Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Gyanendra Shukla from Rallis India Limited. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Shukla.
Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us at Rallis India Limited Q3 and 9-month FY 2025 earnings call. We have with us today Dr. Gyanendra Shukla, the Managing Director and CEO, and Mr. Subrajit Talukdar, the Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in today's discussion may be forward-looking in nature and may involve risks and uncertainties. A detailed statement in this regard is available in the results presentation. I now invite Dr. Shukla to begin the session of the call. Over to you.
Thank you, Gavin. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today on our Q3 FY 2025 earnings call. As mentioned by Gavin, I have alongside with me Subrajit, our CFO. Let me begin the discussion by delving into the industry landscape initially, post which I will discuss Rallis's specific developments. As far as crop sowings are concerned, Rabi sowings are roughly 16.5 million hectares, which are down by 0.5% over last year. That is the data available as of 27th of December, with oilseed lagging by 5%, wheat area is up by 2%, rice area is up by 5.6%, and pulses area is more or less the same as last year. Reservoir levels are better compared to last year by +24%, and 139% of the overall normal storage as of 26th of December. While the overall trend for the monsoon is positive, spatial and timely distribution was uneven.
Also, post-monsoon season with two cyclones, Dana in October and Fengal in December, created trade inventory pressure. Companies also resorted to aggressive trade schemes to liquidate the carry-forward inventory, creating pricing challenges. Seed production continues to face the challenges for the second year in a row, with volumes under pressure despite a steep increase in input cost. Agrochemicals export demand continues to remain weak due to oversupply from China, price deflation, and reduced margin. In 2024, the Chinese agrochemical market underwent significant change, marked by global companies adopting supply chains and exploring strategies like internationalization, increased transparency, and challenges of overcapacity strength and partnerships. All the key regions have seen the growth in agrochemicals, mainly in Central and South America, followed by North America, Europe, and Asia-Pac, and Middle East, East Africa in 2024.
Moving to Rallis's specific developments, during Q2, our revenue was INR 520 crore, which is a 13% degrowth, and PAT was INR 11 crore versus INR 24 crore last year, mainly due to volume drop in export. Domestic agrochemical business registered volume growth despite intense market competition. Export business continued to reel from market challenges, resulting in a degrowth of roughly 38%. Our long-term effort to expand the customer base and improve cost competitiveness continues. Seed business was almost flat as last year at INR 30 crore versus INR 32 crore last year. Moving to individual business-wise performance, our export business was down by 38%, with volume dropping by 34% and price dropping by 4%. Over Q3 of previous year, we faced weak demand for most of our key products in Q3. Hexaconazole is showing good traction, with process debottlenecking helping the business register higher stable volume outlook for the year.
Even in Metribuzin, our volumes are strong on YTD basis, with positive outlook from one of the global majors. Acephate, as highlighted in the earlier calls, continues to face margin challenges due to steep volatility in the input cost material and high supply situation. We are working on several alternatives, including flexibilizing the plant and optimization of overheads to improve the profitability. Pendimethalin is facing pressure due to high inventory with the customers. In line with our strategy on improving the process efficiencies, we are going to go live with the continuous stirred-tank reactor process in Pendimethalin this quarter. We are also in the final stages of commercializing new technical Metalaxyl-M from our reverse engineering pipeline and are confident of the long-term potential of the product, both for domestic and international markets.
Even in the CSM business, our efforts on expanding customer base and working on new chemistries are progressing well. We have also set up blasts for new chemistries and are working with 10 new customers. We are confident these efforts will start contributing meaningfully to our top line and bottom line in the years to come. To drive synergies, we have also brought all B2B businesses under one roof. This will help drive strategic partnerships and alliances for both domestic and international markets. Moving to domestic market, crop care business grew volumetrically but was down by 2% due to steep price correction. However, on YTD basis, the crop care business has grown by 6% with volume growth. Our key focus segment of herbicide and biologicals and specialty solutions have grown by 41% and 21% in volume, respectively, in domestic business during this quarter.
Within biological and specialty solutions, GeoGreen, Ralli Gold Granule, and biostimulants significantly did highest-ever sales on YTD basis. Water-soluble fertilizer has also scaled up fast with 80% growth in the last nine months. However, we recognize these segments need far more focus and nurturing to improve resilience and drive both top line and bottom line improvement. Our innovation turnover index is in high teens, in line with our ambition. We believe there is still a gap in our ability to launch at scale new products, and we're taking efforts to revamp our go-to-market and 360-degree marketing approach. Our digital-based influencer approach to improving engagement with the farmers is also being piloted, and we expect to roll this nationally soon. We are also working on boosting the digital marketing approach and have gone live with WhatsApp for business to improve farmer connect.
Moving to seed business, we recorded INR 30 crore revenue as against INR 32 crore in previous year, mainly due to lower hybrid mustard sale. However, this is in small quarter of the business. On YTD basis, business has delivered 1% revenue growth and 50% growth in profit before tax. This is in the context of product constraint, which limited our scale-up of the new launches. For example, biggest, cotton has become the biggest crop with sale of more than INR 100 crore, and we are optimistic of the potential of the segment. To conclude my opening remark, I will now hand over the call to Mr. Subrajit, our CFO, for a detailed analysis of our finances. Over to you, Subrajit.
Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and thank you today for joining us for Q3 and nine-month earnings call. I'll walk you through our financial performance for the quarter and nine-month, post which you can comment if you have any questions. Starting with outline for the quarter, revenues stood at INR 522 crore, half against INR 598 crore for the previous year. Domestic business registered volume growth of 3% in the backdrop of intense market competition. As well as rising, improved margins in the domestic crop care business. Also, in the domestic crop care business, herbicides and biologicals and specialty solutions have maintained good growth momentum. Export business continued to face headwinds, with business registering a degrowth of 38%. However, we are quite confident of the long-term potential with actions taken around expanding customer base and improving cost competitiveness.
Seed business was INR 30 crore, flat against INR 32 crore for the last quarter same period. Profitability for the company was impacted due to challenges in the export business. Our efforts continue to be directed towards optimizing the overhead costs, including portfolio rationalization, refresh of the portfolio, territory rationalization, removing overlaps, and driving cost efficiencies and simplification across the value chain. Our inventory levels have been brought down without causing any business opportunity loss. Collections have also improved despite high market competition. We continue to have healthy cash and liquid fund balance of more than INR 200 crore as of 31st December. We will continue to drive capital efficiency. Other recent initiatives will help us in our pursuit towards consistent, competitive, and profitable growth. Our CapEx has been moderated in line with the demand, and our focus is to firstly improve the utilization and ROI of the already invested CapEx.
We have recently received board approval for solar panel installation in our manufacturing unit, which will help reduce electricity costs and also carbon footprint. That concludes our opening remarks. We can now commence the Q&A session.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone 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. As a reminder, to all the participants, please restrict yourself to two questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Viraj with SIMPL. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yes.
Yeah, I just have a couple of questions. One is, if you look at the environment, generally, we are in the segments performance we reported. Exports seen a sharp degrowth with pricing pressure. You talked about pricing pressure in domestic. And seed's per seed contribution is not that big in current quarter. So what explains the sharp jump in gross margin? We have seen a very almost 300-350 basis points increase in gross margin. So can you just give some perspective? What is driving this?
Viraj, gross margin, I think one is, of course, I spoke about the domestic business has been able to improve margins with the actions taken on pricing front and also ensuring that we keep our inventory levels at the right level. And also, there's a mixed factor which played because the international business did not deliver well. So given all these factors have helped in improving margins. Seeds are a bit small, as you said, but have still been able to improve both gross margin and profit before tax.
But generally, say, in terms of pricing also, even in domestic, we have seen almost 5% decline in price realizations. Just still trying to understand the gross margin piece. I understand there can be a mixed play between international and domestic. But even in domestic, we have seen a very good, not single-digit kind of a decline in inventory. So yeah, if you can explain.
As I have mentioned in the previous calls, look, so we operate in a very complex, competitive environment. Our effort is to continue to drive margin as a primary thing because that is something is very, very important for long-term profitability of the business, sustainability of the business. But there are factors when you have a significant export business that goes down, obviously brings the averages up. We can get maybe more details at a later stage, but combination of factors sometimes you get advantage in terms of raw material cost and also, various factors can help. But our effort will continue to remain that, and as we have been talking in the past, look, domestic seed, biological and specialty solution, which used to call crop nutrition in the past.
We want to continue to drive domestic business because that's where certainty, in spite of competition, is still more certain given our brand equity.
Okay, just two questions. One is on the portfolio. In the presentation also, we talked about churn or pruning in the portfolio. And in the last few quarters, we've been talking about more aggressive approach in terms of getting our low-profitable or loss-making products. Can you give a sense in last nine months or in Q3, what kind of a churn at the portfolio level we have seen? And is that exercise largely done, or we would expect further from any perspective where are we in that cycle? That's one. And second is on the export, when do you expect that the decline to kind of settle down, given that we've been talking to MNCs for supplies? So the two questions.
So first thing is on the portfolio. Look, when we talked about portfolio pruning, we were in the middle of the season. Now we have completed the exercise of portfolio rationalization, and a lot of that effect you would see in the upcoming season because we also don't want to waste the inventory or waste the packaging inventory and all. So that work impact of that should be seen in subsequent quarters, right? So products are identified. What we have been very careful is at building inventory of those low-margin, what do you call it, tail products. So that's one. So impact of that we'll see in the future. Now, on export side, you understand our portfolio, right? Our portfolio is really not it's not very new. As we have spoken in the past, look, SF8 had challenges. Pendimethalin is facing challenges.
Two products we had better opportunity was Metribuzin as well as Hexaconazole. We have a pipeline, for example, we talked about Metalaxyl-M, which we have started making. Our effort would be not to continue to rely on these products, continue to participate because we have capacity, but also flexibilize the plan and keep looking at new opportunities. And even in the existing products, we keep adding customers. And to that extent, we have started investing more time with the potential customers, developing new customers. And some of these things, they do take time because when you get a new customer, you have to supply them sample. They have to test the sample. They have to approve you as a vendor and all of that.
But we know that we don't have a very new portfolio, but within that, we are trying to really take maximum advantage of what we have, also trying to slowly switch over to a newer portfolio. But given the global context of the market, I think global market forecasts, given the commodity prices of key commodities like corn and soybean, including wheat, remain low. The forecast for 2025, I don't think, is very strong as far as international business is concerned, and this is primarily driven by Americas.
Thank you. Mr. Viraj, please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Ankur Periwal with Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, so thanks for the opportunity. First question on the domestic crop protection business. If I heard the initial comments right, you mentioned YTD, we are up 56%. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I think in the first half, we were up mid-high teens, probably more like 16%-18%. So is there a sharp decline in Q3 and probably key reasons for the same?
One of the reasons is that, and I have probably alluded to that in the past, is that look, Q3 depends on two factors. One is Q3 is a very strong herbicide business because in Q3, wheat herbicide business is big, sugarcane herbicide business is big, and rice herbicide business is big. And I have been highlighting we have weakness in the herbicide portfolio, so some of the work we have started. So Q3 is generally from herbicide perspective, that's the largest segment is weak for us. The other two big products which go in the Q2 are some specialty products in vegetable and then what do you call it? There's a continuation of Kharif season in Rabi. This year, all of you, if you have noticed, there was an abrupt cessation of monsoon in the month of September, right?
So it actually didn't rain a lot in October, November like previous three years. So I think it's just portfolio weakness in Q3 and abrupt cessation of Kharif consumption as well as weak chili season, right? This year, chili prices have been very low. So some of those things actually explain why Q3 is slightly weaker for us.
Okay, sure. Secondly, on the export side, you did mention that Pendimethalin also is facing some pressure. If I'm not wrong, till last quarter, it was largely SF8, wherein we were facing some challenges, while Pendimethalin was doing okay. So any specific comments there? Inventory-led issues again cropping up.
Yeah, well, I mean, so I think, look, Pendimethalin challenges are basically because of the inventory at the user level, right? That is what is causing the problem. Another thing, I think we cannot continue to undermine the Chinese overcapacity and their ability to undercut prices in the global market.
Thank you. Mr. Periwal, please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of S. Ramesh with Nirmal Bang Equities. Please go ahead.
Good evening and thank you very much. In your presentation, can you give us a breakup for this INR 492 crores of domestic revenue and the export revenue and for the bio and specialties? If you can break it up for us.
So 492, large proportion of it, I would say, has come from domestic crop care. Biological and specialty solutions we have mentioned in the presentation as well have done well, clocking 13% growth on a Q3 basis, and even on a YTD basis, it has done 24% growth. International business continues to be a challenge.
Is it possible to give the breakup of the international revenue in numbers, in INR crores?
It's INR 110 crores.
Thank you. Mr. Ramesh, please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Shaurya Poyani with Asian Market Securities. Please go ahead.
Would you like to give us guidance as to the top line for FY 2026?
We don't give any forward guidance, but we will talk about what we will talk in this call on what are the challenges and what are the opportunities for us.
Okay. And so one more thing. Out of the international revenue, what country is the highest, like in terms of percentage?
It goes prime. I mean, most of our business is primarily American.
Thank you. Mr. Poyani, please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Viraj with SiMPL. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity again. Hello.
Yeah, go ahead.
Yeah. So just on the portfolio pruning part, can you give some perspective? What kind of hit we can see in coming quarters? The portfolio is not that profitable or attractive for us to be in.
Viraj, can you repeat your question? We were not able to clearly understand.
So we talked about that in coming quarters. We will tell you the exposure in terms of review of the portfolio, and we'll be looking to prune a certain part of the portfolio in coming quarters. So just to get a sense on this, what percentage of the portfolio you think is not that profitable and which we will be exiting in the next, say, six months?
Yeah. So in terms of number of SKUs, it is very significant, right? I think we have a long tail. So I mean, it is very high-level digit number. In terms of revenue, I think maybe I cannot tell you now, but I can tell you when we can have separately discuss on that.
But Viraj, this is not a question of less profitable. I think what we are saying is the focus and the effort from the team goes a lot in serving tail, which is where we are looking. The impact is not going to be material on top-line and bottom-line perspective.
Okay. Second question.
What is important is that our sales team, rather than trying to handle so many SKUs, they put all their energy on a smaller number of SKUs, and it also helps in improving supply chain complexity.
Gotcha. And from an ITI perspective, say, either for nine months or the quarter, what will be the ITI index for us?
So we consider, I mean, I think for me, healthy ITIs, we can always keep above 15%, right? At this point of time, we probably are above 15%.
That is more to look at it on a longer term and what are the actions we are taking to refresh the portfolio, Viraj?
Thank you. Mr. Viraj, please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Preet Nagersheth with Wealth FinServe. Please go ahead.
Yes, the question I have is related to your guidance for domestic guidance, at least for quarter four. So are you seeing continued traction the way you have explained that Q3 has seen increase in volumes? And herbicide obviously comes off, and maybe insecticide pesticide demands will increase in quarter four. So do you see a better domestic performance from your side?
Yeah. So as I said, look, herbicide, we are strengthening our portfolio. Now, a lot of what happens in quarter four from a consumption perspective. So from crop area perspective, it is more or less similar compared to last year with the change in crop mix. For example, mustard is down, but wheat is up. In fact, so from crop area perspective, it is the same area as last year. A lot of consumption of fungicide and insecticide depends on the kind of pest pressure. So it's very difficult to know. You always go by what is the normal pest expected, what is the normal volume we saw previous year, and what is the competitive situation. It's difficult to say what will happen at this point of time. All I can say, at least the crop is there. Having said that, commodity prices are soft compared to even previous years.
But if pest pressure is high, farmers would tend to resort to use of chemicals to protect their crop. So it's difficult to say how things will evolve because there's no solid mathematical model available to say what kind of pest pressure will happen.
Right. I understand. My question is more in line with how poor the last year was for quarter four and for quarter three as well, with a lot of inventory available in the Indian markets. Do you see that the larger business scenarios are better off than what they have been? And do you see a continuation of the growth that you've seen in Q3 continuing Q4?
So business sentiments, I would say, remain more or less same compared to last year. If they are not better, they certainly are not better. They are more or less same depending on the crop. So sentiments are very similar. And what happens next, I think it depends on the external factors.
So prices are low, definitely, but volumes will be an indicator.
Thank you. Mr. Nagarseth, please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Abhijit Akella with Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
So yeah, good evening. Thank you so much for taking my questions. So first, on the Rabi season in the crop care business, you did mention the fact that those cyclones had created additional trade inventory and maybe also created pricing pressure because of the trade scheme. So would it be possible to just give us some slightly more color in terms of how things stand at present? Are the inventories still elevated, or have they been cleared out? And are you still seeing aggression in terms of pricing from the leading competitors?
So I mean, I think from what I understand, pricing pressure continues in the market, and there's no shortage of inventory. I think everybody is sitting on the inventory and leaving in the market too, and because there's a.
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Please go ahead.
Yeah, so I mean, I think pricing pressure continues, and there's enough inventory in the market.
Okay. And just last one from my side is on number one, the seed industry, seed productions for next year. How is the output shaping up given it's already been through a season, I guess? And sorry. So yeah, please go ahead.
No, you complete your question. I'll make a note.
The other one was just with regard to how the CSM products are performing. For us, I guess Metconazole is important, and then PEKK. So how those are doing and what kind of traction you're seeing in terms of the newer ones, by when can we expect some meaningful contribution from them?
Yeah. So on the outlook of the seed production, I think seed production is challenging. Is it as challenging as last year? I think it's probably slightly better than last year. But seed production area remains a constraint because farmers are always weighing options between growing a commercial crop versus a seed crop. But I would say slightly better than last year, right, on a production side. On our CSM pipeline, I know you talked about PEKK and other products. I think, look, our CSM pipeline is there, right? But we are adding to the portfolio. It will be very difficult for me to disclose the name of the customers, but we continue to add more customers. And we have inquiries. We are supplying samples for trialing and testing. I think there are two products in the pipeline.
We did mention today Metalaxyl-M because that is something we have reached a stage of commercial. As we get more details about the other products, when we get into commercialization mode, then it's a matter of talking. But yes, in other products, we are adding customers, particularly metribuzin, pendimethalin, and hexaconazole.
Thank you. Mr. Akella, please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Siddharth Gadekar with Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening. I just wanted to have clarity on our multipurpose plant that we had commissioned last year. We were targeting to do difenoconazole. Have we started anything in that plant? Or that plant is still idle?
To Difenoconazole, we took some batches last year. This year also, we are working on a few contract manufacturing opportunities. One of them is with a global region. So the plant is not idle. The plant is used for the purpose it was set up, which is working on various new opportunities.
Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Archit Joshi with Nuvama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. I just have one question. Sir, what would be your reading in the global landscape after six, seven quarters of the inventory restocking and that onslaught that we have been hearing of?, and you also mentioned in your opening remarks about quite a lot of inventory still there in the system in products like pendy. How do you see this panning out from a volume and pricing perspective in this calendar year?
I think volumes are very comfortable. And whenever there are comfortable volumes, it does put pressure on the pricing. The most important driver of consumption of these products is really commodity prices. And that continues to, I mean, I think if you track soybean prices, cotton prices, wheat prices, when you look at the seaboard prices, they continue to trend downward lower, right? And when you know the farm income, because of the lower commodity prices, farm income are under challenging situations. And I think we understand the China supply dynamics as well. I believe while volumes will continue to grow, I mean, continue to go because farmers are planting crops. They're not leaving the crop with a silo. There'll always be pressure on the pricing.
Sure, sir. Thank you.
Thank you.
And that's why domestic becomes very important for us. I think I've been saying probably for the last three, four calls, our primary focus is to drive domestic. We have a lot of opportunities to fix in. I mean, we have opportunities in CSM. We have opportunities to participate in international business. But given the scenario there, I'm more optimistic about domestic because that's where we have a brand equity.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of S. Ramesh with Nirmal Bang Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks a lot. So if you look at the outlook for the products which you mentioned are under development in the lab stage, the 10 products you're working on, can you give us some sense in terms of what will be the target market size for these products when you expect to commercialize them?
So most of our CSM products, they are for diversified set of customers abroad. And international businesses tend to primarily get focused towards Asia and America, right? So that's the kind of pipeline.
And if you look at the Chinese strategy, I understand they're also trying to get into formulations. So how would that impact Rallis's business? You see the Chinese formulations supply hitting the international markets and your own markets?
So I think that is something we have not been talking in the industry. And I think I'm glad you brought that point because Chinese have started participating directly in those markets. That is something we have to wait and watch. But I believe there'll always be opportunities from a diversified perspective, from prospective client to have alternate suppliers. I guess that's where India is playing a role and will continue to play an increasingly important role.
Thank you. Mr. Ramesh, please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Ranjit with IIFL Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. So we have been focusing more on the domestic front this particular year and continue to remain focused for the next few years. And that is also a segment which has grown for us in the first nine months. So I just wanted to get a sense of how has been the secondary demand by the farmers. Would it be a case of having a bit of a higher inventory and that might become a bit of a headwind for us next year or even the depletion has been at par in running the sales?
So volumes generally are good. I think it's a surprise. Pricing is good right now because this year, Kharif was decent. I think it didn't do well in the later part of the Kharif. And Rabi planting is good. So I don't see a volume issue. It's largely an issue of pricing, and supply is high.
The liquidation has been at par with the volume growth that we have been depleting.
Volumes are higher. That means realization is higher.
That should not be a challenge for the next few years, at least for the secondary stage.
I think, I mean, the way I see it, look, there are probably—I shouldn't say too little farmers because we have millions of farmers. There are a lot of companies changing their mindset of farmers, so.
Thank you. Mr. Ranjit, please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Shivaji Mehta and Indragen Ressa. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, one of the specialty chemical players in the earnings call had mentioned that China may start looking at increasing prices of various chemicals post the Chinese New Year. Are you expecting something similar post the Chinese New Year?
So look, a lot of news goes in the media. I think I would really wait for, see, we have to see for some indications, right? For example, recently, there was a news that because Chinese have increased the price of some of the fluorochemical-related, and suddenly there was a news, and it died out, died down very quickly. So I think we will continue to monitor how it happens. And then it's very difficult to predict. I don't have any real insight to say how they would behave.
Sure. Anywhere with the market, we will prepare for that.
If there's an opportunity, I think we will not leave any opportunity on the table if there's an opportunity to increase the price.
Right. Makes sense. Sir, and also, over the next two to three years, once things normalize, what is the stable asset turn that you foresee for your businesses, excluding the seeds portfolio?
So seeds, anyway, we don't have any fixed capital. So seeds, the asset turn, it's a working capital business. As far as crop care is concerned, I think I mentioned earlier that we don't look at asset turns, but ROA, and ROA should be certainly more than that across the lowest assets that we look into.
Thank you. Mr. Mehta, please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Sanjay, an independent researcher. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yes, Sanjay. We can hear you.
Yeah. Good evening, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, my apologies. I joined the conference call by about 20 minutes late. So very briefly, if you could tell me what was the reason for drop in our profitability this quarter. And secondly, sir, I just want to know, as an individual investor, obviously, my query will be skewed towards the stock price performance. So if I see, first of all, there's an underperformance in the last five years. And also, our revenue growth, CAGR, has not been that good if we compare to all the other competitors. Our CAGR is not even increasing by about 10%-12%. It's hardly 7%-8%. So how does our company foresee the next five years in terms of revenue and profitability?
Yeah. I don't know, Sanjay, if you have attended the previous conference calls.
But I have been trying to articulate some of the steps we are taking to really turn around this business and bring in line with the industry or do better than industry. There are quite a few things we are doing. For example, this business is a product business. We are looking at significantly revamping our product portfolio. We have gaps in certain areas, particularly herbicides. And also, we're working on those. We have now a decent seed business, which has taken a while to stabilize. I think we can continue to deliver on seed. The other area where we are focusing from product perspective is biologicals and specialty solutions because that's another area where consumers are getting interested. Farmers are getting interested. So we're working on those. So that's on the product side.
I think we are taking a lot of the steps on really customer side because, at the end of the day, this business is also a demand-generation business. If you're a farmer in a village, you are probably approached by 10 different companies in a day. So how do you make decisions which company to prioritize? Obviously, product and product performance matters. But we are trying to intensify our customer relationship efforts. And we are trying to get more focused rather than trying to be thinly spread and also trying to leverage on digital. So we are making a lot of investment on digital connectivity with the farmers so that we can serve them better. So that's on the customer side. On, I would say, efficiency side, obviously, we have some assets. And we are also having old portfolios. We are looking at even on the manufacturing side.
How can we make our products better? How can we bring down the cost on production side? What are the other things we can do to add new products to the portfolio? We're also looking at some CSM opportunities. We have a pipeline of companies we're working on. But these things do take time, right? We are reorienting our people capabilities. So we're looking at people capabilities and various other things. So a series of steps.
Okay, and sir, just very brief on the reason for drop in profitability this time. I'm sorry, I joined the conference call late. That's the reason.
Drop in profitability. Subhra, you want to talk about it?
Yes. Year on year, if we see our profitability has dropped significantly. So just what is the specific reason for that? Just a small pointer if you could provide.
See, I think for us, seasonal profit, quarterly profitability is difficult to explain because it's a small quarter and we said that export business had challenge. On a YTD basis, we are largely flat on PBT basis despite the challenges in the market front. So this quarter, the numbers are lower squarely because of the challenges in export business.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of the question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
So thank you, everybody, for participating in the call. Agrochemicals export demand continues to be weak. We will try to improve volume growth and margins in a tough environment. Seed business is impacted by availability of inventory. Domestic agrochemicals demand is positive, but lower prices across products are impacting revenues. Margins are steady with excellence around product mix improvement and cost optimizations. We remain optimistically cautious for Q4. Q4 overall business plans of India would be to improve capacity utilization and take steps to improve market share across verticals. We will try to maintain a better margin in the short term. Our long-term excellence on improving business health is in the right direction. And I remain positive for driving competitive, profitable, and sustainable growth to create value for all the stakeholders. Thank you very much.
Thank you. On behalf of Rallis India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.