in both in-licensing and in-house portfolios due to unseasonal rains and cyclones across key markets. Astec LifeSciences registered a strong recovery, with revenues growing 33% year-on-year, driven by robust volume growth across both the enterprise and CDMO segments. The EBITDA for the quarter turned positive at INR 5 crore, a sharp improvement compared to a loss in the same period last year, supported by higher volumes and improved gross margins in the enterprise category. Creamline Dairy recorded a 3% year-on-year revenue growth, supported by stable volumes across key product categories.
Profitability, however, remained under pressure, with EBITDA declining to INR 11 crore and margins softening to 3%, primarily due to higher milk procurement costs and a shortfall in revenue growth. Godrej Foods delivered stable revenues of INR 215 crore. Profitability strengthened significantly, with EBITDA growing 51% year-on-year to INR 17 crore and margins expanding to 8%, supported by improved contribution margins in the branded portfolio and better live bird prices... The business continued to advance its strategic shift towards value-added offerings, with branded salience rising to 81% in quarter three from 77% last year. Thank you.
So can we start with the Q&A?
Yes. Yes, please.
Okay, sir. Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Prabal Sen from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity, sir. I hope I'm audible.
Yes, Prabal, you're audible.
Very good afternoon. Congratulations, first of all, on a good set of numbers. A couple of questions.
Right.
One, the realization on the Vegetable Oil front, specifically on the Palm Oil sub-segment, seems to have strengthened fairly sharply. Just wanted your views on what the main reasons are and what kind of outlook do you see in terms of pricing for this segment?
Right.
Overall, I think. Hi, Prabal, this is Sunil Kataria here.
Hi, sir.
Okay. So, you know, I think, there are a couple of operational factors, and I would also like to talk about a bit about the pricing part. So first, let me talk about the pricing part. Actually, if I were to see on Q3 over Q3 last year, year-over-year, actually, pricing overall, in fact, actually is a -1%, right? Because while the palm kernel prices were higher than last year, actually the CPO prices were lower than last year. So they kind of offset, and actually, the price-led impact on growth is actually a -1%. So what this is led by primarily is a strong volume growth. And the numbers behind the volume growth obviously are led by three, four important operational parameters.
One is, we have been seeing a very healthy growth in our, you know, fresh fruit bunches metric tons, so which has happened, and that is in the range of 16%. Then, we have seen a steady work by the team on improving of, our OER, you know, which is the efficiency from oil extractions. And that also has reached an all-time high number in this quarter. So I think, a very focused approach towards building, I think, operational efficiencies across is one of the critical parameters which has gone through it.
So just to follow the oil extraction ratio that you mentioned, if I'm not mistaken, last quarter, the number was given as about 19.7% or so.
Yeah.
What is the kind of range that we've seen this quarter?
Okay. So last year, last quarter, it was 19.49%. 19.5%, you can take. And, I mean, this quarter, we have touched an all-time high of 21%. Obviously, this varies a lot with some of the weathers, but, even if I were to compare, because this quarter three, in any case, has a spike.
Yeah.
I think a good way to look at this would be, what was it last year, quarter three, versus what is this year, quarter three? Last year, quarter three, this number was 20.7, and this year, we have beaten that to 21.
Right. Got it. The other question was, sir, with respect to the salience of branded products, you mentioned that in the foods business, the salience is at 81%.
Yeah.
Correct me if I'm wrong, if this has come down a bit on a sequential basis, because Q2, I think the number was closer to 85%. Just a second.
Okay, I don't think so. This is a very meaningful change.
Yeah.
I'll just check the number again.
Yeah.
But, this hovers in the range of around 81%, 82%, 81%, 82%. It is not any meaningful. If the question really is to look toward, is there any meaningful drop because of any challenges in our business in terms of branded? Yeah, you're right, it was 85%, but again, there are seasonalities in this, you know. Now, again, if I were to compare Q3 last year versus this year, Q3, right?
Mm-hmm.
That is 77%, and it's 81% now, this year.
Got it, sir. Can we get the similar number for the Dairy part also, sir, the value-added product share for this quarter?
Yeah.
Okay, yeah, we'll just get you that also. And also one thing which on this call is happening is because we have one thing which is very clear of direction now, strategic shift that is happening, and we have all communicated it, that this live bird part of the business, while we are reducing it, this plays till we obviously meaningfully keep—we have dropped it obviously very sharply. Till we keep on dropping, dropping, dropping this to a negligible number finally over the years, this will have a little volatility, which keeps on then changing this percentage, because these are minor 2%-3% change differences. So, I would say the answer is: Is there any shift away from our branded focus? Is there any impact on that? No, not at all.
Understood, sir. Understood. I just wanted to clarify the numbers.
Yeah, yeah.
Can we get the numbers for Dairy also, please?
Yeah. So Dairy, our value-added product salience this year total is 35%... 35% of the total business, which in the last year same quarter was 34%, 33.8%.
One last question, sir, if I may. This quarter would have probably still seen, at least from the presentation, that in the Crop Protection business, there was still some impact at least, or at least in nine months, there is still the impact of the weather patterns and the slow, slower application due to the rainfalls.
Yeah.
How should we look at the last quarter at this point of time for Crop Protection?
Yeah, I think it's important that you ask the question, because, I mean, I would have addressed it otherwise as well. So I would say, you know, the way I see the weather patterns, the impact on. There are two things happened. In the quarter three, first of all, this time, again, we all across the industry, we have been seeing there have been very unseasonal rains, which almost extended into mid-November, you know. So like, for example, one of the biggest products that we have is, you know, the product which cater to, you know, grape crops. Now, obviously, we all know the grape crops got really devastated this time. So the weather patterns really obviously played its own role.
Going forward, in the quarter three, quarter four, I think this quarter, there is one last base effect which will come into play for us, and I would like to call that out is, that the Hitweed normally has, you know, a co-marketing, you know, sales in a base of quarter four last year, which given the fact that the Hitweed season has got impacted this year in the first half itself, that base effect will remain for us, and that will impact the quarter four of Crop Protection, but that's a base effect. If I would take out that impact of the Hitweed co-marketing out, we are targeting to grow at a very healthy pace in the ex this co-marketing number, on a top-line basis.
So that's the way the focus is, and we expect now this base effect will finally be gone after this.
That's all from me, sir. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Abhijit Akella from KIE. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon. Thank you so much for taking my questions.
Yeah, hi.
Hi, good afternoon, sir. So, maybe, you know, just to start, would be great to get your perspective on, you know, any outcome of the possible sort of value unlocking initiatives, the analysis that you've been doing over the last few months. So what are your thoughts at this point in time, and what portfolio of businesses do you see it best for Godrej to sort of, you know, continue with?
So, Abhijit, okay, yeah, thanks for asking the question. So, you know, this, obviously, as you know, we have multiple businesses. So right now, as we talk, we are in a very deep work right now is ongoing currently. And in fact, I would say, I mean, we are almost at the fag end of this entire deep strategy work that we have started around two months back, where this entire portfolio choice making, portfolio role allocations will happen. So immediately, if you ask me, I might not be able to tell you, but yes, we are at the fag end of this. We are going to make some very clear, sharp choices in the businesses which we clearly see as a top end of our investments and top end of our growth choices. We'll make some choices about businesses.
We may say that, okay, hey, we want to put them into maybe a little bit of a deep priority. And, I guess, somewhere towards early April, we should be able to come back to the street with a proper communication, and I would like to do a proper interaction to give a full, you know, deep point of view on how do we see as a group, the unlock and the journey, roadmap journey of GAVL. But to tell you honest, I think we have now a pretty reasonably well-emerging clarity on how we want to play the portfolio. It's just that we have to give it fine-tune, then we'll do some internal alignments.
Got it. No, thank you, sir. That's helpful. Just one other, if I may, on Astec. We've seen a little bit of a turnaround there, but of course, we are still a long way away from, you know, our past glory days. So just wanted to seek your perspective on how you're seeing trends in the fourth quarter now coming up, and then, you know, any commentary with regard to, regard to the upcoming year, basis, you know, maybe Mr. Godrej's interactions with potential customers at recent trade fairs and that sort of thing. Thank you so much.
Okay, so I'll let ask, Arijit and Burjis to then pitch in and on this too.
So if you have seen in Q3 also, we have seen a revenue growth of around a year-on-year is at 33% growth and also a bit of positive. And from historically, Q4 has been a bit better quarter for us, because this is the time where both our enterprise and CDMO and export and domestic market also goes. So I think we should follow this trend, which we have achieved in Q3. So overall, I think this year we should see overall, we should see a growth of around 20% in terms of the revenue. Bottom line, because some of the negotiations are still continuing, so we are not in position right now to see the bottom line, but we see that it will be the... And EBIT, EBITDA year-on-year will be the positive.
We'll be closing in terms of the positive EBITDA for this year.
For next year, we're targeting revenue growth of about 15%, and we're very pleased to see that our inquiry funnel has doubled from 22% - 45%.
So one thing which is very clear, I think in the last call, which had happened, that we had asked for how do we see this year? We had said we are targeting ourselves to be a bit of breakeven this year. I think that guidance stays for us. I think we were pretty confident that we should be able to pull that off. So I think, the turnaround is well and truly in play now, is what I would say.
Got it. You know, thank you for that. So just maybe one level deeper. So this 15% growth target for next year, is that entirely driven by the CDMO business or
...No, it will be a mix of, this is a broad direction. To be very honest, we are in the middle of our annual operating cycle, but this is something we definitely would aspire to. I think, there'll be a play of both CDMO and Enterprise, but we clearly see CDMO leading the growth, and it will grow faster than enterprise for us.
We're very pleased to see the enterprise business has turned around this year, and we're expecting it to be strong in the future.
Is it fair to assume that the margin profile on the, you know, incremental growth that we achieve in this business is going to be, you know, maybe, I mean, substantially superior to what the overall enterprise business does? Is that a fair assumption?
Yeah. Fair to assume.
Yeah.
Yeah. The CDMO business margin profile is indexed at around 1.5 times at least of the enterprise business.
Okay. Got it, sir. Thank you so much. I will come back in the queue for any more.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Aejas Lakhani from Unifi AMC. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, team. Two questions. First one is that, you know, if you could call out in Palm Oil, you know, there is a significant divergence between PKO and CPO pricing, and that spreads have been expanding. So could you call out what is driving the PKO dynamics, and where are we in our backward and forward integration from a standpoint of CapEx, and where the incremental plants are coming? So that's my first question.
Yeah. Okay. So this, you know, divergence between PKO and CPO. See, PKO is actually very, it's part of the lauric, you know, lauric, segment of the oil, and it is also very connected in a way with palm with coconut as well, right? So that has a very different kind of usage, which is into a lot of, you know, what you call B2B usage in the industry. So that plays a very different kind of a demand and supply situation, and hence that divergence is, does happen. CPO prices are pretty much, you know, linked to what is the overall dynamics of the multiple soft oils which play out, you know. So I think, these two have different trends, and they do tend to play out a little differently.
That's why if you see, one trend that we are clearly seeing right now in the quarter three is that the CPO prices actually have marginally lower over the CPO of last year, quarter three, but the PKO is not following that trend.
Like, Mr. Kataria, actually, a follow-up is that this is... I mean, this concept that you've just presented was always the case, right? So, but the divergence in prices, if you see over the last 2-3 years, has expanded materially. So I'm trying to understand that, because there are different dynamics that are working. Is it— Could you give some color about-
Can I add something on this?
I will ask Mr. Godrej to add the question ahead-
Yeah.
-because I think, he has a lot of perspective history.
I think the supply of coconut oil has been impacted, and the demand for both of these is higher than before. So coconut oil is shot up considerably, and it is at a significant premium to PKO. And I don't, it's not very clear whether this will change over time, but it's very likely. It's not easy to increase coconut oil production, and there seems to be a lot of demand. So it looks like this premium is going to last, but we can't be sure.
Understood. That was just very helpful, sir. And sir, could you just call out that, you know, some of the initiatives on plantations that we've taken are, you know, appearing to bear fruit, and what's the call out for FFB bunches in 2027?
Okay, so I'll take the shot at this. So, I think first of all, I would like to point out...
Hello?
Ladies and gentlemen, the line for the management seems to have disconnected. Please hold while we reconnect them. Ladies and gentlemen, the line for the management has been reconnected. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Yeah, okay. I'll continue here. So one big, so I decided that there are multiple levers at play right now. See, one piece which I talked of last time also as part of our strategic overall shift, is that we want to start driving multiple pillars of growth in the chosen businesses. And we will, while we overall talk the strategy at a later time, this is one business where multiple pillars of growth are already in play. So first and foremost is, as of we talk today, that we have already done a record high expansion of, acreage, hectares. Today, we have done 15,000-hectare expansion in the nine-month period, and we are slated to be roughly around 17,000-18,000 by the end of the year. Just to give you a perspective, this number was almost half last year.
So that's the kind of pace that we have kind of set up towards expansion. Secondly, I think there's a lot of work that we do through our Samadhan centers that we have set up, which are, you know, very, very strong capability centers, which work very regularly with farmers in all the multiple parts of, as of now, Andhra, Telangana, and later on, Northeast. Where they work with farmers in helping the palm plantations in improving their yields, improving their harvesting practices, improving their, you know, output, and that also, I think, starting to yield better results.
...Going back on the out, future outlook, I think we expect, while obviously there can be seasonalities and some very off years, which can always play. But on a regular basis, I think this is a business which is slated for a, FFB tonnage growth of, I think, a good healthy teens in terms of anywhere between 12%-15%, you know.
Understood. So, sir, you're saying 12%-15% FFB increases in the next, in FY 2027, right?
Yeah, I'm thinking over a long-term period, because I think sometimes, you know, one-off year can happen if the monsoons are pretty bad. In some year, it does tend to impact the plantation maybe a year later. I'm talking really on a steady-state basis, on a CAGR. We are pretty confident, given the kind of acreage expansion that's saying, given the work that we're doing farmers, that we would be in this, you know, teens range of expansion, you know.
Plus one other thing which happens-
Yeah, sorry.
Plus one more thing which will happen over the years, you know, in this business, one more thing which is going to come and play is the, there is a demographic dividend which will start playing out over a period of couple of years, you know. That, as more and more plantations are getting into, they will get from becoming zero to four years age to four to four plus years. And that's when the productivity of the plantation starts, and they are in the most high productivity stages between 4-18 years, you know. And that's like a, the way, you know, we almost if I to compare the India has seen its own demographic dividend paying out. It's a, it's a demographic dividend of productivity start playing on the mix of plantations also going forward.
Yes, the point taken. And sir, could you just speak about the backward and forward integration here on the value-added side, and where are we in the CapEx journey?
Yeah. So we have already put in the CapEx in terms of a downstream refinery for, you know, making products which are high value-added products like, you know, the cocoa butter substitute, the cocoa butter equivalent, the CPKO refining. All these are right now in the last stages of implementation. Before I go downstream, our new CPO processing plant upstream in Khammam will go live in a matter of two months, and our downstream refinery will also go get commissioned by somewhere in the first quarter of the coming year. And that will see us actually then ramping up the downstream value-added part.
Understood. So my next question is on the Dairy. Sir, if you go to see, right, we about a year and a half back, we had the consultants who we hired, and, you know, you've spoken about multiple structural changes you have done. And, you know, while that looked good in one year, given, you know, how the milk inflation has been, last year, it's not started to pan out. So I, I'm trying to understand that from your vantage, all the efforts that you have put in, you're seeing better traction, but the material upticks that you had, expected from this business is still not shaping out even one, one and a half year after the consultants have left us. So could you please throw some light on that?
Yeah. So I think, you know, I would say the work which is happening on the concerned side, there's a very large piece of work which happened on the gross margin expansion. And if you see that margin expansion, by and large, is still holding on. Yeah, in fact, if you see, there is a impact of 3-odd percentage points on the overall gross margin play for us, despite milk procurement being as high as 10%-10%-odd for us, because we obviously have a larger piece of procurement which happened from Maharashtra. And Maharashtra has seen more inflation than rest of the, you know, states.
So in fact, I would say not maybe, it is actually some of the structural cost work which happened at the back end, where we have been able to still absorb this piece, you know, to a large extent and not get into a spiral otherwise, you know. Otherwise, a 10% milk price increase can be pretty, you know, devastating. In the past, it would have been. So I think that piece stays. Going forward, yes, the question to you, which you're asking is, okay, how more meaningful can the overall impact be? So I think, again, as part of the strategy work and some operational work that we're doing, and this is, again, maybe I'll talk much more in detail when we meet, is that there are some choices we are doing on the...
That is actually a critical work which is going to happen in CDPR, the go-to-market strategy. The consultants never did work on that side, okay? I think the next phase of work is how do we start doing some very fundamental choice-making on which market we'll play strongly in, which route to market we'll play strongly in, and we are building capabilities on that. And that, I think, will along with then obviously, product and marketing investments, will play out the game fully for us. That, I think, it is something which will play out over a period of, you know, few quarters. And I'll be very candid, because that's the kind of work which we are going to do in some kind of a restructuring of our go-to-market strategy.
Understood. And, sir, just finally, what is in the foods business, you know, the branded 81% that you talk about, what's the cut between RGC and Yummiez?
Okay, just a second. Yeah, okay. So,
How much are the?
Just give me a second. I'm just putting this up.
Out of 81.
Yeah, okay. It's the number is, you know, so overall, the way the number is, the cut is played for us, in this 81, it's around 28% is Yummiez and around 52%- odd is RGC.
... Got it. And so just, you know, because RGC is a tad bit lower margins and Yummiez is the higher margin, could you comment about how are you looking at the branded segment? I would have presumed, I mean, the thought I had that this number of, you know, this Yummiez used to be in the 15%-20% range. So you, of course, sort of moved it from that range to probably closer to 30%. But how can you give some more color on how you are seeing the scale-up of these two, of the foods business?
Yeah. Again, I'm, I'm telling you, while we'll give you a very detailed color later on, but let me tell you directionally what it is. I think we are very clear that in the foods businesses, there are two themes that we'd like to chase. One is, as we've already. Let us first in this, with the foods business, the, you know, Poultry business, we've already taken a call that live bird is not where we want to play. You know, we are not going to be in a trading business. It is just a back end right now, which is supporting our Real Good Chicken piece as of now, and hence we are meaningfully, sharply bringing it down.
Our entire double down is going to be on the branded retail business going forward, which is where the Yummiez piece plays in, and even the RGC retail piece is something which will play in forward. So the whole game would be that we want to make it as a branded retail play. What you are seeing from 15% has moved to 30%, is where this number will keep on increasing over the next five years. And in the end state game for us is, that we want to be a pure play branded retail organization in our foods businesses, and have as less a play of trading sort of, you know, B2B businesses.
Understood, sir. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and one now. Participants who wish to ask questions may please press Star and One at this time. The next question is from the line of Ahmed Madha from Unifi Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. I have a few questions, but to start with your comments on PKO prices. We have seen recently the copra prices and coconut oil price come off from peak about 20-25%. Have we seen similar trends for PKO in last few months?
Okay. I would first ask, Mr. Godrej to comment on this, and then, if required, I'll come in. Mr. Godrej?
No, I haven't watched the most recent situation, but I would like to comment that coconut oil is still significantly above PK oil.
Yeah. So, and I would maybe take one more comment on this. I'll deal with that. The answer is, since we have been tracking this number, have you seen any drop happening in PK prices? As of now, it's holding.
Okay, sure. And your comments on the domestic Crop Protection business this season being weak and ex of one product will be doing fine. You can give some comment overall as a blended, what kind of growth we are seeing for the balance part of the season? That's first question, and second question is, in terms of building on the licensing portfolio, how is that shaping up? Have you added any new products in last quarter?
Ladies and gentlemen, the line for the management seems to have disconnected. Please hold while we reconnect them. Ladies and gentlemen, the line for the management have been reconnected. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Disconnected. Can you hear me?
Yeah, sure.
Yes, sir.
Okay. So I think two questions there. So the first part is, I think, how does the whole quarter four look like? As I again said, that that one-time impact of our co-marketing is going to stay. This is maybe the last bump of the year that we hope, which is coming our way, and the new year will start pretty fresh. And I'll talk about how we will be, you know, gearing up for the new year. I also said that the ex co-marketing piece, I think we are looking at a pretty healthy growth. Obviously, I think there'll be pretty healthy growth. I don't want to disclose the exact number of what we are gunning for as a number internally, but I think that part will be healthy.
But yeah, there'll be an impact of this one, co-marketing piece, which will play in. In terms of the way we are working out on the, CPB business, I think I would like to give you a bit of color. Again, maybe an insight into the way our strategic discussion, meeting will play out later on. One of the biggest pieces, as I again said, is that we want to move away from, you know, single points of, you know, dependence to multiple pillars of growth. And in the, journey on CPB business of our domestic, that journey has started playing out, which is where we have started diversifying ourselves beyond two products of, let's say, cotton herbicide segment, and let's say another product of Gracia.
We actually have identified a multiple critical and meaningful crop segments in the country, and we have identified and started building a pipeline of that, in which both in-house products and in-licensing products, both will play a role. Now, to give you an insight of what has happened in this in the last quarter, we have launched Ashitaka, which is our first foray into maize herbicide. And I'm pretty happy to share that, even though, you know, I think, we could have connected the season a little bit earlier, the response in the market we have launched at has been very, very positive.
In fact, I mean, I mean, we have sold off whatever we placed in the market, and the optics itself have been pretty good... And so that gives us a hell of a lot of confidence of how we will keep on ramping up this product, Ashitaka, going forward in the coming year. That's one. Secondly, I can also share right now that in coming month, this month itself, we'll make a second foray of diversification, that we are going to launch a new product, which again, is an in-licensing product called Takai. And that is a multi-crop insecticide segment, which again, will be our first foray into a multi-crop insecticide product. And we again, are very confident that is another diversification step, that that will give us a play into not only one crop, but two crop, in which paddy is one of the big crops.
We actually have been pretty missing in paddy, per se. So if you see, these two itself are the two big forays which have happened in terms of diversifying out. Apart from that, in the coming year, we have you can expect from us two in-house products, which would roll out in FY 2027, okay? And then these two in-licensing products will play into full scale-up. So that's here and now. But apart from that, there's a full-fledged strategic crop product matrix which is ready, and we'll share with you how the pipeline will play in the balance 3-4 years of the LRP period. But this is here and now, what will happen in the next 4-12 months. I hope I've given you a sense of what we're doing.
Yeah, sure, sure. And on the Astec business, you, you made comments about how the Q4 and FY 2026 looks like. I have two questions. One is in terms of pricing pressure in the off-patent segment molecules, has that eased off? Are we seeing any price improvement or stability as of now? And secondly, for FY 2027, how should we foresee the margins profile changing with the business achieving some scale?
Okay, so that's a question on Astec, so Arijit and Burjis will pitch in on this.
So two part of the answer. First, as a, as agrochemical, the first portion will be to go back to the normal demand of the production. So what we are currently seeing is that the production of the demand of agrochemical has come back to 2019/2020. So that is the normal consumption norm. So most of the pipeline stock inventories have moved out of the major geographies. Some geographies will be there, where there might be some one season stock, but that would not impact the overall consumption pattern. Price pressure is there because the competition is there, because of the overcapacity in China, but that is also little bit coming down, so it is not—it is more or less flattened out.
So now we are playing evenly, and within one or two years, we have also invested in terms of the process improvement and those things. So that's why if you see in this quarter, you will find movement in terms of the volume as well as the margin also, we are improving. I think next season, as of now, the indication says that demand should be normal. That's why we are optimistic for the next coming season also. And secondly, the same applies for the CDMO businesses also. So most of the demands are coming back, which were in the earlier last two years were little bit fluctuating. So overall, it seems we are stabilizing out. Price pressures will be there for some season, but it is stabilizing.
It has almost bottomed out, so now we will see a little bit of improvement there.
We are doing the best on our side to improve margins, despite the price outlook through raw material, price reduction, sourcing advantages, process improvement, yield improvement, all the R&D steps we can take. We are monitoring the situation in China carefully. There are expected to be some announcements on change in the export tax benefit, so we'll see how that plays out and what impact that has on our business.
Sure. Lastly, on the Poultry business, I understand you have made a significant transition towards the branded business. But in terms of the pricing, the live bird prices, is the improvement across geographies or is it specific to few states? And in terms of overall supply dynamics in the Poultry business at the country level, would you like to give some comment? How are you seeing overall, Poultry business supply dynamics?
To be very honest, the second one, I would not take a shot at it, you know. I'll be honest, because, you know, let me give you an overall Poultry business point of view, because strategically, it's a business which does not play out for us in the future. And it's a pretty large play with a lot of dynamics on the Poultry side, and we are focused on reducing that part of the business. Our focus is clearly on being a branded retail player going forward, and that's where the margins lie, that is where the growth lies. In fact, the whole play to my mind in the Poultry business is, that India is a country which has a huge amount of, you know, demand right now, and there's a huge amount of chunk of protein-led product requirement, which is panning out.
There's a huge awareness which is playing out across pop strata, where people are coming to a realization that, "Hey, we need to maybe add a little bit more protein or definitely significant more protein to our diets." And the way we see our role being played, if you want to play the branded retailer, it is a clear category creation game that what better source of protein than chicken in this country, which is reasonably priced and which... In a country which theoretically also kind of 70% of India eats non-veg. Obviously, it varies from state to state. They are not 100% non-vegetarians. It's a mix of veg and non-veg, but there are 70%-odd Indians who do have non-veg in their diet.
So I think our play is to keep making sure that we become, over a five years period, this 30% keeps on increasing, and we become a full-fledged branded retail player. So I would not even hazard a guess on the overall piece of Poultry play overall. The question which you asked, was this live bird price increase uniform across regions? Yes, it was. That I can tell you.
... Lastly, you spoke about the value creation exercise. So can you give some context of what are we talking here about in terms of value creation? What is the core objective we are trying to achieve? Is it sort of demerging the business into multiple segments, or is it sort of making sure of capital allocation into different businesses? Can you give some sense on that?
Yeah. Okay. So I think, again, as I said, we will have a very detailed conversation, definitely, just, it's a matter of maybe, you know, a month or so away. We will meet, and we definitely want to share with all of you, as to how we think it. But clearly, in this portfolio choices, what are we doing? What we want to make sure? We want to focus on. We have picked a certain criteria. The criteria is very clearly we want to play in markets which have attractiveness to it in each of the segments. So we have gone and put together market attractiveness criteria on each and every business, and within that, even some segments we have gone and checked. Then we are putting together on that, actually, a filter is what really is our right to win or play even in subsegments.
That is one piece which is going to lead us to say, "Okay, where do we want to really go after?" Those that will be the choices. The businesses that we prioritize will obviously get a significantly larger and very, very, in fact, I would say, focused share of capital allocation. There's no debate. That's why we want to put together. So the criteria for us would be, we would like to see how the growths are, whether it is a volume growth in some businesses, in some businesses it's revenue growth, because some of our businesses have more volume-led focus. The second piece will be, we obviously, while we invest behind the growth, we'd like to keep filters of, you know, midterm profitability and return on capital employed also in mind as filters.
So I think that is the way we'll come back to you, but those are the pieces we are keeping in mind. Regarding whether there'll be a demerger or whether value unlock, I think those are pieces which are right now maybe premature to call. I think the first piece for us is that's how we're going to choose portfolios and what we'll do with them. And obviously, some places, at some place, some structural calls would happen, but when and where, it will be maybe premature to talk about it.
Sure. Thank you so much.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Abhijit Akella from KIE. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my follow-ups. Just on the Animal Feed segment, you know, the-
Yes.
Yeah, yeah. So just on the Animal Feed segment, you know, what's the reason for the very strong growth in cattle feed volumes this quarter, 21%? Also, if you could please share the volume growth for the nine months. And-
Yeah.
How much of the Animal Feed volumes are actually coming from cattle feed at this point in time? I guess it's not a 50%, but if you could please just quantify that. And one last thing, also, the presentation speaks to a change in product mix, which has dragged on the margin. So is that referring to basically a swing in favor of cattle feed or something else? Thank you.
Thanks. Okay. So overall, cattle feed for nine months, volume growth is 16.5%. So it's been a steady state of growth. It's a very strong growth in this nine months. So obviously, it's peaked into a 20% growth, but, if you see the nine-month number, is still a very, very strong 16.5%. Second is, what is driving this? Okay, I would classify this into two factors. Some part, obviously, in our industry, there are always some external factors, but some very internal controllable. So I think external, what one factor, which is, I would say, maybe an environmental factor playing out, is that when the milk procurement prices are very, you know, good, the farmers tend to take advantage of by upgrading from unbranded to branded compound feed.
That you would have seen across in every... In fact, I almost see some parts of this business like any other consumer B2C business, you know. That's the lens I'm looking at and putting it on this, and I want to see this business a little differently. Is that same true, which we have seen happening in coconut oil, that we have seen in, you know, in Pears, that the same thing we've seen happening in even soaps. So I think the same phenomena pans out when the milk prices are going up, the forage yield is going up, they are willing to get more, you know, conversion into branded compound feed. That's one. Second, the internal pieces which are played out is that we have actually launched three, four , very, you know, differentiated products across state specifics.
So there is a product called Doodh Vriddhi, which has come in, which is focused towards the eastern part of the country. There's a product called Dhanlaxmi, which is doing pretty well in the western parts, of, India. We have a product called Bypro Plus, which has gone into south, which is actually very conditioned and suited for the southern, you know, market requirement. So there is a little, definitely more focus coming in, into state-wise, breed-wise focused products. And I think those products have started doing, have, have done pretty well for us in the middle of this, tailwind which is happening. So I think I would say there is definitely both a, external, but also an internal, thing at play.
55% .
The salience of the cattle feed business for us is, is now in this quarter, is around 54%, and nine months is almost similar. It, it's around 40%, 54 %- odd . On volume.
Very good. And the last thing was just the shift in product mix. Does that refer to the swing in favor of cattle feed, or is it something else we are alluding to?
Yeah, it's in favor of cattle feed, yeah. So let me give you maybe one more insight of going forward. I mean, again, maybe a sneak preview into what we will be thinking, is that we believe that within the Animal Feed also, right, there are segments we want to really go after, right? And I would say cattle feed is one that segment that we believe in India. It has more of an ability to create brand. It has more of an ability to command premiumization, if you get the right products.... And it is a market where we believe a large chunk of our strength lies, and maybe you will see a bit of a work more and more towards accelerating some of these shifts, you know.
So the EBIT per ton on cattle feeds, sir, how much would that be? I mean, compared to the annual feed overall level of 2000, would cattle feed be, you know, where exactly, 1500 or lower than that?
Sorry, what was the question? EBIT per ton, bit per ton.
EBIT per ton.
I think we can take that offline. Yeah, because this is a bit of maybe a little bit of, I would say, competitive information. Well, we give overall, but yeah, it's obviously pretty healthy one, you know.
Okay, sure. No problem, sir. The other one I just had was on the Crop Protection side. Margins obviously have been coming off there, but where do you see sort of sustainable margins in that business over the next, you know, year or so?
Yeah.
Also within the domestic Crop Protection piece, could you please help us with the revenue salience of in-license and in-house? How much do these two categories comprise?
Yeah. Okay. So these in-licensing and in-house contribute to roughly around 60-61% of our total business. And we expect that given the work that we are doing, it should be in that range of around 60-65% or in that ballpark, ball park will play. So that's a pretty healthy, close to two-thirds of our business, you can say. So that's one piece, and that's our direction we would like to keep on. The other question on where do we see the margin going forward? I think we had earlier also given a guidance of that will play at around, you know, anywhere between 28%-30% margin, and we know actually we are on the upper end of, you know, the industry on this.
But one thing to see, even in this quarter three, our margins have been pretty healthy despite the shift of the businesses, which we had done tactically only towards more generic and specialty, which was a conscious tactical here and now product choice that we took, and which we may again take a little bit in, you know, quarter four. But I think in the long, in the midterm, we are pretty confident of holding on to the range of 28%-30%.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Just one last thing. On the Oil Palm business, what percentage of segment EBIT comes from value-added products, and where do you see that heading as your, you know, new CapEx projects sort of come online?
Okay. Where I see headed, that number, I'll have to kind of calculate to where, I don't have that ready, so we can share that separately with you. But where it is today, we have moved into around 8% now in quarter three for us. But yes, my intent, obviously, when these refineries come into play, is this is a number which will actually start, you know, galloping rapidly, you know.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you so much, sir. I wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Siddharth Menghani from Chanakya Wealth Creation. Please go ahead.
Hey, hi, Sid.
Hi, Sunil. How are you?
Good to have you on the other side.
Yes. So, Sunil, just wanted to get some sense on the, dairy business. You know, one sees that there have been challenges on the milk procurement. Would you attribute this to, you know, the competitive intensity increasing in terms of more dairies coming up, or, or is it more a structural deceleration, in output, at the industry level? That was, that was the first one. And, and given, you know, the likelihood of El Niño and warm weather sort of playing out in the quarters to come, you know, how... What is your outlook on, on milk procurement, for, for the next year?
Okay. So, Sid, I think, you know, I think on the milk procurement piece, let me tell you. I think there are some structural changes which the team had done in the last couple of years, that we have moved to almost 85% of our procurement being direct farm procurement. So that is one big shift which has happened. So today, we do almost 85% to almost close to 90% of procurement is directly in our control. And I think there's a very strong network which has got created in the states of Maharashtra, specifically AP, Telangana, and then some part of Tamil Nadu, where I think we are very confident that given the our growth ambitions and given our aspiration, that should not be a constraint for us. So that is one piece.
The second part is the question is whether this, inflation of milk that we saw, whether it has got to do with more number of dairies or something else. Okay, while there's a piece a lot of us have been debating about, what our understanding is largely it is driven more by butter prices across the, globe. And what we have seen is that there has been a pretty large export of butter, which is happening for India because of inflation, higher demand in global, markets. It could be linked to some pieces which are playing out towards maybe Australia, New Zealand, some pieces toward France. We are not obviously, we're not able to put exact finger, but clearly, India has seen a sharp shift toward a sharp export of butter, and that butter prices have led to, milk inflation.
We are expecting this to maybe continue maybe for this quarter, and then hopefully it should start stabilizing, you know.
Got it. And, Sunil, your outlook on milk procurement, given the likelihood or the probability of El Niño next year, on next year?
As I said to you, you know, given our network and given our requirement and aspirations, we, as for us, we don't see any challenge of procurement for ourselves.
Helpful, helpful. Thanks, thanks so much, Sunil. That was helpful. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Sarvan Vora from Premium Cap. Please go ahead.
... Hi, thanks for the opportunity. First of all, many congratulations to the team at Astec LifeSciences. After about 10 quarters of losses, we've turned around, barring Q4, which is a seasonally strong quarter. So many congratulations. Finally, it seems we're out of the-
Great job for the team here. Great work by the team, you know. Yes.
Yeah. Yeah, thank you. Just firstly, on Astec, so, Sunil, you reiterated the EBITDA break-even guidance for FY26, and on top line, our guidance was about INR 5 billion in turnover, so broadly around that?
Yeah, yeah, broadly around that.
Yeah, okay. I would say, like, we are looking at something maybe, I mean, we'll be a little short of maybe that, but in ballpark range.
Yeah.
But we'll still hold the guidance on EBITDA break-even.
Got it. Got it. Just on FY 2027, Mr. Burjis mentioned, we're targeting about 15% growth. So that sounded a little underwhelming to me because, on a larger base of INR 650-odd crores, we used to guide for 25%-30% top line growth. So are there any concerns that we see for FY 2027, which keeps our guidance a little tepid?
Okay. Okay, let me tell you, I think, you know, honestly, I mean, this is the first third guidance which Burjis has given, and we have put it on the table for you. We are still in the middle of our annual operating exercises, and that normally happen in the period of February, and we close it towards March. Our aspirations obviously would be higher, but it's very premature to kind of give it, because we're just in the middle of it. But I think, that is something which we would put together as a base case for ourselves.
We'll be doing detailed planning to understand the price outlook for next year and the volume increases that we can, you know, manufacture and sell, so then we can give better guidance going forward. This is just a first look.
Yeah.
Got it. Got it, got it. And just finally on Godrej Agrovet, could you just highlight like the drivers for the foods business for the next 2-3 years? What kind of growth we see, what would be our focus areas and margin expansion trajectory?
This is my entire strategy presentation.
Okay.
But-
What other color you can give, how you're thinking-
Yeah, so I'll give you a little bit-
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So I'll give you a color of how we're thinking, because finally we'll answer all these questions. We are in the middle of pretty much taking calls on some of these questions, and we have made very advanced progress on this, you know, so we are not in infant state, that is, as I said. But let me tell you broad color. I think themes are very clear to us, that, you know, we want to definitely make foods a meaningful play for our group, you know. So that's, I think, one point of view, you know, that we have. Secondly, we clearly want to take our journey towards value-added branded play, which is what you're seeing, whether it's in Yummiez or whether it will be in Dairy business. That's the second theme that we want to play.
We also see some of the work that we'll have to do towards to make that happen is, that there's a large, work that we will do towards, you know, go-to-market investments, go-to-market execution focus, because that matters a lot in all these businesses. And there will be a play of, definitely building products which, will be differentiated and then backing them up. And hence, we will look at, you know, food innovation and food, entities in a pretty big way. And the last is, we believe that we also need to invest in certain capabilities in these businesses, in these areas, and that's a piece we have started doing.
So maybe one thing I can tell you is that we have, for example, both our foods businesses, new members from very, very strong, you know, pedigree, who are now holding positions in marketing and sales, both. That switches have happened already. We already have a very robust, you know, team in place on the back end in both the businesses. So I think these are the themes which are playing out as a color, you're saying. Yes, this will be a journey which will play out over three, four, five years, I would say, but we will play this journey, and we-
Right.
Hope that we will be able to succeed in this, you know, and pretty confident.
Right. And just lastly, on the... Any update you can share on the pet food business? And, thank you so much, for the opportunity and many congratulations to both the teams for a stellar performance.
Thank you. Thank you so much. The pet food business is that we have put up the plant for the pet food business of the group, and that plant is ready to get commissioned in a matter of a month or so from now.
Got it. Thank you. Thank you. Best wishes.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Sumant Kumar from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Can you talk on Astec CDMO business, how it is growing, and how is the outlook for the segment?
Yep. Abhi, Arijit?
Yeah. So CDMO business, I will like to explain it in two ways, right? One is what is our involvement in R&D? Because if you see from March onwards, we have almost doubled the number of inquiries we are getting. So one hand is the future looks to be a little bit, again, China plus one is slowly coming into being, because the number of inquiries have started coming both from the Western world as well as Japan. Secondly, the CDMOs, which we are currently doing, so most of the volumes have come back to the original one, and few volumes are growing. So overall, it seems CDMO to be back on track in terms of, pre-COVID time also, in terms of demand and those things are coming back. And it being a price plus model, so margin-wise also it is intact.
So that way we see our relatively next two, three years will be good for us for CDMO growth. Hello?
Yes.
Yeah. What about the core business, Triazole chemistry business, where we have losses and higher volatility? How that segment is performing, and what are the key changes we have in the molecule side and new product side?
... So triazole, so for Triazole businesses, the main worry, if you remember, was the, say, inventory, in, in, inventory there. So inventories have moved out, so more or less the demand is back. And in the process of being more competitive, we have also got involved in terms of the process improvement, better supply chain management, so that is, that has improved our margin. Secondly, strategically, we have shifted our registration from being source registered, now we have got our own registrations. So most of the geographies like Europe and Latin America, we have started getting registrations. So Europe also, we have got registration for three growing triazoles, and in Brazil, we have got two registrations, and there will be another three which are in pipeline for next year. Next year, I think next one and a half years, we'll get those registrations.
Overall, we seem to be back to normal in terms of the triazoles, both in terms of margin as well as the volume part. We will be adding few more chemistries this year, so there will be two more new molecules which will be coming up. At least this quarter, we'll be adding two more triazoles. Overall, the portfolio is increasing also. After a long back, we have added a few molecules in triazole.
So, if you see that whole theme of diversification that we are talking of, in a way, that is playing out for even this business in the triazole side as well, so that we also de-risk ourselves and we, in fact, in a way, we expand our addressable market.
Still, we have bare minimum profit or loss in the Triazole business?
So, no, now we are back to the normal margin. So, 2019, 2020, we take it as a base year where the margins were normal, so we are mostly coming back to that normal margins.
This is going to come in Q4 because Q3 has a bare minimum profit.
Uh-huh. I'm talking of the contribution margin. Q4 will be better off because this is the export market which opens up.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, that was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Godrej for closing comments.
Thank you. I hope we have been able to answer all your questions. If you have any further questions or would like to know more about the company, we would be happy to be of assistance. Thank you once again for taking the time to join us on this call.
Thank you, sir. On behalf of Equirus Securities Private Limited, that concludes this conference call. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.