Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Manish Mahawar from Antique Stock Broking. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Sanjay. On behalf of Antique Stock Broking, I would like to welcome all the participants on the call of Sharda Cropchem. From the management, we have Mr. R.V. Bubna, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Ashok Vashist, CFO, and Mr. Dinesh Mehar, GM Finance on the call. Without further ado, I would like to hand over the call to Mr. R.V. Bubna for opening remarks, post which we will open the floor for Q&A. Thank you, and over to Mr. R.V. Bubna.
Thank you, Manishji. Good evening, and warm welcome to everyone present on this call. I hope you all are keeping safe, healthy during these pandemic times. Along with me, I have Mr. Ashok Vashisht, our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Dinesh Mehar, General Manager, and SGA, our investor relations advisors. Hope you all have received our investor deck by now. For those who have not, you can view them on the stock exchanges and company website. We have a vast and growing library of dossiers and IPRs which provide us a solid foundation for growth in the global marketplace, especially in advanced markets such as Europe, North America, and Latin America. It equips us with ability to operate in a diversified range of formulations and generic active ingredients space globally. The company continues to identify opportunities in generic molecules.
Our total registrations stand at 2,686 in FY22. Additionally, 1,030 applications are in the pipeline. The CapEx for the financial year 2022 stood at INR 415 crore, 413. We are placing special focus on expanding its biocide registrations. We maintain healthy relationship with our approved manufacturers, agrochemical industry, mainly in China. Sourcing from approved manufacturers helps us in getting quality products at optimal price and also helps us to de-risk the sourcing capabilities. Over the years, we have built good brand franchise within our global markets. We are benefiting through economies of scale in our portfolio and leveraging value of our supply chain. We have mastered flexibility to grow our business.
We are present in 75-80 countries, having a sale of 400+ and more than 500 distributors. Going ahead, we plan to leverage market presence and execution capabilities and adopt the factory-to-farmer approach to be a one-stop solution provider to our global customers. We have accelerated focus on revenue-generating investments and are continually looking to improve the operational efficiencies, which will help us improve our margins. In the year, in the financial year 2022, our revenues have. Sorry, this is, I'm talking about the quarter four. In the quarter four, our revenues have grown by 32% to INR 1,434 crore, EBITDA by 60% to INR 729 crore and PAT. I'm sorry, EBITDA by 29%. That was for the full year.
For the quarter, EBITDA has grown by 29% to INR 317 crore and PAT by 32% to INR 177 crore. This was for quarter four. For the full year, our revenues have grown by 39% to INR 3,580 crore, EBITDA by 60% to INR 729 crore, and PAT by 52% to INR 349 crore. We are a debt-free company having strong balance sheet. Our ROE for the financial year 2022 stood at 19.8% and ROCE stood at 25.7%. With this brief overview, I would now like to hand over the call to our CFO, Mr. Ashok Vashisht for discussing our financial performance. Thank you. Over to Ashok.
Thank you, sir. Good evening, friends. I'm pleased to take you through Q4 FY 2022 and full year FY 2022 financial numbers. First coming to quarter four FY 2022 performance, we recorded a strong quarter. In this quarter, revenue stood at, you know, INR 1,434 crore against, you know, INR 1,088 crore in Q4 last year, and, you know, witnessing a growth of 32% year-on-year basis. Our revenue growth was mainly led by better product mix and price, better price realization. We had a favorable price and product mix impact to the tune of 42%, coupled with, you know, exchange gain of around 0.3% during the quarter and adverse volume degrowth around 10%.
In terms of gross margins, we were at 29.2% and gross margins is marginally lower than the last year, mainly impacted by higher freight costs and other inflation. Our EBITDA stood at INR 317 crore versus INR 246 crore in Q4 FY21, registering a growth of 29% on year-on-year basis. Our growth in EBITDA, after all, as you would even recall, our quarter four last year was very, you know, one of the best quarter. This growth we have delivered back. The growth in EBITDA was mainly driven by high revenue, effective cost management across the company, which was marginally headed up by higher freight costs.
For the quarter, profit after tax stood at INR 177 crore versus INR 134 crore in same period last year, witnessing a growth of 32% year-on-year basis. Now a deep dive coming to split of agro and business, grew by 24% year-on-year basis to INR 1,243 crore. Whereas non-agro business grew by 129% year-on-year basis to INR 191 crore. In agrochemicals space, Europe grew by 14%, the growth in Europe is very weak, followed by NAFTA region grew by 26%, Latin America 173%, and rest of the world, ROTW grew by 18%.
Europe contributes already, you know, a major contributor to the overall revenue of Sharda and for quarter four, the revenue, you know, contribution of Europe was 49%, NAFTA 39%, Latin America 9%, and ROW, rest of the world, 3% of the agrochemical business for Q4 FY22. In the non-agrochemical space, Europe grew by 5%, NAFTA 239%, Latin America 31%, and rest of the world 9%. Coming to the contribution in our agro business of, you know, by the different region, Europe contributed 29%, NAFTA 57%, Latin America 5%, and rest of the world 9% of the non-agro business for Q4 FY22.
Now coming to our full year FY22 performance, our revenue, you know, increased to INR 3,580 crore versus INR 2,396 crore in FY21, registering a strong growth of 49% on year-on-year basis. This was mainly driven by strong volume growth of 24% across the geography, favorable price and product mix variance to the tune of 25%, coupled with exchange gain 0.9% during the year. Gross margin stood at 30.2% and gross margin, for the year, was impacted, aligning with the, you know, global trends due to the high freight costs. What we could majorly mitigate, you know, the impact of, you know, adverse inflation or, you know, other aspects.
EBITDA stood at INR 729 crores versus INR 455 crore in FY21, registering again strong growth of 60% year-over-year basis. Profit after tax stood at INR 349 crore versus INR 229 crore in FY21, giving a growth of 52% year-over-year basis. Now for full year, coming to split. Agrochemical business grew by 46% to INR 3,034 crore out of INR 3,580 crore, whereas non-agrochemical business grew by INR 71 crore year-over-year basis to INR 576 crores.
Now further into agrochemical space, Europe grew by 32% for full year basis. NAFTA grew by 59% on full year basis, and Latin America grew by 110% on full year basis, and rest of the world grew by 10% on full year basis. In terms of, you know, regional, contribution to the total agro business, you know, revenue, Europe, contributed 46%, NAFTA contributed 38%, Latin America 11%, and, ROW, rest of the world, 5% of the agrochemical business for the, you know, full year basis. In non-agro space, Europe grew by 67%, NAFTA grew by 93%, Latin America grew by 14%, and rest of the world 44%.
In terms of, you know, contribution of non-agro business by the different, you know, regions, Europe contributed 31%, NAFTA 50%, Latin America 5%, rest of the world 4% of the non-agro business for full year FY22. We also improved on the net working capital, which stood at 89 days in FY22. This was a brief performance for quarter four and FY22. Now we open the floor for the questions. 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 their 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 your questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Jigar Shah from Swan Investment. Please go ahead.
Hello. Yeah. Hello, Unnati.
Hello.
Thank you. Hello, sir. Couple of questions. First, you have been mentioning since last two calls about deepening our presence in our various markets. Could you please elaborate upon that, what sort of impact are we seeing, you know, by strengthening our distribution network? Number one. Second question would be, your outlook, given the Chinese lockdown, how have you know, secured the supplies from there? And what sort of growth outlook would you like to give for the FY23? Yeah, these are my two questions.
Sir, your first question got mixed up, because of the sound. Can you repeat the first question once again?
Sure. The first question is about we have been continuously strengthening our distribution network, as you were mentioning in the investor presentation, and which has helped us to gain some market share in certain geographies. If you could just elaborate more that where do we stand vis-à-vis last year number for network, in terms of market share, and what is our plan for the rest of India? You know which other areas are we going to focus more on to strengthen the network?
See, it will be difficult for me to quantify what has been the improvement. All I can say is that the distribution network, the number of distributors are increasing and volume per distributor is also increasing. This is mainly due to our ability to supply the goods to them on time, on their demand, and maintaining the quality of the goods.
Sir, on the Chinese, how we secure our supplies from China?
See, for China has been a little up and down. For the up to say June, July last year, August last year, the supply from China was very normal. It started getting impacted sometime from around August to December. From January onwards, they also started improving. Recently, there has been again some impact of corona and COVID impact in China. The government has strictly put lockdown in many, many areas. When they say lockdown, it's complete lockdown. People are not even allowed to leave out of their houses. This part, this has affected the shipments. The goods are waiting at the port to get into the ships, and ships are waiting at the port also to get entry on the berth. This development has been very recently, and it has not been in a crucial period for us.
Our impact on these restrictions have been very marginal. We are very confident that the things will change. Chinese have been very flexible and very quick to recover very fast immediately after they overcome this corona problem.
Supply, which are standard for which impact us in the second half.
Sir, can you repeat your question, please? We were not able to hear you clearly.
Yeah. Hello? Yeah. Sir, what I would like to understand is, due to the supply bottleneck at the Chinese port, which quarter should we see the impact? Yeah.
See, our quarters are different and what is the impact of corona in on the Chinese country and population, that are two different things. For us, this quarter is not so significant because by this time all the goods required for the right season in the spring have already arrived in nations and in the distributors' warehouses. Any impact of restrictions in the shipments will have impact on our business the next quarter, which is a significantly quieter compound compared to Q4 and Q1 for us. We are not very much alarmed, and I'm sure by the time the crucial period comes, the Chinese will be able to come out of this lockdowns.
Okay. What sort of growth outlook would you like to give for FY23?
Sir, we should grow at the rate of 15%-20%.
Okay, thank you. I'll come back in touch. Yeah.
Thank you. Participants, if you wish to ask any questions, please enter star and one. The next question is from the line of Rohith P. from Spark Capital Advisors. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity, sir. My first question is on the distribution count. In the distributor count you did mention, what has been the change over the last year? So how many new distributors have been added over the last year? That's the first thing. Second thing, in terms of the new regions, I mean over the last year, any new geographies, specifically we have entered or probably penetrated more, which you want to kind of highlight?
See, geographies we were covering all the four geographies, Europe, NAFTA, Latin America, and rest of the world. We have gone little more deeper into these geographies, and this year we have been very effective and, I mean, benefited by NAFTA region. The growth in NAFTA region has been very good and we hope to continue this if the weather continues to be normal or friendly. We hear about some adverse weather in this month of some regions in U.S. is having storm and snow. If these things happen, then we may have some adverse impact. Otherwise, we should be able to continue our growth in NAFTA region.
Thank you, sir. Also if you can, touch upon the distribution, I mean the distributor count, you have given a total number. Anything that you can give on a geographic basis and more importantly, on a YOY, which are the areas which have seen a larger change?
Mr. Somaiah, we have very little time to go into so many details. All I can tell you is there is a general growth in the number of distributors, but it doesn't help us to know whether it's grown by 10% or 12%. They are growing, and the distributors are gaining more and more confidence on Sharda. Sharda's ability to supply the goods on time and Sharda's ability to supply quality products. That is helping us with the distributors.
Understood, sir. One question on the RM thing from sourcing from China. Over the last year, things have been pretty tough. What has kind of really helped us in terms of, you know, getting this sourcing completely in place, and in fact, gaining market share amid such tough times?
Sir, our developing good relationship with our manufacturers and gaining their confidence that we will pay them on time. Decision-taking, even at a crucial time when we found things difficult, we have shipped the goods by air. It has cost us a lot, but we've been able to meet the demands of the customers also in time.
Okay, sir. Sir, can you help us with the volume? You know, I think you did mention about the volume, price, and FX too for Q4. Can you please repeat it? The line was not clear. Also, if you could give the same number for FY22, that will be helpful.
One minute. Just one second. What is this? Quantity-wise, our volume in 2021-22 was 404 lakh 36,800, as compared to 323 lakh 19,900. This is the quantity. Price, I know they have lot of decimals. It is INR 3,580, as compared to INR 2,396. Cro-
Hello.
Sir, do you have any further questions or?
Yeah. I was referring to the percentage breakup of your revenue, that number for Q4 and FY22. Of the 30% revenue growth that occurred.
One second. Hello. Yeah, I'll give you those figures. Volume has contributed 24%, foreign exchange 1%, and price variance about 25%. Overall about 50%.
For Q4 what would be the same numbers?
For Q4, volume has de-grown by 11%, FX 0.3%, and price variance 42%.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Helpful. I'll join back.
Thank you. Participants, we'll request you to limit your questions to two per participant. Should you have any further questions, you may please join the queue back. The next question is from the line of Yatin Kumar from Alpha Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Congrats for a very good set of numbers. My first question would be, you were just mentioning about the volume and pricing. You see volume has de-grown by 11% this quarter. Can you please explain why that happened, and any guidance for the next full year?
Sir, one of the main factors that our performance in the previous year and this year this quarter was very good. There have been some hold-ups because of the freight and logistic reasons. Third was maybe some demand because of the corona pandemic.
Sir, any guidance you would like to give in terms of volume growth for next full year? Because there are issues as in terms of recessionary worries in Europe and China also lockdown is there.
We are confident we should be able to grow in the range of about 15%-20%, so in the next year.
So this-
Unless something-
Can sir-
Unless something happens like Ukraine-Russia war getting expanded or going over to the world scale, affecting Europe and U.S. If at the current state, feel that we'll be able to grow around 15% or +.
This guidance is on volumes or on value-wise?
Value-wise.
Sure. Sure, sir. Any margin-related things you would like to guess, give us guidance?
See, margins we've been able to maintain around 31%-32%. This time it was 30%. We'll be able to continue the same range.
Sure, sir. I'll join back in this.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Rohan Gupta from Edelweiss. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good evening, and congratulations on good set of numbers despite such a challenging environment. Sir, first thing is on a volume growth for the quarter, which has de-grown by almost 11%. You mentioned the couple of reasons you just cited. Going forward in the current quarter, do you see that this, you know, volume growth pressure is likely to continue, though you gave the guidance also of 20%? That also, sir, if you can clarify further because the price-led growth itself was significant and even likely to remain significant in the current year also. In that kind of scenario, sir, do you see that, the price growth itself can 15%-20% upward and the volume growth separate?
What did you say? See, first of all, I didn't say 20%. I said 15%-20%.
Yeah. 15%-20% growth guidance is, sir.
Yeah.
It should be more, you know, volume-led growth, right, sir?
Yes. Yes.
Okay.
The margins will be in the range of 30%-32%.
Right. Sir, prices are still holding up or prices are going up in the current scenario driven by the raw material price increase coming from China. How do you see that, the pricing, sir?
Rohan, it depends from product to product. In some products, the prices are catching up with the increase in the cost. In other products, there is no increase in the raw material or sourcing product. In fact, maybe sometimes they are going, so that is helping us in our margins.
Okay.
The selling prices are, more or less stable.
Right, sir. Sir, another is a clarification. On the current quarter for Q4, what we have seen that ROW markets have fallen significantly while other markets have reported a solid growth. Any particular reason for ROW markets, weak market in the current scenario, sir?
Rohan, this ROW is very spread out, the markets are spread over geographically, and many of these countries are not so well-regulated. Their borders are not so foolproof, and a lot of products go under different names and other things, so it's very difficult. Sometimes duplicate materials will reach there, so it's very difficult to maintain the margins. When the margins are not so attractive, our interest also gets a little reduced. Our emphasis into these markets also get reduced. We try to concentrate more in the markets of developed countries where the rule of law is effective and implemented very seriously, and only genuine and authorized products enter the countries. That is the area which gives us a margin and our interest.
Right, sir. In that way, the LATAM market has been quite significant for you in Q4, and you have reported very solid growth. Do you see that these markets, LATAM markets will continue to do well and the company will continue to focus more on this LATAM market?
The company will continue to focus also on the LATAM market. Our emphasis is mainly in Europe and NAFTA and also in the LATAM market.
Sir, just last, and I'll come back in queue. This sir, belting business that has also grown in line with the revenues in agrochemicals. I think that will be more led by the price increase growth. If you can give some comment on the belting business, how it is proceeding in the current scenario, and are you seeing that the mines and increased mining operations and all are they helping the growth of this business?
See, the main driving force for the belting business is our service to the customers, deliveries on time in difficult times, and quality of the product.
Sir, I was just looking for the growth guidance on that number. Will the belting business also keep on growing in line with the agrochemicals?
Rohan ji, this year the belting business has grown faster than the agrochemical business. We are starting the next new year with a very big base. We hope to continue almost as much the growth part as we have done this year.
Okay, great, sir. I'll come back in queue for any further questions. Thank you, Bubna ji. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Rohan.
Participants, we request you to limit your questions to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Rohit Nagraj from Emkay Global. Please go ahead. Sir, we are not able to hear you.
Hello.
Yes, yes. Please proceed.
Yeah. Am I audible now?
Yes.
Yes, please.
Yeah. Yes, sir. Thanks a lot for the opportunity and, congrats on good Q4 as well as FY22. Sir, my first question is, in the next five years, there are $5 billion-$6 billion of, you know, products going off patent. How are we able to capitalize on this? Or how are our customers placed to capitalize on this? Thank you.
It's a natural opportunity for us. This is not requiring any efforts from our, on our part. I mean, these are natural opportunities for us, and we are confident of capitalizing on this as we have been doing it in the past.
Right, sir. Got it. Sir, the second question is in terms of channel inventories. How are the channel inventories across different markets currently? If channel inventories are high, then probably that could have implications in future. What is your sense on the same?
See, our experience is that channel inventories were getting less and less, and they were drying up during the last full year in the period of corona pandemic, you know. That had helped us. It is very difficult for us to make a guess and estimate how the channel inventories are going on in the current year with the competitors, because this information is never published. I feel that the channel inventories are going to go down over a period of time because freight costs are also increasing significantly, the shipping times are increasing significantly. It's becoming very difficult also for anybody to keep a lot of product in the channel.
Thank you. Rohit.
All right, sir. Yeah, got it. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Chirag Shah from Swan Investments. Please go ahead.
Hello. Yeah, Bubna ji,
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir. We have around 72 days of inventory, as per the presentation. Could you give us a breakup, and around 8.2% growth of inventory in absolute terms. Out of this, how much would be finished goods and, if you could share the breakup. Just want to understand, so you know, like the disruption in the logistics which has been caused. So how many months will you be covered in terms of finished goods inventory?
See, we do not have a break up. What was your main question? Break up in what way? The formulated products or active ingredients?
Yeah. The formulated products. Yes, the finished products. Yes. And the raw material.
I do not have that break up, and we do not maintain the break up in this form because ultimately, there's not a big time gap between the raw materials and the finished product getting the products formulated. Our inventories have been in the range of 70-75 days, and we feel that we'll be able to contain it to this level in the next year.
For us to grow at around 20%, in the June and the September quarter, will we be able to have sufficient stock, assuming you know the suppliers from China has got disrupted in last around 25-30 days, and we don't know how the things will open up. Just want to get your confidence on that.
Yes, we'll be able to maintain.
Okay. Very well. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of, Bhavya Gandhi from Dalal & Broacha. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question. I just wanted to understand what is the overall dependency on China, and what is the alternative source? For example, if China remains shut for six to eight months, so what is the alternative, and what is our overall dependency?
See, I've told people in the past that China is a factory to the world.
Yes.
The entire world is dependent upon China. The real alternative doesn't exist in the real sense. There are some alternatives available in India, but the quantity and the volumes are much lesser. In India also, we have a lot of handicaps of logistics and so many things, you know, ships availability and all that. I think China is very flexible in this respect, and they have been able to meet the requirement of the world, and I feel that they will continue to be.
Sir, what would be as a percentage of our procurement, overall procurement?
See, our procurement from China is more than around 90-95%, and we will continue to be in that level.
In terms of value?
In terms of value, yes.
Okay. Sir, you've given 32% gross margin guidance. Sir, what is the guidance with respect to EBIT or EBITDA margin?
One minute. EBITDA margin is in the range of 20%-21%.
Okay.
EBIT
Okay. Very well, sir. I'll get back in the queue.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ritik Kumar from Edelweiss Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I just wanted to know the gross margin break-up by geography.
One minute. See, in the year, financial year 2022, the gross margins in Europe have been in the range of 36%, NAFTA around 29%-30%, LATAM around 15%, and rest of the world about 22%.
Entering Q4.
Overall is 30.2%. Yes? Q4.
Entering, yes.
Well, Q4 has been, say, Europe, it has been in the same range, 35%-36%. NAFTA was 26%, LATAM 15%, and rest of the world, 20%-23%. More or less in the same range as the full financial year.
Okay, sir.
Thank you.
Sir.
I would request you.
Total revenue
Ritik Srivastava, sir, I would request you to please come back in the queue. The next question is from the line of Nitin Agarwal from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thank you for taking the question. Sir, on the belting business, has there been any change in the margin profile of the business also?
There has been. The margins have been under pressure, mainly because of the freight costs. The freights have been so significant, and they form a fairly significant part of the total cost. In other words, the cost of agrochemicals, the freight is much lesser in terms of percentage as compared to the bulk parts. Our customers have been sharing quite a lot of portion of the increase in the freight, but not 100%. Maybe 15%-20% or 25% freight has to be also absorbed by us, which we have to take out of our margins, and that's why the margins are under pressure.
The margin will be around 5% in this business, sir, or is there a different range of that now?
Overall, the margin is in the range of 17%-18%.
In the belting business also, sir?
In the belting business, yes.
Okay, sir. Sir, secondly, you know, by end of the year, we have a slightly higher inventory than we used to have in the past. You talked about reducing inventory going forward. Any particular reason why the inventory? Have we deliberately chosen to stock up a higher inventory in this quarter?
You see, we had planned the inventories as per the previous year, but the offtake has been a little bit slow in the Q4 . That is why you would see a small increase in the inventory. That'll be all utilized in this current quarter, you know.
Some level of recovery disruption which are there in manufacturing, that should also be helping you this time.
Thank you, sir. I would request you to please come back in the queue. We would like to cover all the participants in the queue. The next question is from the line of Dhruv Muchhal from HDFC Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Thank you so much.
Yes. Hello.
Sir, first question was on the CapEx. Next year now your return rate is much better than, I mean, much higher than what it was for the last few years. Sir, any upgrade in CapEx that we should be looking for? That's first. For the next two years, if you can guide on the CapEx, sir.
See, the CapEx has been always on an increase. Also because the requirement of the authorities are increasing for registering a product. The product registration costs have been continuously going up. I think, our CapEx would be in the same range. This year it was more than INR 400 crore. Next year it could be maybe INR 380 crore-INR 450 crore.
INR 300-400 crores.
380.
380.
I'm saying.
Okay.
Closer to INR 400 crores.
Okay, got it. Second was a question on the broader Europe market, focusing on the Europe market. Sir, are we seeing some change in the, you know, the structure of the market in terms of how buyers are purchasing, how our customers are looking at the purchase from, say, off-patent products? Because, sir, earlier what we used to understand is the innovators had a big hold on the market because of some, you know, bundled policies. Yeah, you know, just incentives and all those factors. The customers are not leaving these innovators for some or the other reason. Are you seeing, sir, that changing at a relatively faster pace now, and they're looking for off-patent suppliers like you more and more now? Is that a trend that you're seeing?
Earlier, sir, what we also used to see is, the customers wanting a lot of data in terms of, you know, getting off-patent products from other suppliers and not from innovators. Now is that changing, sir?
See, your question has been a little long. I'll provide a shorter answer. The customers are getting accustomed to, I mean, non-innovator products because they find that the quality is good enough and they have a slight soft corner because the prices are better than the innovators. The generic companies are more flexible. They are very fast to change to the requirements of the customers. Whereas innovators, the response to the changes in the market situations are comparatively slow.
Yeah.
They are system-driven and generics are personality driven, you know.
That's true, sir, but this has been the case always. I mean, you have always been cheaper than the innovator. What I'm trying to understand, in the last two-three years or let's say last three years or so, has this increased? I mean, has the acceptance increased even further, and we should continue to see this, because Europe is a big market for you, sir. Penetrating this market has always been difficult for other players, but it seems you are doing very well.
My answer to your question is yes. Their shift towards the generics is increasing, and as it always happens, the customers have a lesser confidence on a generic when it's new in the market. We have been operative in this market for more than 15-18 years now. They know that we are a serious company and we are coming up to their needs and requirements. They're having more confidence in us, and that's how a small shift towards the company like Sharda.
Perfect, sir. Thank you.
Yes, thank you. If you have any questions, you may email or come back in the queue. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Darshita Shah from Antique Stock Broking. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Bubna ji. Congratulations on the good set of numbers. I just had one question. If we could get the volume and registration received geography-wise break up for 4Q and FY22, that would be very helpful.
What was your question? Volume?
Volume-wise, volume and registration received geography-wise breakup for Q4 and FY22.
Madam, volume information I have already given. If you want, I'll give you once again.
No, no. Geography-wise, what was the volume-wise growth?
Geography-wise, the volume in Europe was about 18.6 million units. NAFTA about 13 million units, LATAM about 5.2 or 5.3 million, and rest of the world about 3 million. Totally around 40 million units. You can call it kilograms or liters.
Yeah. I actually wanted the YOY growth for the quarter as well as for the year.
YOY growth is about 24%. It was around 32 million units last year, and it's around 40 million units this year.
Mm-hmm.
It's about 24% growth.
Yeah. For the regions, that is Europe, NAFTA, LATAM and rest of the world, the YOY growth.
Yes, yes, madam. YOY growth is 20.3% in Europe, 14% in NAFTA, 112% in Latin America, and 5% in rest of the world. Overall is about 24%.
For the quarter?
For the quarter, Europe has been a slight degrowth, about 4%. NAFTA around 30% degrowth. LATAM about 170% growth. Rest of the world is about 40% degrowth. For the quarter, the biggest growth is in the LATAM region, you know.
Right.
Overall for Q4 there has been a degrowth of about 10%.
Right. Thank you so much. I needed the registration received geography-wise break-up as well.
Let me see if I have that information. No. I'll tell you. You want the registrations received?
Right. Right. Yeah.
Am I right?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Madam, we have received about 143 registrations in the whole year, out of which 94 have come in Europe, 37 in NAFTA, eight in LATAM, and four in rest of the world. Total about 143.
Okay. That will help me, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, madam. Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Himanshu Binani from Prabhudas Lilladher. Please go ahead.
Yeah, sir. Thank you for taking my question. Sir, I just have two questions. Number one is on the Europe region. What we have been like hearing from the competitors, comments from the other CEOs that companies are actually facing some regulatory issues in terms of their products in the European region. Wanted to have a sense on how you are placed in that.
Sir, your voice was honestly not very clear. I would request you to please repeat the question and speak little slowly and louder.
Sure, sir. Sir, my first question was on the European region. What we have been like hearing from the competition as well as commentary from other companies is that companies are facing some regulatory issues in terms of the products into the region. Just wanted to have a sense that how are we placed into this region basically?
Sir, I have not. I'm hearing from you for the first time that some companies are facing some, you say some challenges, in terms of registration in Europe.
some challenges in terms of the products.
Huh?
Some challenges in terms of the generic products. Products are getting banned due to the regulatory issues, et cetera. Just wanted to have a sense that are you also facing something of this sort in the European region?
See, my friend, if a product is getting banned, then that ban is for everybody, including an innovator or a generic player. It is not restricted only to generic players. The process of ban is because of the technical reasons. Some products are found to be harmful to the environment or to the human consumptions and things like that. As R&D is developing, they find some impurities in some products which are harmful. This is a general trend which is affecting everybody. It is not affecting one company or one class of suppliers. It is there, but it's very normal. It is a normal process.
The process of banning will continue because as and when the product becomes older, the technical experts find some weaknesses in those products which affect the quality of the application on the Agri-products, and they are slowly getting banned. Newer and newer products are coming. The new products are proving to be more expensive, but more, I mean, environmentally friendly and harmless for the human consumption. This is a general trend. It doesn't affect any generic or innovative separately. Have I answered your question correctly, sir? Have I understood your question and answered it correctly?
Right, sir. Sir, secondly, my second question was that on the opening remarks you have actually commented on focusing on the bio products. Sir, just wanted to have a sense on the registration. How are we placed in getting the registrations, et cetera? We have got somewhere around 140 registrations during FY22. If we actually need to bifurcate that between the traditional and the bio trade, what would be the breakup basically of this?
See, bioproducts basically are not. I mean, it's only the Agri products which are also used for bio application. The molecules are the same, only the concentration and packing are different. Bioproduct, the packings form a very significant part of the total product. Concentrations are much lesser, and registration process is also slower. Bioproducts, the volume of sales is also very much lower compared to the Agri products. We are getting the registration of bioproducts. The pace is a little slow, and our attention is also slow because it's not forming a significant part of the business and revenue.
Right.
It is-
Thank you. We'll move to the next question from the line of Bhavya Gandhi from Dalal & Broacha. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. I just wanted to understand that companies which are backward integrated, especially in this inflationary scenario, do they tend to, you know, generate better margins and better hold because they'll have pricing power vis-à-vis us? Because every layer, you know, some sort of margin gets added from intermediates to technicals to formulations. What's your take on this, sir?
Mr. Gandhi, if you take the total margin from the stage of manufacture in the factory or from the raw materials to the consumer, the manufacturing stage contributes very small part of the total margin. Most of the margins come from marketing and from sales. There could be some saving in the cost of the manufacturing, but the manufacturing has also a lot of disadvantages, mainly to continue the factory running during off-season. Agrochemicals are purely season-driven products, you know. Manufacturing companies find it very difficult to manufacture, continue their production, and keep the goods in warehouses and store for a longer period till the season comes. These kinds of disadvantages eat all the small margins that they have in saving in the cost of manufacturing.
Right, sir.
It's my impression.
All right.
It's my impression.
Sir, one more question. How many pyrethroid registration we would be having? Do we in the overall registrations have pyrethroid registrations globally?
We do have, right.
If you could quantify the number and which geography are those?
See, mainly the registrations are distributed among herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides and all that.
Right.
Pyrethroids, I think, form a part of insecticides.
Right.
Insecticides is not a very significant part of the total agrochemical business. Majority is in herbicides and fungicides.
Okay.
We do not have. It doesn't help us.
And sir-
Sorry to interrupt, sir. You may email your questions. We will have to move to the closing comments in the interest of time. This was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to management for closing comments.
Yes, madam. I would like to thank everyone, all of our participants who have joined us in this conference. I hope we have been able to answer your queries to your satisfaction. We look forward to such interactions in the near future. We hope to meet your expectations in future. In case you require any further details, you may contact us or Mr. Devendra Vengurlekar from SGA, our investor relations partner. We are available to individual questions or communications in writing or on phone, and we are, we'll be very happy to interact with you. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. On behalf of Antique Stock Broking, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.
Thank you, madam. Thank you, everybody.