Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is your conference call operator. Welcome to the media and analyst conference of the Barry Callebaut Group. The topic of the webcast is the half year results of the 2020-2021 fiscal year. The conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. As a reminder, to ask questions live, you will have to dial in by phone. You'll find the dial-in details in the webcast tool under the navigation point Q&A. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. You may also submit your questions in writing by the respective field in the webcast dashboard. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Claudia Pedretti, Head of Investor Relations of Barry Callebaut.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our half year results 2020-21. We are here for the media and analyst webcast. My name is Claudia Pedretti. I am head of investor relations, and speaking to you today are our CEO, Antoine de Saint-Affrique, and our CFO, Ben De Schryver. Please be reminded that the information given during this conference contains some forward-looking statements which reflect the best of our current knowledge. Actual results may be different. Furthermore, we would like to inform you that this webcast is being recorded. This is our agenda for today. Antoine will present to you the highlights of the first half year, and then hand over to Ben, who will walk you through the financial review. He will hand back to Antoine for his remarks on strategy and outlook before we will finish the webcast with a questions- and- answer session.
You will get instructions from the operator once more at the end of the presentation on how to ask your questions. With that, I hand over to Antoine.
Thank you, Claudia, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our half year results conference. It is once more and to my sorrow in a virtual setting, but hopefully, we will be soon able to welcome you again in person, and finally have you try some of the fantastic chocolate innovation that we have been cooking for our customers and do so face-to-face. Before we go to the results, let me start with what was for some of you, I understand, a surprise in this morning's release. As you will have read this morning, I will at the end of this fiscal year, and after six very rich and very exciting years at the helm of Barry Callebaut, pass the baton to Peter Boone, who currently presides over our Americas region.
Peter, that many of you know very well, has an amazing track record as a business leader, as a people grower, and as an innovator over his many years at Barry Callebaut. I think no one could be more ready than he is to fill this role. As you will also have seen, I intend to remain very closely associated with Barry Callebaut. I will be proposed as a board member at the next AGM. We have been planning my succession for quite some while with the board, and we have, in the past weeks, come to the conclusion that the end of this year would be a very natural moment for it. The company will have navigated the crisis well and is coming out of it stronger as you see from the results. It will be then ready for its next chapter.
Whilst I'm sure it will be for me a very emotional moment when at the end of the year I step down from a company which I serve with passion, I believe it's the right thing to do at the right time. I must say I'm very delighted that the board was able to pick, after a thorough succession process, and for the very first time in the company's history, a successor from within Barry Callebaut. This is a clear tribute to the strength and to the quality of the talent bench at Barry Callebaut. Before this happens, I can promise you will still have to bear with me for about five months, and I can promise you as well, we have no intent to stay idle during the next five months.
Speaking of bench strength, I'm also delighted to announce two newcomers to the executive committee, both of them strong homegrown talents. Steve will be succeeding Peter as President Americas as of September 1st. Jo will become our new President for Asia Pacific as per July 1st. Both are great homegrown talents, and I'm really delighted to see homegrown talents joining our executive committee. Let's go to the next slide, please. Now, let's have a look at the financial highlights for the first six months. We have seen continued volume recovery, and we have delivered solid profitability in a still challenging environment. The disciplined execution of our Smart Growth strategy, together with our continuous capability building and the successful sharpening of our business model, are the basis for improving performance.
Sales volume continued to recover in the second quarter, further reducing our decline to -2.9% for the first six months of the year. Our EBIT was solid at slightly below CHF 300 million, up 3.8% in local currency compared to our prior year EBIT recurring. Our net profits increased even by 6.9% in local currency compared to prior year recurring. We reached a strong adjusted free cash flow of CHF 163 million. Ben will share more details with you on how we achieved those solid results. Next slide, please. You're obviously all familiar with the graph on slide six. It shows the volume development per quarter on our cocoa and chocolate. It clearly illustrates our continued volume recovery and shows that our chocolate volumes are nearly returned to positive territory in the second quarter.
This recovery in our chocolate was achieved in what is still a challenging environment due to our COVID-19 restriction in our major markets. Volume of global cocoa was down by -9.6% as we continue to focus on more profitable activities. Let's now have a closer look at our key growth drivers on the next slide. Emerging markets volume led the recovery with + 6.1% excluding cocoa. Markets like China, but also, and despite COVID restrictions, India and Brazil contributed to the recovery. Long-term partnership and outsourcing start contributing to the recovery as well, and we see increasing number of discussions starting as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gourmet & Specialties volume showed resilience throughout the first six months, despite significant lockdowns, in particular in Western Europe.
There, our efforts to sharpen our business model by reaching out to new customers, new channels, and expanding our geographical reach resulted in a slight positive volume growth for Gourmet alone and is setting the stage for continued recovery and positive growth going forward. Next slide, please. As you can see from this very busy chart, and I don't expect you to read anything of it, a lot was achieved in the first six months of the year. Let me highlight a few for you. In a nutshell, we continued building for the future and gearing up for a post-crisis world. We kept expanding our customer and geographic footprint with the opening of a new sourcing facility in Ecuador with a new chocolate factory in Baramati, India. You know India is the world's second most populous country and one of the fastest chocolate eating countries.
With, for instance, also a new distribution partnership with Garudafood in Indonesia. We kept making good progress on sustainability, which I believe will play an even more important role as a result of the pandemic. This year again, the Carbon Disclosure Project gave us a top ranking for our engagement on climate issues in our supply chain. Another example, we started a promising collaboration with Sicao, an award-winning startup from Côte d'Ivoire, on a pilot project to increase and diversify income of cocoa farmers in our Cocoa Horizons program. It is not only on sustainability topics that we bring innovation to the market. Next slide, please. We do believe that our customers will need innovation more than ever as consumers' behaviors are evolving as a result of the crisis. This is why we focus more than ever on our new trends and innovation.
We keep tapping in the growing demand for plant-based indulgence through our Plant Craft range and products such as our 100% dairy-free milk chocolate. We just opened our first fully segregated dairy-free chocolate production in our Norderstedt in Germany. When markets open again and travel opens again on your next trip to Italy, please take the opportunity to experience the taste or the new taste of cacao fruit gelato, which was developed in partnership with our Cabosse Naturals entity.
If you cannot travel or prefer to stay in wonderful Switzerland, you may want to try the new Magnum with our premium Belgian Caramel Gold, which is also already in our sale in Europe if you don't live in Switzerland. I promise you that next time we see each other, you will have the opportunity to taste those and many more. With that, I hand over to Ben, who will introduce you to our key financial numbers. Ben, over to you.
Thank you, Antoine. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure for me to present to you a strong set of results for the first half of 2020/2021. This time, we still meet in a virtual environment, but I'm very much looking forward to meeting many of you in person. Let's have a look at the half year results in more detail. Next slide, please. During the first six months of 2020/2021, we have delivered continued growth, recovery, and solid profitability in a still challenging environment due to COVID-19 pandemic. As you remember, last year, we incurred an eight million CHF loss due to the closure of our cocoa facility in Makassar, Indonesia. All profitability numbers in this presentation will be compared against prior year recurring, i.e., excluding these effects. As Antoine said, sales volumes continue to recover in the second quarter, driven by the chocolate business.
Overall group volume ended at -2.9% for the half year. The disciplined execution of our smart growth strategy and continued focus on cost control led to solid profitability. The operating profit EBIT amounted to CHF 296.7 million, up 3.8% in local currencies. The net profit amounted to around CHF 206 million, up with 7% in local currencies. Also, we generated strong adjusted free cash flow. We will get back into more details in the coming slides. Next slide, please. First, let's have a look at the regional performance on this slide 14. The volume recovery was led by region Americas and Asia Pacific, but all regions contributed to solid profitability. First, in region EMEA, volume continued to recover in the second quarter to -3%, despite the challenging environment due to renewed COVID-19 related restrictions across major Western European markets.
Overall volume declined by -5% for the half year. With a positive growth contribution from Eastern Europe, when comparing the underlying markets of Nielsen, this does not fully capture the full market. It does not reflect fully the out-of-home and impulse channels, which were most affected by COVID-19. Food Manufacturers volume growth improved seasonally lower activities in the first quarter. Gourmet & Specialties volumes declined in the low teens. The decline was driven by the challenging market environment in Western Europe, while Eastern Europe recorded positive volume growth again. Thanks to the strict cost discipline and improving mix effect, the operating profit was up 2.2% in local currencies. In region Americas, we had a good start to the year with a volume growth of 4.1%, well ahead of the underlying chocolate confectionary market. Growth was supported by both Food Manufacturers and Gourmet.
The good volume growth and an improving mix was also visible in the operating profits increase of 5.8% in local currencies. In region Asia Pacific, half year growth accelerated to 6.9%, indicating we are back to double-digit growth in the second quarter. Food Manufacturers growth was broad-based and Gourmet volume was back to double-digit growth, led by key markets such as China, India, and Taiwan. The operating profit is up by 9.2% in local currencies on the back of this accelerated volume and improving product mix. As outlined in our first quarter update, we focus on smart growth in the global cocoa business, which led to a -9.6% volume decline in the first half year. At the same time, operating profit decline was limited to only 6.9% in local currency in a very volatile market environment. Next slide, please.
Going back at group level, let's have a look at the gross profit bridge on this slide 15. The improving mix effect and positive contribution from cocoa mitigated the negative volume impact related to COVID-19 restrictions and resulted in a stable gross profit in local currencies. The improving mix effect was supported by more value-added product sales in the industrial business, as well as an overall faster recovery in Asia Pacific. Please note that currencies had a strong negative translation effect of minus CHF 38 million. Next slide, please. The cocoa combined ratio shows, as you know, the relation between the cocoa market prices of cocoa butter and powder in relation to the underlying cocoa bean price. This is a forward-looking curve. Results are normally shown six to nine months periods.
This is also the European ratio, w hile it's the most relevant ratio, do remember we run a global business. The combined ratio gives only a broad indication on this industry's profitability, but it does not reflect some important variables such as the country differentials and the LID. At the end of February 2021, the cocoa combined ratio was at a level of 3.3x compared to 3.4x in the first quarter. Cocoa powder prices remained robust, while cocoa butter prices deteriorated due to the COVID-19 related lower demands, while ample stocks were available. As mentioned before, we deliberately focused on smart growth in our global cocoa and did not add fuel to the cocoa butter price competition. Next slide, please. Now let's look at the operating profit development on slide 17. Our operating profit in the six months increased by 3.8% in local currencies.
Besides the resilient gross profit, the effective cost management, and lower costs related to COVID-19 restrictions like travel and promotional events led to lower SG&A costs. Currencies had, again, a strong negative impact of minus CHF 26 million, resulting in an absolute EBIT of just below CHF 300 million. Next slide, please. In the next bridge, we show you the development of EBITDA to net profits for the first half of the year. Financial items improved by CHF 2 million, thanks to financing actions we have taken over the past years. Tax expenses were lower at CHF 43 million. The decrease mainly resulted from lower profit before taxes, more favorable country mix, and a positive impact resulting from the Swiss tax reform. This leads to a temporary lower effective tax rate of 17.4%.
This results in a net profit of CHF 205.7 million, up 3.8% in local currencies. On slide 19, you can see the long-term development of our key raw materials. Please be reminded that based on our cost-plus model used in the majority of our business, the volatility of these raw materials normally does not affect our profitability. However, it has an impact on our working capital. The terminal market price of cocoa beans remains volatile and fluctuated between GBP 1,600 and GBP 1,900 per ton. On average, cocoa bean prices decreased 9.4% compared to prior year period. Global bean supply and demand showed a sizable surplus. World sugar prices increased on average by 12%, on the back of strong demand from China and delayed Indian exports. The Europe sugar prices remained on average, fairly stable compared to the demand-related lower prices at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dairy prices continued to increase on the back of strong demand from Asia and some supply chain constraints. However, on average, prices remained 10.6% below the average of the prior year period. Next slide, please. I'm pleased to show you that a continued strong free cash flow generation on slide 20. Our adjusted free cash flow amounted to almost CHF 163 million, a very strong number for the first half year. Let me explain to you how we achieved this excellent result. Our continued focus on working capital management led to a decrease of CHF 60 million on the back of structural improvements in payables, while inventories increased in line with seasonal patterns and continued volume recovery. Interest and income taxes paid amounted to CHF 59 million, CHF 40 million lower than in prior year periods, as a result of the improved financing structure and lower taxable income.
We continue to invest in our capabilities, which enable future growth. Our capital expenditure of CHF 138 million was about at the same level as our prior year period. Before the effect of cocoa beans regarded as RMI, the reported free cash flow amounted to minus CHF 183 million, which shows about the same level of improvement as the adjusted free cash flow. Next slide, please. Our net debt was further decreased by CHF 228 million. Considering the cocoa beans as RMI, the adjusted net debt decreased by CHF 220 million to CHF 662 million at the end of February 2021. Let's have a look at the key balance sheet numbers and ratios on slide 22. Our net working capital decreased to CHF 1,579,000,000 from CHF 1,838,000,000 in February 2020, thanks to our disciplined working capital management.
Our ROIC and ROE declined to 9.2% and 12.8%. This is mainly due to the lower profitability linked to the adverse effects of COVID-19 in our mix, which is fully included in this current half year, while prior years, this was not yet impacted. The adjusted net debt decreased to CHF 662 million, and the adjusted net debt to EBITDA ratio remains stable at 1.1x . With that, I hand over back to Antoine.
Many thanks, Ben. Let's have a look at our strategy and on how we want to continue to unlock opportunities before we open the lines to question. Next slide, please. As you know, we are boringly consistent in our long-term strategy, while evolving when needed its execution to try and stay ahead of the curve. The continuing COVID-19 context has not changed this. If anything, it has pushed us to be even sharper in its execution. We continue to focus on our four pillars of expansion, innovation, cost leadership, and sustainability. In their own way, each of them has provided a firm foundation for our company in the current context. Next slide, please. Let me start with our expansion. We made the clear choice not to stay idle during the crisis, but to actually use it to lay the ground for the future.
We expanded our footprint in major captive markets, like with our new factories in India and Serbia. We broadened and deepened our reach to geographies and customers we were not covering properly, such as, for instance, semi-industrial bakery. We are strengthening our capability to serve customers with our new global distribution center in Lokeren. It will be ready before the end of the year. It will serve as a logistic hub for the global distribution of chocolate produced by Barry Callebaut. On innovation, we are also consistently pushing the boundaries of what is exciting, of what is technologically possible, and of what is on trend. I already mentioned the plant-based trends, which we address in a number of different ways.
We also, for instance, teamed up with a very promising startup, Bloom Biorenewables, to investigate how side stream from chocolate manufacturing processes could help us become carbon positive by 2025. We don't stop here. We also want to shape the future of chocolate. On April 28th, next week, we kick off the journey of Treat Tomorrow. Together with customers and with experts, we will carve the plan for our new chocolate indulgence, reflect upon topics our consumer care about, our personal health, our next generation indulgence, obviously plant-based and our sustainability and the climate. Rather than me describing at length all the great things we're going to do in a couple of days, I suggest we roll the video. Please roll the video. I can tell you, I really look forward to it.
We will support the Treat Tomorrow initiative with a platform which I'm sure will provide our partners with a Netflix-like experience. Obviously all content will be available to the journalists and to the analysts, but after April 28th. I'm afraid you still have to wait a little bit to access to it. Next slide, please. Besides what we do in our innovation, we also keep future-proofing our business. As we always say, our cost leadership is critical in business to business, and even more so in crisis time. This is why we keep investing in digital systems and in streamlined processes, further leveraging our global SAP and Salesforce platforms. We also keep expanding the scope of services from our shared service center in Lodz in Poland, which by now bundles finance, IT, procurements, and our HR activities. Importantly, these initiatives are not only about cost.
They help us grow, they help us to improve our business relationship management with customers and supplier, and they help us, and you've seen that in the course of the last year, to maintain an excellent business continuity. On the sustainability front, we have been, as a company, pioneers, as we believe that it makes our business better and stronger. I'm convinced that this will be even more important as a result of the current crisis. As I mentioned in my opening, we kept making progress. What is even more important, we keep making impact. You all know my passion for sustainability, but let me elaborate further on another topic which is close to my heart. It is our people's agenda and how to create even more than today, an environment that is inclusive and diverse at Barry Callebaut.
An environment where everybody feels they can be at their best. Next slide. In January, we launched our diversity and inclusion strategy. I believe we can only grow if we grow as individuals and as teams, and if we are able to attract and retain talents wherever they are. For our diversity and inclusion strategy, we have chosen to focus on gender and on local talents. We clearly have progress to make on both fronts. This is where I believe we can have the bigger impact. We will go at it with time-bound and metricated targets as this is the way to make progress, but also with a dream. I dream to see the day where this company will be run by kids from origin countries and by some of our daughters. Next slide, please. Let me summarize before we open to question.
In the first six months of the fiscal year, we have seen a continued recovery and a solid profitability. While the environment remains volatile, our continued focus on customers, our drive for new opportunities, and our strong innovation pipeline, together with a sound balance sheet, make us confident that we are coming out of the crisis stronger and to deliver on our midterm guidance. Next slide, please. Finally, I couldn't close this presentation without mentioning and thanking once again the teams at Barry Callebaut. In a market environment that is extraordinarily demanding, abiding by extremely strong COVID measures, they continue to display everyday passion for the customer, passion for the company, and they continue to perform in an outstanding way. A huge thank you to each and every one of the Barry Callebaut team. We are, and I am incredibly proud of them. Next slide, please.
With this, ladies and gentlemen, I conclude the presentation and we will open the floor to questions. Operator, could you please instruct the participants accordingly?
This is your conference call operator. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. We will first take your live questions via phone. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. You will be advised when your line is open to ask your question. All other lines will remain in listen only mode. The first question comes from the line of Joern Iffert with UBS. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Antoine, Ben, and Claudia. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one, Antoine, would be to you. It is sad seeing you leaving. However, could you maybe share with us what you think could be the next steps for the company in the next three to four years, will the strategy remain on the fundamentals? Can Barry go, for example, outside chocolate? What do you think could be the new strategic period and be filled out with? Would be quite interesting to hear this from your point of view. The second question is, please, in Gourmet, this lockdown, the operational performance was much better than the last lockdown. Can you share with us some clarity on market share gains, number of clients? The third question would be on innovation. These pure cocoa products, are you also using the pulp as a sweetener?
We see this launched by many other consumer companies. I mean, is there a competitive edge Barry has here regarding mass production going forward and also for larger outsourcing deals, or is this something which the consumer companies will do by their own over the next two to three years? Thanks a lot.
Hey, morning, Joern. I hoped you'd have some questions for Ben rather than making me work extremely hard from the first few questions. Listen, I think on the leaving, well, first, I'm not leaving for the next five months, we're going to drive the ship as hard as we can, you can see that there is a good dynamic. I think the second thing, which is very important, you've seen that from all the appointments, is a message of continuity. It's people that have been around the company for a long time. It's people that have been part to the strategy. I mean, Peter was working hand-in-hand with me on Forever Chocolate. He has been instrumental in our innovation pipeline. He has been running our strategy or the deployment of our strategy in the Americas. I'm also joining the board.
If anything you can take is a message of continuity, and is a message of, well, we keep being a growth company, we keep being an innovation company, and we keep being a value-adding company. On your questions on Gourmet, you said it exactly right. What we said at the time when the crisis was hitting is, well, we are not gonna stay idle and some circuits are closing. Obviously, the restaurants are closed. Well, luckily enough, the terrace opened two days ago in Switzerland, but it's not the case in France, not the case in Germany, wasn't the case until two weeks ago in the U.K. Our travel is closed, our hotels are closed.
Rather than looking at that, we really focused at looking at which were the customers that we were underserving, which were the geographies we were underserving, and was our range strong enough. We've made some significant inroads with people like semi-industrial bakeries, to take an example. We've made significant inroads in places where we were underrepresented. Take Brazil, I think we've discussed it together in the past. Brazil, we were growing extremely fast, but on the base of hotel and restaurants in the Rio and São Paulo area, we were actually very small in the Northeast, where the restaurants and the hotel closed in São Paulo and Rio. We reconfigured the sales force to go after the semi-professional in the Northeast of Brazil. The results in Brazil are just amazing. We have two things in mind there.
One is obviously fight COVID-19 and be back in momentum. You see we are back in momentum. The other thing, that's why I'm convinced that we will come, and we are coming stronger out of this crisis, is when the terrace and the restaurants are opening again, we will benefit from the work we've done on the side and the reopening of the circuit. That is the vision. Can I put a number on it? No. I'm going to disappoint you there, even also that I don't know when the terrace and restaurants are going to open outside Switzerland. That is the direction of our travel. On innovation is more relevant than ever. We innovate on the core. Plant Craft is really core innovation. You see that everywhere. It's doing extremely well. I was delighted to see our Magnum launch our caramel gold.
There too, it's a core variant. We also innovate by bringing totally different things. Infusions that go into the products or our cacao fruit products, out of which you make gelato. Innovation is here to stay. We are convinced, and I hope you'll be able to look at what we do with Treat Tomorrow. We are convinced that if anything, we will get more out of our innovation. Last on outsourcing, I told you again, I think that as a result of the crisis, well, we have proven a couple of things. One is we can deliver continuity, and we've delivered outstanding continuity in times of crisis, and we are competitive. I'm sure that some of our customers are listening to the call will look at opportunities to outsource to us.
Many thanks, Antoine, and all the best to you. I'm sure we will see us before you're leaving.
I'm not gone for another six months here.
Exactly. Thanks a lot.
The next question comes from the line of Jon Cox with Kepler. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Antoine, as Joern said, I'm sorry to see you go. I'm sure I speak for everybody on the call. Antoine, you seem a bit too young just to take up board appointments. Should we expect you to return as a senior executive in another organization down the road? If you could give us some indication where you may be going, that might be useful. A couple of sort of nuts and bolts question, Ben, just on the cash flow, very, very strong. I'm just wondering on the payables, are you starting to use trade financing regarding payment to some of your suppliers? You talk about a structural improvement in that trade payables line. I'm just wondering what's going on there. Just given the good figure, do you have a best guess for free cash flow this year?
Sort of like a question in terms of the, if you look at operating profit was down about 4% or so versus 2019 H1. Should we assume that will be the same for the second half of the year or any reason why it shouldn't be just in terms of us trying to work out where the business may be going? The last one, I'm sorry, and I'm rambling on a bit, basically just on the Gourmet, obviously that's now down around 6% volume in Q2. Just wondering what you can say about Q3, March and April. Obviously, you are seeing things opening up. Is that sequentially improving and have you swung positive in Gourmet in the last few weeks and since the start of the quarter? Thanks very much.
Jon, thanks for your kind words. I'll take the first and the last question, and I'll leave the rest in the capable hands of Ben. Well, listen, first, I'm not that young. That's the first point. Second point, I have only one focus for the foreseeable future, which is drive the results at Barry Callebaut like there is no tomorrow and leave the company in full swing, then I'm sure I'll take a vacation and join the board. That's my focus and my sole focus for the next five months. On Gourmet, obviously, as you know, we don't give yearly guidance. We don't give even quarterly guidance, so I won't give you a number there, but let me try and help a little. You've seen where we were in Gourmet a year ago when everything was closed.
You see where we are in Gourmet in this quarter, where still you have a large number of things that are closed. The difference can be explained by what I said in response to the prior question, which is that we have been working on our business model and not staying idle. We went after new customers, we went after new markets. We went digital, we improved what we were doing, and it shows in the results. As the markets are reopening and as obviously the restaurants, the hotels, and at some point the travel is reopening, we should benefit from the good work we have been doing in the things that were still open and the rebound in particular of the HoReCa and the travel market. When this will be is a bit anybody's guess. You've seen that decisions on lockdowns have been a moving feast.
Some people opening, some people deciding to close or some people deciding to close for a longer period of time. It's hard, besides the fact that we don't give that detailed guidance. It's hard for me to pinpoint towards a number, but the direction of travel is very clear, and I think that out of this crisis, our business in general, but our Gourmet business is coming stronger. Ben?
Good. Thank you, Antoine. Hey, Jon. On your question on cash flow and on payables, we use, of course, all kinds of tools, and trade financing is one of them. It's only one of them. Basically, it's a very simple thing. It's about paying attention to the details. Also in your payables side, is also making sure that you do the right partnerships with the right suppliers, having a longer-term view, and then, of course, your trade terms is one part of it. That's the reason why we can ingrain it in our business, and where you see an improvement as such. For the free cash flow question that you have, of course, we don't give an estimate for the year.
The one thing that I would want to highlight, of course, as we're growing again, you will see the receivables part in our working capital, of course, normalizing. We said it at the end of last fiscal year as well. That's about CHF 100 million that will come back at the end of the year. The other measures that we have on our cash have been ingrained and are very stable as such. On the operating profits, it would be too simplistic to just take our first half-year and double it as such. Antoine talked about the positive sides and signs that we see. As a CFO, of course, I have to also watch on certain other aspects in terms of our costs, our SG&A costs, of course, some of it was temporary in nature.
We had, of course, links to travel cost and trade events, marketing events as such. As the business is opening up, you will see an increase of those costs as well. Secondly, you will see also in terms of distribution, and it's not something new, you see that in a lot of businesses, we see a lot of pressures in terms of the logistical cost as well. Having said this, I must say that we have a very strong, positive view. Again, we don't give specifics on the second half as such, but have more a midterm guidance. With that, I think that answers-
I think we go to the next question.
The next question comes from the line of Jan Hatzius with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you. Good morning, everyone. Antoine, to reiterate early messages, obviously wishing you all the best for the future as well. I've got two questions. My first is on the EBIT per ton improvement. Of course, you cited mix as a big component. I just wondered if you could detail what exactly is driving that mix improvement. Is it down to customer mix, is it down to product mix or another reason? I guess as Gourmet recovers, we should also see a favorable mix contribution from that as well in the second half. That's one probably more for Ben. Then Antoine, maybe one more for you on outsourcing contracts. Have you announced any new contracts in the second quarter that you can share with us?
Can you give a bit of a steer on the outlook or the pipeline for the remainder of the year? Usually, outsourcing contracts tend to be a 30,000-40,000 ton contribution on an annual basis. I guess year to date, we're running below that run rate. I guess, is that a fair conclusion, and is there anything to read into that? Thank you.
Let me start the second question, indeed, Jan. Ben will take the first one. On outsourcing first, we run on average 30,000 - 40,000 per year over the period of the guidance. In some years, we do much more, in some years we do less. It's not a clockwork. They can come in spades. You can discuss them for a long time. It doesn't come as a clockwork there. We have a very healthy pipeline, and we have a number of discussions that are going on. We have concluded a number of outsourcing also, which we haven't announced because our partners asked us not to announce. If you look over the period of the guidance, we are pretty confident that we are and that we will deliver on this component of our goals.
The fact that it was a bit slow, and it was a bit slow, it's accelerating, but it was a bit slow at the beginning, is when you do an outsourcing, you know you need to go and visit the factory of your customer. As we do to protect our factory, a number of customers didn't let us in their factories for sanitary reasons. Some things are taking a bit longer, but it's not structural, it's more a matter of phasing of things. Our pipeline is looking good. We have a number of small, medium-sized deal that came on stream that we haven't announced because either we don't announce them or because our customers didn't want us to announce.
Altogether, the dynamic is there, and we have a number of really interesting conversations that are going on, and things are accelerating as a result of the pandemic as well. Ben?
Good. Yeah, on the first question about EBIT per metric ton. What I can say here is in the midterm view, of course, Gourmet & Specialties is important in our profitability mix as such. For me, it's all about strategy, and we have executed our strategy very diligently. Our smart margin growth is basically looking at accelerating our Gourmet & Specialties business faster than our Food Manufacturers business or faster than our cocoa business. It's all about trade-offs.
As I mentioned earlier on about our global cocoa business, that we had to take trade-offs and going for a decline on our volumes, but looking at the bottom line as well. What is Barry Callebaut all about? It's about the mix between the different business units, but it's also a mix between the different geographies as well. Now, you saw already in the second quarter, our Asia Pacific business growing faster.
That's also an important factor to our overall EBIT per metric ton mix development. We'll continue to watch on that in the midterm as well, making sure that we do good housekeeping, but at the same time, pedal to the metal as Antoine always mentions.
Next question, please.
That's perfect. Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Jean-Philippe Bertschy with Vontobel. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. The first one would be on growth, and I think the underlying growth is gaining traction. To come back on outsourcing, and you've been telling us that basically the conditions are quite favorable. The first part of the question is if you think you can overshoot these 30,000-40,000 ton per year in the coming two or three years. Related to that, net debt is at kind of a record low. What is your view on the M&A pipeline? If you have some deals coming up, if you can be a bit more aggressive on that side. The second one is on innovation. I think it was very interesting to see the setup of a new factory or separate factory in Germany for vegan dairy free.
If you can share with us what are your expectations in the midterm in that part of the business, keeping in mind that when you look in the long-term perspective, your breakthrough innovation, that Ruby or Acticoa were very marginal in terms of volume. Last but not least, if I may, on sustainability or ESG, you've been really making some significant progress on that part. Child labor is always kind of an issue, recently, kind of a political issue in the U.S. What is your plan here to tackle that issue now that it's impacting your business too much? Thanks a lot.
Good. Thanks, JP. I think with the help of Ben, but I'll take most of them. Let me start with the M&A. M&A, we will keep looking, and we'll keep actively looking at M&A. We keep actively looking in the same way we've done in the past, which is mostly value accretive bolt-on acquisition that either bring us capabilities we don't have or bring us market positions we don't have in a market that is relevant to us. We don't disclose what we do there. I can tell you we are pretty active, and we keep talking to a number of people, but we keep doing that in a very disciplined way. You probably will remember that in the last number of years, we never overpaid acquisition.
When we look at our capital allocation, we have plenty of organic growth opportunities. There is always a trade-off between what you pay for an acquisition versus investing your capital into organic growth, which is the base for capital allocation discipline. Outsourcing, once again, we don't give guidance or we don't change our guidance. Doesn't come like folklore. There are plenty of opportunities, and it takes many different forms. I'm afraid there, JP, I'm not going to be super helpful. On the innovation and on plant-based, it is a trend that is here to stay. It is a trend that is extraordinarily material, and it is very difficult to do a milk chocolate without milk that tastes like milk chocolate. It's very difficult on two accounts. One is making sure there is no traces of milk in your chocolate.
The second one, making sure that it is tasting like chocolate. This offers us, obviously, opportunity because it is technically difficult. It is difficult in terms of production, and therefore it is a value-added market. You see it basically exploding everywhere. You saw what we did two years ago with Magnum Vegan in the U.S., which was, at the time, the best and biggest launch of Unilever. We are doing lots of things with lots of people. I won't tell you how much it is in our turnover or volume, but it is not insignificant, and it is certainly a key growth driver. On sustainability, we are very clear. You know that one of our four pillars of sustainability is about zero child labor in our supply chain.
You know that child labor in the supply chain is, in the vast majority of the case, in all the cases we have been noticing on our side, are kids that are working too hard on the farms of their parents and doing things they shouldn't be doing. That is something on which we are actively engaged. As Barry Callebaut, we do our monitoring, we do remediation, we are very systematic, we are going deep, and by the way, we are extremely open in everything we report. We work also hand-in-hand with our governments, with communities, and with NGOs, because that is not something that you resolve by yourself. It has to do with the availability of school in some cases. It has to do with the availability of infrastructure.
It has to do also with community work, which is why, by the way, we do lots and lots of community work. That's something that we keep making progress on, together with governments, together with NGOs.
If I may just add, Jean-Philippe, on your question about the net debt as well, linked to the M&A. The net debt is an outcome of a lot of work. It is also during the crisis as well, where Antoine mentioned it earlier on, it is about care, it is about continuity, and it is about cash. We made sure that we had the right liquidity going into this crisis. Taking also a look at our financing structure as well. As you know, we have converted quite a bit of our debt in long-term debt. That is, with a fixed interest rate or with a hedged interest rate. With that, of course, we have the ammunition to come out of this crisis now. It does not mean that we have to go after every target.
For me, it's more important about the quality of the analysis that we do. Can we do it by ourselves? Can we grow organically versus inorganically as well? Having said this, if there's a nice opportunity in the market, absolutely we will look at it.
Thanks very much, Bertie, and well done.
We also have a question from the Q&A tool on the webcast, the question is coming from Philippe Rey from La Chaise. He's asking, "You will broaden your customer segmentation. What does it mean in particular for the Gourmet & Specialties segments?
Well, thank you for the good question. The way I would probably best explain it is, it is continue to do something that we call de-averaging. If you look at your average market share on a segment or on a market, let's say it's 20%, then you look at one level further down at the places where you are below that average. You start taking them one after the other, and you do that by segment, you do that by geographies. Geographies could be countries or could be subregions.
If you take Gourmet, we have very strong market shares in Canada, where we have an amazing business team. We have very weak market shares in Germany. What does it take to bring the market shares of Germany to the level of at least the average of the company, if not the level of Canada?
If you look at Brazil, as I mentioned earlier, you have very strong market shares in São Paulo and Rio, but we were very weak in the Northeast. What does it bring to de-average and bring them back to the average? You do exactly the same by segment. You look at the various segments. We are very strong in restaurant. We were not that good in semi-industrial bakery, both in terms of our market share, but also in the breadth of our portfolio. You look at where the gaps are, and you fill the gaps. It's lots of executional discipline. I must say, it has served us well, and it's reinforcing our business. Next question, please.
The next question comes from the line of Alex Sloane with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Morning, all. Thanks for taking the question. I've got a couple, please. The midterm guidance, you've reiterated that, which is as expected. After -2.9% in H1 does imply a meaningful acceleration going forward. When you set that target of 5%-7% last year, perhaps you were not expecting the 10% decline in cocoa in H1. Just wondering, does reiteration mean you're even more confident in recovery prospects at Gourmet & Specialties and growth in Food Manufacturers? Is the reiteration of that guidance more a view that the cocoa drag that we've seen in H1 will prove quite temporary? Secondly, just related to that on cocoa. Cocoa butter prices have been falling, while palm oil prices have been rising very significantly to near all-time highs.
If this is sustained, would you expect this to lead to any recipe reformulations in the industry with more cocoa butter use as opposed to vegetable oil use in your customers' products going forward, potentially helping reduce some of the ample stocks of cocoa butter that you referred to? Thanks very much.
You let me take the first one, you take the second, Ben. On the midterm guidance, first, it's a midterm guidance, so it's not quarter by quarter or year by year and subdivision by subdivision. We reiterated it because we are confident in our midterm guidance. If you look at cocoa, we made the decision not to go into a downward battle on some items and not go for volume, but secure the profit. That's, I think, a great illustration of the strengths of having a three years guidance. It enables you to make the right choice for the midterm, while still delivering onto your guidance. Are we confident? Yes. That's why we said it. What's going to be the phasing of it, I cannot tell you, because we don't tell that.
We do see, and you've seen that in the quarter, we do see a nice volume recovery, and we don't anticipate it to go any other way. Go, Ben.
Thank you, Antoine. On the second question about cocoa butter prices falling, indeed, we have seen that, and it's quite normal and natural. Cocoa butter is almost entirely used in real chocolates. Of course, when you see the confectionery sales going down due to COVID-19, especially in the EMEA markets, it has an effect on the stocks of cocoa butter because at the same time, the cocoa powder is used in much more applications. It's used in drinks, it's used in bakery products and so on as well. There is much more off-take there versus confectionery. As the markets are changing, as the markets are opening up again, we will see the trend that there is again going to be a need for quite a bit of cocoa butter as such.
On the price differential between palm and cocoa butter, yeah, you will see some effects, but I don't expect it to be big because the other reason why palm oil is used as well is for certain applications and in certain geographies as well to make it more heat resistant in tropical climates and so on as well. I don't think it's necessarily always a factor of pricing, but it's about the functionality of the chocolate type products you see in the market as well. I don't think it's going to be a big trade-off between cocoa butter and palm oil, or that it's certainly going to be a huge switchback.
Yeah, don't forget that a reformulation exercise, which means also changing the packaging, is an extraordinarily complex exercise for any consumer goods company. It takes a bit of reflection before doing it. They won't react on those short-term trends, as Ben just said.
Yeah.
Next question, please.
The next question comes from the line of Pascal Boll with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, everyone. One question. We saw strong growth in Asia as well as in America, where Europe was clearly lagging. What is your expectation for H2 in those markets, also with regard to your reiteration of the midterm guidance?
Do you want to take it, Ben, or shall I?
Yeah. I will chime in.
Listen, as you've seen, we are still having different dynamics at this stage between the various regions for obvious reasons. The large parts of Western Europe in particular was under lockdown. We know also that a number of customers in Western Europe are servicing travel, are servicing duty free. That's why Western Europe is more impacted. You see a very strong rebound in most of Asia, with Japan still impacted, but a pretty remarkable rebound in China and an impressive actually performance in India, which is heavily affected by COVID-19. You see the same, by the way, in Brazil and to some extent in Mexico, which are also heavily affected by COVID-19 and doing very well.
I think as the world goes back to normal, we should get back to what we have seen in the past and without giving any guidance by region, because we don't do, where you'd see in Asia, where we still have plenty to go for. It's a very large population. It's a growing chocolate market, and we are only in some way scratching the surface there. Still with good sustained dynamics in the Americas. The American market is very dynamic.
There are plenty of things to be done there. Brazil and Mexico, to talk about two large markets, are also extremely dynamic. You should see a return to, or the continuation of a good trend there. Europe will, when the COVID-19 is over, come back to normal. We don't expect major shifts from the past when it comes to the overall dynamics, if it can help.
Good. Thank you. I have one follow-up question with regards to Asia. You said you are only scratching on the surface there. Do you see there differences to the rest of the world in order to get more edge on this market, or how does that go?
You want me to take that?
I will take it. I spent quite a bit of my life in Asia, and it's near and dear and close to my heart as well. The secret of success, or the secret sauce of doing business in Asia is, of course, we're a global company, but we have to adapt to the local market needs. The tastes are different. Even when you look at the market of China, there are differences between taste profiles in the north and the south and so on. The first thing we did, we were an early adopter in Asia. We started very early by producing locally in Singapore. In the meantime, we have a solid footprint in Asia Pacific to cater to those local needs, having local teams on the ground.
As the markets are opening up, and you saw that in a lot of markets, there is a taste for chocolate. It is growing. Some markets are growing a little bit faster than other markets. We are well-placed to capture the growth. I think that's what Antoine meant by scratching the surface. It is only the beginning. It's a snowball effect. We will see acceleration in the coming years as such. Just to give you a small comparison, in China, the consumption of chocolate is about 100 grams per person. In Japan, it is more than two kilos. You already see within Asia the differences between chocolate consumption as well. What I would say there is the growth is there. The potential of the market is there.
Thank you very much.
Good. I think we are coming at the end of our time for Q&A question. If you have any Q&A, by all means, you reach out to Claudia Pedretti, who will be absolutely delighted to take them, answer them, and I'm sure anyway, we'll see a large number of you in the roadshows in the coming weeks. On that, a big thank to all of you for joining the conference, and I'm very much looking forward to see you in Zoom, probably, or in Google Hangouts in the coming days, and hopefully in person in the near future, for us to taste some chocolate together. Thank you.
Thank you.