We will be presenting the full year 2023 performance of Golden Agri-Resources, starting with the executive summary. As you know, 2023 was a challenging year in many ways. Nonetheless, we were very pleased with our robust full year 2023 financial results. However, we did see a decline compared to 2022, which was a record year because of abnormally high CPO prices. We saw a normalization to more sustainable levels, we believe, in 2023. Some of the key numbers here. Revenue reached $9.76 billion, a 15% decline. EBITDA $986 million, a 46% decline. Underlying profit was $328 million. The board is proposing a dividend of $0.613 cents per share. As I already mentioned, the main driver of these results was the CPO price, which declined by 28% from $1,248 per ton in 2022 to $901 per ton last year.
On top of that, we also saw a slight decline in our palm product output, and this was partly because of our fairly aggressive replanting program. We also experienced heavy rainfall in the first semester of the year. Nonetheless, we achieved healthy EBITDA margins of 23.8% for the upstream and 5.3% for the downstream. Here are the financials in a bit more detail. I discussed the year-on-year results already. Half on half, we did see some improvement, and that was despite the CPO price coming down by another 10% in the second half compared to first half. Gross profit increased by 10% to $969 million, and EBITDA increased by 6% to $508 million. Underlying profit was $108 million, and this was impacted by a non-recurring expense related to the internal streamlining of our company structure.
We come to our financial position, and Golden Agri has been able to maintain a strong balance sheet through its prudent financial management. As you can see, the balance sheet remained stable. We saw an increase in that debt, but this is off a very low base. As a result, you can see that our financial ratios are holding up very well. The current ratio at 1.42x , net debt to total equity 0.59x , net debt over EBITDA 0.4x , and EBITDA interest 4.47x . Accordingly, the board is proposing a dividend distribution for 2023, as I mentioned, $0.613 cents per share. This comes out to a payout ratio of 18%, and this payout ratio is equal to what we did in 2022 and falls within the company's dividend policy, which is to pay out up to 30% of underlying profit.
The amount of dividend really depends on one hand, rewarding shareholders for their loyalty. At the same time, we do see the need for maintaining a strong balance sheet in light of the anticipated global challenges. We then come to the segmental results, and we start with the Plantations and Palm Oil Mills. Here you can see year- on- year, a decline, and that was driven in the financial results driven by the lower CPO prices I already mentioned in the beginning, came down by 28%. Production came down as well by 5% in terms of fruits and 4% in terms of total palm product output. If you look at the second half, we did see a good recovery compared to the first half in terms of revenue increased by 19% to $1.09 billion.
EBITDA also increased by 19% to $259 million. This was despite the decline in CPO price. That was, of course, driven by the recovery in production by 16% for the fruits and palm product output increased by 21%. That is why we see the second-half results increase. What also helped was the lower fertilizer costs compared to first half 2023. This is an overview of our oil palm plantations, and we continue to focus on technological innovation and replanting with higher yielding seeds to ensure the long-term productivity growth, so that even without expanding into new areas of land, we can continue to increase our production volumes with the existing lands. We replanted 14,200 hectares for the full year.
Our target is 15,000- 20,000 hectares per year, but we were a bit delayed by the El Niño conditions that we experienced last year. Almost half of our planted area is between 7- 18 years old, as you can see in the pie chart on the right, and the average age of our trees was sustained at 16 years old. Through the active replanting program, we believe we can maintain a beneficial age profile that will allow us to continue to grow production into the future. We come to our downstream segment, the Palm Oil and Laurics and Others. Here, we saw a very good improvement in the sales volume compared to the previous year. In the previous year, 2022, we had a temporary export ban in Indonesia, which impacted our volumes, and we saw a good recovery in 2023.
However, because of the lower CPO prices, we did see an impact on the financial results, EBITDA at $507 million, which was a decline by 50% compared to 2022. Nonetheless, the EBITDA margin remained at a very healthy 5.3%. The reason why we can maintain this good margin is because of our focus on the integrated business model, and on pursuing higher value-added downstream products with better margins. We come to the strategy and outlook, and we aim to fortify our position as an innovative and leading integrated agribusiness and food player with superior at-scale upstream and resilient value-adding downstream business. In the upstream, we focus on the yield intensification, getting more product from the same land, as well as cost efficiencies to lower the cost of production. We do that through advancing our operational excellence by using cutting-edge technology, as well as agri-science innovation.
Some examples here, the R&D on superior planting materials, as I mentioned, the precision agriculture, advanced mechanization and automation, and the overall best practice plantation management. In the downstream, the focus on the value-added refined products, and we are optimizing margin by developing a large portfolio of products and services, which differentiate themselves based on quality, on being a healthier alternative, being sustainably produced. We also have our full service distribution through our logistics distribution network that spans the globe. The capital expenditure for this year is up to $300 million, and in the upstream, that will be primarily for the replanting program. We continue to aim for about up to 20,000 hectares of replantings per year. Downstream, we are expanding some of our processing facilities in terms of the kernel crushing, oleochemicals, and also the palm oil refineries.
We are also enhancing the logistics facilities for traceable products, allowing segregation. Finally, we also have several carbon emission reduction initiatives. We then come to the industry outlook, and Golden Agri remains optimistic about the industry fundamentals, which remain strong. On the supply side, we see a slowdown in growth. For palm oil, that is because of the aging plantations and the replanting activities that the industry has to go through, while the other oil seeds continue to see low growth as they have historically. Of course, the erratic weather conditions and geopolitical conflicts may also result in temporary supply disruptions as we've seen recently. On the demand side, we continue to see sustained growth for food and oleochemicals, because of rising levels of income and populations.
This is where palm has competitive advantages in terms of cost of production, as well as productivity per hectare of land. Finally, also its versatility in terms of the wide range of users. Another strong catalyst on the demand side is the biodiesel, and we continue to see increasing blending mandates, especially in Indonesia, the U.S., as well as Brazil. We then come to the final slide, which discusses our sustainability efforts, and this will be presented by Ian.
Hi, everyone. Thank you, Richard. Just a few sustainability highlights from 2023. The context in 2023 is continued increasing demand for sustainable and resilient supply chains from our customers. Accordingly, we continue to invest, enhance, and expand our sustainability efforts. Here are three examples. First one, last year was an El Niño year, and we continued our partnership with communities, 117 villages, specifically in our Desa Makmur Peduli Api program. This is where we empower them to detect fires early, to douse fires, to notify authorities when there is a fire. As a consequence, we experienced some fires, but the impact on garden operations was very limited. Okay. Second achievement or second major effort for us was in achieving fully traceable supply chains.
Basically, we achieved 99-plus percent traceability to plantation for our palm supply chain in Indonesia, and we're now expanding our traceability program to our global palm supply chain, which is basically mainly trading efforts. The traceability basically sets up the platform for us to ensure compliance with our no deforestation, no development, peat, no exploitation commitments. This, in turn, forms the foundation for compliance with upcoming regulations, and in particular, this year will be EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products. Lastly, and very important for us, is our investment in rural economic development through our Bright Futures program. We have 100 projects underway that build the capacity of communities to basically grow food beyond their own needs. They grow food for their own needs, but they can sell excess organic food, excess crops, excess livestock into local markets, and we facilitate the sales into those markets. Yeah.
The good news here is that we do see a significant increase in the income of the families who participate in this program. It's a good success for us.