We start with our executive summary. Golden Agri-Resources is very pleased with a robust set of results for the first half, despite the moderation that we saw with the significantly lower CPO price, which was, in fact, a normalization of the CPO price after the record highs that we achieved in 2022. We see here some of the key figures, financial figures. The first one is revenue, reached $4.88 billion, which was an 11% decline. EBITDA came down by 41% to $478 million. Underlying profit reached $220 million, which was lower by 46% compared to last year. However, if you look at the graph on the right-hand side, we believe you can see a clear trend of stronger results post-pandemic, which is primarily driven by a structurally higher CPO price. We are certainly believing that we will be able to continue that trend.
The average CPO price declined by 40% compared to last year, to $949 per ton. Fruit production decreased by 7%, primarily due to heavy rainfall that we experienced on some of our plantations, as well as our replanting efforts. Downstream EBITDA margin, however, remains healthy at more than 5%. Here we have the financial results. To summarize, the results were moderated compared to last year because of the CPO price normalization, production slowdown, but the downstream performance remained resilient. Most of these figures I already highlighted. Net profits came down by 53% to $182 million, which is still a very respectable figure. As a result, our financial position also remained healthy. You can see very little change in our balance sheet. Net debt increased, but of course, this is from a very low level.
At $317 million is still very low. If you look at the financial ratios, we see the current ratio slightly improving to 1.52x , while the debt to equity was more or less constant at 0.58x . Net debt over EBITDA declined slightly to 0.21x , and EBITDA over interest to 7.44x , which are still very comfortable ratios. We come to our segmental performance, starting with our upstream business. Here we saw a decline in performance driven primarily by the lower CPO price as mentioned, which came down by 40%. We also saw a reduction in the production outputs, primarily because of the heavy rainfall that we had at the earlier part of the year, as well as our efforts in replanting our old estates. Finally, we also experienced higher fertilizer costs.
This is actually because of the fertilizer that we bought last year when prices were still higher, and those fertilizers were used in the first half of this year. For the second half, we bought those fertilizers this year at lower prices. We do expect those costs to come down in the second half. This is an overview of our oil palm plantations. Here you can see that the planted area remained constant. Mature increased slightly, and this is because of the relatively modest replanting that we achieved in the first half of 6,500 hectares. Our target is 20,000 hectares, which we still believe we can achieve as historically we do most of our replanting in the second half of the year, while the first half is mostly for the preparation.
We, of course, are replanting these plantations with much higher yielding seeds, and that will result in our production volumes to continue to grow even without expanding our planted area. Here you see our downstream, and we continue to enjoy a healthy EBITDA margin because of the vertically integrated business model that we have. Revenue came down by 12%, of course, mostly because of the lower CPO price, and EBITDA by 10%. But the decline was partly shielded by the higher sales volume that we achieved of 5.148 million tons, a 23% increase over last year. That increase was driven by the temporary export ban that we had last year, which was lifted, and we saw the recovery accordingly. As a result, EBITDA achieved $258 million, which is a significant contribution to our consolidated results. And EBITDA margin was maintained at 5.3%.
We come to the strategy focus, and Golden Agri-Resources continues to emphasize its soil to table agri-business, the vertically integrated business that we have built. We continue to use technology and innovation as a competitive edge to continue our operational excellence. In terms of our product portfolio, we are increasingly focusing on health friendly and sustainably produced products as we see the markets trending towards those products. The capital expenditure for this year is targeted at $240 million. For the downstream, that is primarily for the replanting of around 20,000 hectares. In the downstream we are expanding some of our kernel crushing and oleochemical plants, enhancing other downstream facilities, and we also have several carbon emission reduction initiatives. The industry outlook remains positive. Supply and demand is expected to remain tight.
The structural reasons for this are the lack of new plantings, land expansion across the industry, which is resulting in aging plantations, and also the replanting of these older estates. In the short term, we also expect supply to be impacted by the El Niño weather condition, as well as the geopolitical tensions currently. On the demand side, we continue to see a recovery after the pandemic. We also see especially strong demand growth in the biodiesel sector in countries like U.S. and Brazil, but also most importantly out of Indonesia, which is now implementing its B35 blending commitments. The fundamentals are good for the vegetable industry and specifically for palm oil compared to the other vegetable oils because of its high productivity, competitive price, as well as its wide range of users. The next slide about our sustainability achievements will be presented by Anita.
Thanks, Richard. Four areas of focus for this month or this quarter. First of all, managing conservation areas and biodiversity. We've been working to protect and restore mangrove forests near our Tarjun refinery in South Kalimantan. This kind of restoration effort not only protects our assets, but also is a contributor to climate change mitigation. Similarly, in partnership with a major buyer, we've commenced an additional project to rehabilitate degraded peatlands in the Jambi area. We're continuing to scale our Bank Sampah or Waste Bank pilot projects, reducing plastic waste throughout our operations in Indonesia. While we were on this call, somebody just dropped in an example of the work from one of those projects. So good to see that in action. Caring for families and communities is also an essential component of our contribution to a better society.
We're improving our childcare centers across our estates and building community learning centers in collaboration with the Tzu Chi Foundation here in Indonesia. We're scaling up strategic partnerships with local communities through assisting the development of micro, small, and medium enterprises across our operations, and continuing to implement a WASH, or water sanitation and hygiene project facilitated by our partner, Safe Water Gardens. We talked a lot about our efforts on traceability. We achieved 98% full traceability to plantation for the palm supply chain end of last year, and continue to maintain that level whilst working towards 100% at the end of 2023. Phase two of our efforts in this area include capacity building of our Tier 2 suppliers and smallholders, including the Sawit Terampil program, which is really focused on helping smallholders increase their yields, achieve legality and ISPO certification.
Traceability to plantation is enabling to help our customers comply with EU Deforestation Regulation. We're actively working on being able to do so. We've talked a little bit about committing to climate action. As I mentioned, the work on restoring mangroves and peatlands is part of climate change mitigation. It's part of our commitment to the agriculture sector roadmap to a 1.5 degree future. We're continuing our efforts to accelerate action in supply chains to stop commodity linked deforestation, and we're also implementing task force for climate related financial disclosures and associated recommendations.