Ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to the Rallis India Limited Q3 and 9 months FY26 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode. 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 100 on your touchtone phone. We have with us today Dr. Gyanendra Shukla, Managing Director and CEO, and Mr. Bhaskar Swaminathan, 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 risk and uncertainties. A detailed statement in this regard is available in the results presentation. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now invite Dr. Shukla to begin with the proceedings of the call.
Thank you and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today on Rallis India Limited's Q3 and nine months FY2026 Earnings Call. As mentioned, I have alongside myself our CFO, Mr. Bhaskar Swaminathan. Let me begin by discussing getting into a little bit of industry landscape, post which I'll discuss Rallis's specific developments. Talking about domestic market, agrochemical demand generally remains weak due to stressed demand drivers, particularly weather issues and low crop prices, leading to industry-wide volume decline. Farmer interest in purchasing high-value products dropped due to lower crop and horticulture prices. South and West India saw subdued demand decline, while East and North remained stable. According to official data, all Kharif crops barring paddy ruled 9%-30% below the respective minimum support prices during harvesting period October to December 25. Rabi acreage is marginally higher year-on-year, and channel stocks are slightly elevated.
Official dashboard conf irms Rabi acreage is up by 3% approximately for wheat, oil, seed, and pulses as of January 2026 first week data, which is supportive for Q4 sell-out and early Kharif placement. The sector is on track for 3%-4% growth in fiscal year 2026 to about $9.6 billion-$10 billion. Seed category remains a structural 5%-10% CAGR story. Volumes will benefit from stronger acreage and moisture, but margins are expected to remain stable to soft. The market should favor low-cost producers with export breadth and tight working capital discipline. Pricing power, as we speak, stays limited as global competition intensifies with China continuing the primary supplier capping realizations. Rapid resets in key technicals, particularly glyphosate, glufosinate, and paraquat, can reprice on hand inventory and compress margins. Export volumes are improving as inventories normalize, but realizations remain capped.
Weaker currency would cushion margins but not offset broad price pressure. On the weather side, El Niño Southern Oscillation is expected to run neutral through winter, reducing tail risk from extreme anomalies. IMD guidance points to neutral ENSO, which is El Niño Southern Oscillation, normal through December, January 5, 2026. Negative IOD is weakening, less chances of disrupted extremes, so that's good news relatively. The Draft Pesticide Management Bill 2025, referencing quality control lab accreditation, digital traceability, and stiffer penalties is a structural positive for organized players. Proposed seed bills measures which include registration QR, tagging, keep compliance in focus, and raise barriers to entry over the particularly to smaller players over the medium term. Global agrochemical market, particularly crop protection market, is valued at approximately $75 billion in 2025. It is projected to keep going at the CAGR of about 5% onward.
Herbicides globally is the major category, followed by insecticides and fungicides. Upside potential hinges on expected expanded acreage in Americas and regulatory clarity for new genomic techniques in the EU. Oil trade policies and Chinese pricing represent key uncertainties. Export recovery is gradual as global inventories normalize. U.S. 2,4-D acid anti-dumping countervailing duties has reset landed cost and reset herbicide trade flows. Global reliance on China persists as it supplies 99% of products like glyphosate outside the U.S., more than 80% of the glufosinate import, and 100% of U.S. atrazine as per the 2024-25 data exposing cost to tariff and policy shift. Chinese producers are pivoting towards branded formulation and overseas registration, increasing competition and value added generics. This is something to watch out for Indian players. Leading seed companies prioritizing disease-resistant drought tolerance and pest-resistant varieties through advanced biotechnology and gene editing innovations.
Indian agrochemical exports to key markets like U.S. and Brazil are growing at 5%-6%, supported by destocking normalizations. USDA WASDE data for December 2025 showed an uptick in the stock-to-use ratio for Indian rice, but little change otherwise. Moving on to Rallis's specific developments, we had an encouraging quarter three performance despite unseasonal October rains and higher than normal reported crop damage. For Q3, fiscal year 2026 revenues stood at INR 623 crore versus INR 522 crore of Q3 fiscal year 2025. Overall, EBITDA for Q3 stood at INR 58 crore, higher by 29% compared to Q3 of the previous year. PAT stood at INR 2 crore versus INR 11 crore of Q3 of fiscal year 2025, which is 80% lower than the previous year, same year. But then we have to account for exceptional gain, which includes a gratuity provision of INR 40 crore on account of Wage Code implementation.
Otherwise, it is significantly up. Across the technicals portfolio, we are continuously broadening our customer base and securing additional registration with global players to drive share gains. In metribuzin, particularly this year, we achieved higher volume in Q3, surpassing Q3 of the previous year. pendimethalin shows promising traction with long-term demand remaining steady. Q3 fiscal year 2026 volumes have surpassed Q3 fiscal year 2025 volumes. So both metribuzin and pendimethalin have done very well. hexaconazole and acephate volumes had constraints in Q3 in comparison to Q3 of previous fiscal. There has been overall improvement in the capacity utilization as far as the new launches are concerned. We have launched one herbicide, Fateh Nex, during the quarter for the wheat. In nine months, if you look at total, we have introduced nine products. Out of that, seven were herbicide, two were fungicides.
We h ave also launched a new brand called Nu Code under soil and plant health category. It's a biological platform covering biofertilizer, biostimulant, and biopesticide. We have also announced partnership with RiceTec for FullPage herbicide-tolerant rice technology in India. This should help our seed business to remain competitive in the marketplace. We have recently unveiled Idea to Impact platform, which is an open innovation platform to co-create, validate, and scale pharmaceutical solutions. It invites startups, researchers, and partners to collaborate with Rallis. We have also, a few days ago, launched an app called Sampark Plus, an app for unified field operations. This will act as a demand creation platform, both seed and crop care business. We have been granted Indian patent for three-way mixtures for a wheat herbicide that contains metsulfuron, clodinafop, as well as metribuzin. We have also been granted U.S. patent for mesotrione.
The near-term outlook remains positive, underpinned by healthy reservoir level, increased acreages, and stronger engagement with domestic and export customers. We are focused on long-term value drivers such as deepening customer centricity, sharpening portfolio choices, accelerating product launches, expanding strategic alliances and farmer reach, and embedding digitalization across our operations. This concludes my opening remark. I'll hand over to Bhaskar, our CFO, for a detailed analysis of the financial situation. Over to you, Bhaskar.
Thank you, Dr. Gyanendra. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our Q3 and 9 months FY26 earnings call. I'll walk you through our financial performance for the quarter, post which we shall commence the Q&A session. Starting with the top line for the quarter, our Q3 FY26 revenue stood at INR 623 crore as against INR 522 crore for the same period last year, resulting in overall growth of 19%. Overall volume growth has been 28%, with price degrowth by 8%. Overall EBITDA for the Q3 FY26 stood at INR 58 crore, higher by 29% compared to Q3 of the previous year.
Profit after tax at INR 2 crore versus INR 11 crore of Q3 FY25, which is 81% lower than the previous year, same quarter. Exceptional items include gratuity provision of INR 40 crore on account of Wage Code implementation, which has actually resulted in the PAT number.
Crop care segment grew by 18% to INR 560 crore in Q3 FY26 from INR 492 crore in Q3 FY25, driven by volume expansion, new product promotion, and increased digital engagement. Moving to seeds business, seeds revenue grew by 46% to INR 43 crore in Q3 FY26 from INR 30 crore in Q3 FY25, driven by volume growth, mainly due to paddy, mustard, and wheat. In the current quarter, we have achieved healthy product placements in paddy. Soil and plant health category grew by 16% to INR 73 crore in Q3 FY26 from INR 62 crore in Q3 FY25, registering both price and volume growth. We progressed in compliance in majority of the states post-successful migration of biostimulant production in-house.
Exports, the B2B business top line, grew by 73% to INR 129 crore from INR 75 crore and has shown promising growth, driven by volume growth, expansion in customer base, and driving capacity utilization of our plants. The CSM business Q3 FY26 revenue also displays positive run rate, logging 26% growth to INR 46 crore from INR 37 crore earlier. Moving into domestic B2C market, 13% growth in Q3 FY26, registering INR 391 crore revenue vis-à-vis INR 347 crore in Q3 FY25, which was driven by volume growth of 25%. Volume was driven by strong performance in fungicides, primarily supported by potato and cumin crops. The negative price impact is due to liquidation of near-expiry materials.
For the nine-month period, top line revenue stood at INR 2,441 crore, reflecting growth of 9% year-on-year. Crop care revenue stood at INR 1,991 crore, reflecting 8% growth year-on-year, driven by volume expansion despite price softening.
Seed revenue increased to INR 450 crore, delivering 15% growth year-on-year, supported by cotton and maize, along with improved contribution from licensed products. The B2C business recorded growth of 3%, delivering INR 1,401 crore of revenue. The B2B business recorded growth of 22%, delivering INR 590 crore of revenue, supported by volume growth and expansion of the customer base. In crop care segment, expanding our customer base and product portfolio is strengthening business resilience. We are driving focused execution across the front line and operations, optimizing the portfolio, rationalizing territories, eliminating overlaps, and simplifying costs across the value chain. We remain disciplined on capital efficiency across both fixed and working capital. In seed segment, our primary focus will center on five strategic crops: cotton, maize, millet, mustard, and rice, where selective concentration will drive operational scale and efficiency.
We aim to methodically expand our presence across these crops while prioritizing profitability at every stage. Our digital-led initiatives are accelerating targeted region penetration, with momentum remaining strong. In parallel, we are rationalizing the portfolio and sharpening our focus on priority markets. At quarter end, our inventory levels remain slightly elevated in comparison to the same quarter of last year, and collections remain smooth. We have healthy cash and liquidity balance of INR 455 crore as of 31st December. In summary, we are implementing various initiatives, and we are committed towards achieving consistent, competitive, and profitable growth. That concludes our opening remarks. We can now commence the Q&A session. Thank you.
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 the touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants, you are requested to use handsets while asking your questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue is empty. The first question is from the line of Viraj from SiMPL. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Just a couple of questions. First is, if we can keep the volume price trend for the quarter in domestic B2C and international business. And the related question is, we've seen a healthy placement in Q3 in the domestic business for us. So any color you can give in terms of the liquidation and the industry? Because going into Q2 end, I mean, going into Q3, industry reported a lot of inventory in the system. So any color you can give on that?
Sorry, Bhaskar can give a specific number, but I can tell you. For example, there is a significant growth in our seed business compared to the same quarter last year. I think it is all because of the crops we were. This is in spite of there was a weak mustard season, so I think we are in good shape. Our export business also has gone up significantly, where there's no risk. Right? Our top line in export actually has grown by almost 73%. Seed, there was a growth of 46%. Soil and plant health, 16%. So all those are good. The only challenge remains sometimes in domestic crop protection. That has grown by 18%. I think it's a combination of our promotional activities, business engagement, and some of the activities we have been taking. It combines with new launches.
So I think we feel confident about what we have placed in the market. We are very careful in the way we track our basically placement and remainder of the inventory. Two things: A, season is still on. A lot of displays will happen in January, February, and March, so we need to have an inventory in the market. At the same time, we try to look at receivable situation because that's the best indicator of what is happening in the marketplace. At this point of time, it looks in line with what we should be doing. Bhaskar, you want to answer the question on volume and price?
I think the question is mainly on.
How much it is coming? Quality of placement as well as in terms of what is coming back. We are quite in control in terms of the returns, and that basically indicates the quality and focus with which we place the market. In terms of the quarter, volume has basically played 12% impact, and price has played a negative 32% impact.
Sorry, how much you said on the price?
Price is about 32% impact, and although it is also offset by cost positive of 12%, volume has played 12% positive.
Is it for the domestic B2C?
Yes.
Okay, and on the soil and plant health segment, I think last quarter we were expecting approvals to come maybe by end of Q4 and a normalized environment starting into 2027, so the approval which you have got is just for us or generally for organized players in the industry, everyone? So is the issue by and large at your feet, or everyone else's feet, or you have managed to get a lead?
Yeah. So I think, see, in our agriculture business, what you miss, you miss, right? Having said that, whatever regulatory changes happen, they are by and large good for large organized players, and that is reflected in recovery we are having. So here we have grown both in price and volume, and we have been able to migrate our business to places we take in. For example, one of the biostimulants, we had a challenge, so we have moved the production in-house. And as a result, there is a growth of 16% in quarter three. I know towards the end of quarter one and quarter two were very challenging because of the regulatory constraints. So we have addressed most of those issues now.
I guess I cannot really comment about competition, but I'm sure every company is taking such steps, particularly large organized players that would like to fix their house.
Okay. Just last question, I'll come back into it. How large is the organized market in the soil and health in-house segment or the biostimulant space?
So see, I think it's a category which has six, seven subcategories. I would say very difficult to put numbers, but there are hundreds of players operating, let's put it that way, right? The regional players, the national players. I certainly see that number shrinking and more authentic players coming up in the marketplace. It's very difficult to give you a number, but it's too many.
Okay. Thank you. Good luck.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Arjun Khanna from Kotak Mahindra Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Sure. Thank you for taking my question. So the first question is regarding the Chinese VAT rebate which will be discontinued. Now, some of the products we export, including, say, acephate or ethion, etc. So how do you look at it in terms of the impact? I know formulations are not part of this, but in terms of technical exports, how do we see this play out for us going forward?
Yeah. So we don't do ethion. We only do acephate. We do metribuzin. We do hexaconazole. We do metalaxyl, those kind of products. I think this rebate thing is a new which is applicable from April. So we have to understand. I certainly believe when they remove the incentive by the month of April, how much they would have already supplied and have they supplied enough to cater to the markets? So I think we have to wait for how it will evolve. I think generally it's a positive moment to say it probably reflects the challenges Chinese companies face in terms of overcapacity and all.
So maybe this is an attempt by the Chinese government to really encourage consolidation of players there because China has also a lot of players, those who are into technical field, and many of them are actually migrating to what you call registering their own product and participating in direct formulation market. So I think you'll have to wait for some more information to filter in, as I know it is applicable only from April. But it will certainly lead, I mean, if there's not too much of production happening for a particular area, it should lead to some price increase and some consolidation in players.
So we've seen a very strong third quarter, albeit the base wasn't extremely high, but yet numbers are very robust. So given that in the fourth quarter, do you anticipate dumping where it may have an impact on a quarter, or that is not something that we are seeing, say, in dispatches for January and February?
No. So I think we have planned for a normal quarter. We don't advance sale or we don't unnecessarily delay the sale. I think we go by the seasonal demand. I think fourth quarter is important from, A, there is a crop on the ground. B, for us, cotton season begins again. There's some element of when the government announces cotton seed price because cotton gets planted early in the northern part of India, we have to start placing. There's also some bajra seed business which happens in quarter three. So we have factored everything which is, and there's some maize business as well. So I think we have planned for the normal quarter. Hopefully, we'll be able to sustain some momentum we have created.
Sure. So just the final question. In terms of our growth going forward, so how do we envisage the deployment of the cash on balance sheet because that continues to grow?
So cash on the balance sheet, obviously, one thing is obviously we need cash to meet our working capital requirement as we grow business. As we said, look, while we do not give a guidance, aspirationally, we want to grow in double digit, and we also want to expand our margin. So cash is helpful from that perspective because it also allows us to sometimes negotiate better prices, right, depending on the situation, credit versus cash kind of situation. Obviously, one area which I have been talking, we keep seeking opportunities where if we come across a good opportunity to grow inorganically, any of the verticals we operate, three particular verticals, we want to use that cash for those purposes as well.
Sure. Wishing you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jagvir Singh from Shade Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. So sir, in the presentation, you have mentioned some inventory liquidation in the fourth quarter. So what is the impact of this on our coming business in India?
So look, you have to always place product in the market because it has to go from factory to CNF, CNF to distributor to retailer. And farmers also end up buying a few days in advance, at least before they want to explain. So product has to be in the market. I think the numbers reflect what has been actually consumed and what might be lying in the market. The way we track these things is, so we are hoping all of this will get liquidated. We'll also be able to invite some fresh inventory, which is an ongoing business. Agriculture never goes completely silent in any part of the country. For example, Eastern region might start later in the early, particularly Assam, Bengal, and all tea plantations and all. The season of apple starts early in Kashmir and all. So I think it's a continuing business.
All we are watching when we declare a quarter number, we have to ensure that we are not pushing volume unnecessary in the marketplace when there's no demand.
Okay. Thank you very much, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhishek from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning. Yeah. Good morning, Gyanendra. Thank you so much for taking my questions. So just one quick clarification on the numbers first, if I may. And by the way, thank you so much to Bhaskar and team for sharing the revenue breakdown. Very helpful. But just to clarify of this INR 580 crore topline revenue that you've reported for this quarter, is it correct to conclude that basically exports are INR 129 crore, as Bhaskar mentioned, CSM INR 46 crore, and B2C domestic INR 391 crore? I think that adds up to about 566. But are those the three main components, and what would the remaining piece be, if any?
So, there's other small businesses which we don't add here. For example, we have a household pesticide business. There is another small segment we have. But these are the numbers he has given breakup for the majority of revenue.
Okay, so these are the only three components, and soil and plant health is over and above this, right? That is not part of crop health.
Yeah. Soil and plant health will be clubbed with the crop care. So I think when we say crop care, it has a crop protection, domestic exports, CSM, as well as soil and plant health. And soil and plant health is about INR 73 crore.
Got it. Got it. Thank you. That's helpful. Just on the seeds business, we've seen a further reduction in losses there as well as fairly healthy revenue growth this quarter. I know in the past, you've talked about getting the seed business margins to significantly higher levels on a full-year basis, closer to 25% or so. So what exactly are the interventions we are making, and how confident do we feel that we are on track? By when could we sort of aspire to get close to that target?
So I think seed business could be very chunky in growth depending on the new product launches. We had some momentum because of the North Cotton Hybrid, and now we have launched some products in maize and rice and bajra. We are seeing some momentum. I think the margin expansion primarily will happen because of operating leverages. We have a well-staffed team. Our R&D cost is more or less. So cost of doing business basically will go based on the inflation. So if we can deliver any growth higher than the cost of inflation, I think we'll be able to. And when you have a new product, you're able to price it differently. If it's a good product, you're able to sell more faster.
So, combination of new launches, expansion of the products we have got, and benefiting from operating leverages, these are the three levers I think will help us drive margin.
Right. So any sort of aspirational timeline towards getting to that closer to mid-20s kind of margin level?
Well, so I mean, obviously, we are not. I mean, we always shy away from giving a guidance. But last year, I said, "Look, aspirationally in five years, I want to take my seed business closer to INR 1,000 crore. Soil and plant health business, I want to grow by 4x from where it was, INR 225 crore to INR 700-800 crore." These two are relatively high-margin businesses. And then obviously, CSM also is a high-margin business, though it is small. And in B2C domestic as well as B2B export, we have to be competitive with the Chinese players. We do get some brand premium in the domestic business.
So I mean, as I've been saying, aspirationally, I want to grow company in double digit from a revenue perspective and expand the margin on an overall blended basis to 500 basis point in five years. So I'm on track, I believe.
This year, we had some setbacks in Kharif, right, because of the excessive rain which happened in the month of September, August, and September that, as a result, some displays were missed. There was a lot of setback for the companies operating in soybean and cotton and herbicide segment. So all of those things will keep happening. The way I have internalized it, look, we have technically four segments, B2B, B2C within the crop protection, then I have a seed business and soil and plant health. There's a small fifth segment, I would say, CSM. They will not all fire. Unlikely to fire. All of them are likely to fire at the same time. All we have to ensure is that, no, we are doing the right things in each of those businesses so that we are ready whenever opportunity presents.
Focus on R&D from a manufacturing standpoint of view, customer standpoint of view, to keep launching new products. Looking at partnerships to win contracts in CSM space, looking at new registrations and export. I think those are the things. For example, we launched this platform, Idea to Impact. I think this should help us accelerate innovation because we believe with our brand equity, we are able to we have that level of trust within the society. There are a lot of people, those who do innovation, they are not able to scale it up, take it from an idea to a product level because of the resource constraint. I think some of those ideas are also using to really start bringing new products, new ideas. We are spending on Digital Connect. We talked about Sampark Plus app, which has gone live on Friday.
That will make sure the first related to very focused, targeted work at the demand generation and connecting those villages we operate all the way up to retailers and distributors. I think those are all the right efforts. And I guess combination of all of that, I think it's very difficult to predict segment by segment revenue. But all of them actually help in all the other areas, every area. And rest all, we have to leave it to the season. And crop prices, we don't control. Rainfall, we don't control. So we will do what is right if we stay focused on our business. We do what is in our control, right? And then we leave it to the factors and be vigilant in the marketplace so that we are managing our receivables well, we are managing our inventory well without compromising on the growth opportunity.
Obviously, I've talked about people changing leadership, bringing new leaders, new ideas.
Yeah. No, thank you. That's really helpful, Gyanendra. And just one last thing, if I may squeeze in. If you could please just share your outlook for the international business, sir, just in the context of all these tariffs and all of the uncertainty plus low crop price and everything. How is the demand environment looking for the upcoming calendar year and maybe on the margin front as well, pricing/margins? Thank you.
So overall, I would say we have done well in spite of the challenges in fiscal year '27. We are still assessing the situation because of the new announcement from China and the new geopolitical context. We don't know how things will evolve. At the same time, there has been softening of crop prices, particularly corn, soybean, and Latin America. So I think we will continue to watch the situation. I don't want to give a what do you call guidance on the international business. I know we have been able to recover from the setback we had in 24, 25. And I think our focus is to continue to seek registration, continue to seek partners, continue to add new customers. In fact, we have added more number of people on ground in international business so that we get more closer to what is happening in those countries and geographies.
So that's how we are managing. It is difficult to tell how the tariff situation will evolve. I think there's a bit of uncertainty around that. But I think last year, because it excluded technical, so it did not hurt us much. How things will change is difficult to predict. It is a very, very uncertain environment right now. And China, I mean, there was a news I was reading a couple of days ago. On a year-on-year basis, China has produced more technical, right? Which means either there's a demand which is growing fast or there's a buildup of inventory restarting. At this point of time, I see in the market inventory at the normalized level. And this volume pressure, when it comes from China, obviously, it keeps pressure on the prices.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. I wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Siddharth Gadekar from Equirus. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good morning. So first, on the seed business, can you give some indication in terms of how we plan the inventories for the Bajra for the next year?
We have planned for enough inventory, not only for Bajra, for all the crops. This year, if you can see, in spite of the challenges we had on our supply side, we have been able to grow our revenue by 15% on a year-on-year basis. Last year, we did have challenges where seed production crop was not planted on time, and all the crop came at the same time. As a result, there were delays in supplies, and rains came early. It became very chaotic to manage the business in the month of April, May, and June. I think we have taken all the precautions. All the things are in place to ensure that we have sufficient inventory to grow the business. I think we have momentum, and we have to capitalize on it.
Perfect. And on the technical business, hello?
Yeah.
So on the technical business, can you just give some qualitative comments on the gross margins that we currently are operating at, and how do we see this panning out over the next two, three years in terms of internally, what are we doing to improve our efficiencies?
So I think, obviously, we keep looking at how can we become—I mean, raw material cost, we have to keep looking at. The other area is basically the ability to find customers where we can get more realization. But when I look at basically export business, I think there has been a significant expansion in our margin, which has gone beyond 20%. It's a very, very competitive place. But when I add the CSM business, I think it is falling in the range of our blended margin of about 30%. Seed, obviously, is a high-margin business for us, as we have been saying. And so it's really, I would say, challenges really on the margin front are primarily on export, where we sell what you call catalog product. The other thing we have started doing is also domestic institutional business, which we don't talk.
So whatever AIs we produce, we also have opportunity to sell domestically. I think that's most competitive. That's where we make lowest margin, but it ensures that our plants are running, and we improve our capacity utilization. We don't sell on losses. We make probably mid-teens margin. But on an overall basis, if you say B2B business, when you look at the blended margin, it is in excess of 20%.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Saurabh Jain from HSBC Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. So we appreciate your comments around the strategy to expand the margins by about 500 basis points in the next five years. But when I compare nine-month-to-nine-month basis performance, it seems that the gross margins have actually compressed by about 1%, maybe because of the rising share of your B2B business. My question is, how would you see these margins expanding in the near term over the next one year or so, and what will drive that margin expansion?
Yeah. So I think there are a couple of one-off items we had probably would not have impacted. So for example, we were planning to launch an insecticide last year, and I keep talking about one product did not go as per the plan. Because when the final product came out of the factory, there were some quality issues. So as a result, we had to take a provision. So a lot of it is actually related to provisions we create for the inventory when it doesn't go as expected, right? Some of it, actually, I would say majority are related to that. So when you look at on a what do you call if you take one-off items, I would say we would have marginally improved.
Is it possible to quantify this impact?
Yeah. So this impact, if you see, is in excess of INR 10 crore, roughly. Yeah.
Okay. INR 10 crore. Okay. So how would your expectations be for the next year? How much of gross margin expansion do you think can come to wellness on a blended basis? Any insights on that would be useful.
One is gross margin. The other thing is really EBITDA. So when I talk about 500 basis point, we are talking about EBITDA margin improvement, right? And EBITDA margin improvement, to me, is more important because that's what ultimately translates to PAT, shareholder value creation. Because of the diverse nature of business and competitiveness of the nature, competitiveness of the industry, I am not interested in losing on the market share because that's where business starts getting challenging. So we are saying, okay, we can stay in the gross contribution range and marginally improve. But because of the operating leverage, we'll be able to sell more per person or per employee. And as a result, we expand our EBITDA margin. So our fixed cost actually does not grow as fast as the other business contribution comes in.
Most of this 500 basis points would actually result from operating leverage.
Operating leverage.
What could be the blended utilizations of our plants? Any insights on that, sir?
This year, it has, I mean, all across plants, utilization has improved. We are looking at various other initiatives, which I can't share at this point of time. I think this year, it has been a significant improvement over last year.
Okay. The other question I had, you mentioned that you have been able to bring a bio product in-house that saves you from the regulatory challenges, but can you make a comment on what is the exact status on the regulatory side on the bio fertilizers? How the situation has improved over the last three months? And do any significant challenges still remain with the industry on this side?
See, I mean, I think, I mean, in countries like India, there will always be some regulatory challenges or concerns or the way our system operates. But I think, by and large, I would say we are out of that situation. The other thing which I did mention is that, look, our seed team operates independent of the top-tier team. We have also launched a new brand for soil and plant health. And within that brand of Nu Code, we have started launching products in different categories of soil and plant health, and we are seeing a good traction. So soil and plant health will have two sales and marketing engines driving the product in the marketplace because there's a significant opportunity to sell to more farmers because there is some uniqueness of distribution, and customers are different.
The other thing is that it's also better utilization of seed fixed cost because seed team carrying a new brand of soil and plant health. So it gives us volume as well as double leverage. I mean, seed team is able to sell something beyond seed. It also keeps them connected to the farmers because when you have to sell these products, you have to visit more frequently farmers and retail networks. So in a way, I think that solves some of the problem related to soil and plant health. A, I think a smaller place will eventually get weeded out over a period of time. We have, instead of one channel to carry, we have two distinct channels to carry the product. And we keep adding products. So at backend, actually, it's a common backend, but front becomes you have two opportunities.
Okay. So is the registration process and other things smooth now? Is it working at speed for registering all of these biostimulants?
So you can't say speed, but yes, it is sorted for us.
Okay. Understood. One last question, if I may. Can you please tell us what could be your dependence for technical procurement from China on the blended basis?
So on blended basis, still, it is more than 40%. And I mean, the challenge is not that all of that can be replaced. Not only it is there, it will continue to be there because some of the products, probably given the complexity and the stage of product, at what life cycle they are, I am not one who says that we'll be completely moving away from China. I think we have to have more partners in China to ensure that we continue to have access to product for some of the things we do.
When the Chinese government says they're going to remove the export rebates, how much of that exposure would be for you when you think about the procurement from China?
This is applicable post-April. So let's wait for more details to emerge. At this point of time, I think it's not negative for us. I mean, it's common for everybody. It will not apply only to us.
Yeah. Okay. Sure. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ramesh Shankar Narayan, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thank you very much, and congratulations on the performance given the challenging environment, so if you look at your third-quarter B2C growth of 13%, how would it compare with the overall industry growth in the same segment or category?
See, it's very difficult to comment about industry because, I mean, not many people have reported numbers. So I don't want to speculate. But I think, generally, Rabi has been better compared to previous Rabi. So depending on the portfolio, depending on the crop segment people operated, for example, I can tell you. So we have done very well in crops like potato and cumin with herbicides and all. But somebody who had a wheat herbicide, a strong portfolio of wheat herbicide companies, would have done well. So again, it's crossed. If somebody was depending on the grape, I think grape has been a challenging crop. Cumin area dropped. As a result, it has been challenging. So it's very crop-specific and portfolio-focused. There's no one comment I can make about what is happening in the industry.
Different players would have got positively or negatively impacted depending on the crop they participated.
Okay. So if we look at your aspiration numbers for seeds and soil and health, what would be the growth CapEx you have to invest to achieve these numbers, excluding working capital? And in terms of your future focus on ROC, would you see these two businesses driving your improvement in ROC, given the investment you need to do and the kind of growth you can expect in these two businesses?
I think coming back to your question on CapEx, I think I have said it, and I want to reiterate that. Look, unless I have a very firm contract to make something for somebody, we are not going to put any significant CapEx ahead of what do you call market demand. I think we have enough steel on the ground. We have enough plants and equipment on the ground to continue to grow. Having said that, there will always be sustenance CapEx, which will continue to be required. And that's all we have planned at this point of time.
So on the CSM business, you said the margin is around 13%. So if you look at your, again, aspirational target in CSM, do you see some traction in terms of getting higher-value contracts, which will improve the margins and return on capital for the CSM business? And what would be the aspirational revenue targets in the next three to five years, given the kind of opportunity that Indian companies see in CSM overall?
So look, when it comes to CSM, there are quite a few established players. And I guess they have built their reputation of being a CSM player. So it's not easy to take away business from them. What we have to see is that what is new coming in terms of patented product or unique opportunities. And that's where we are always in touch with. And we are, I would say, rather more active in keeping in touch with those players. And we do have some small opportunities in hand at this point of time. And they are at different stages of execution. I think some of those opportunities we will start seeing is contributing in a small manner from 27 onward. But there's no large big molecule opportunities available even in the market. But that business, I think, for example, with our existing partner, there's a new molecule coming.
We probably will end up making for them. There are no INR 500 crore opportunities, I would say, at this point of time, which are available even.
Thank you very much, Dr. Shukla and Bhaskar. Wish you all the best. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we take that as a last question and conclude the question and answer session. On behalf of Rallis India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining with us today and you may now disconnect the line.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks, everybody.