With that said, I'm pleased to introduce today's presenter, the Chief Financial Officer, Nindogas Ambrasas.
Please, the floor is yours.
Okay. Thank you. So first of all, good afternoon, everyone. And as always, thank you for your interest in our group and your time with our group today. So as always, I will try to give short presentation about our results for Q1 of 2020.
And as it was introduced, my name is Mindaugas. You'll find my contact information at the end of the presentation. And if you have any questions, so feel free to contact me in this presentation, of course, but later as well. So maybe let's start and just maybe to give some overview of our financial results. I would say that overall, Q1 of 2021 was really not a bad quarter for our group.
I think we are continuing trend for 2nd year already, then we are really improving our financial results. So even in this quarter as well, our revenues, our profits, our EBITDA had increased. And I think what is important to say that, as you know, we have a group strategy in place. So what we are really doing, we are really trying hard to implement the strategy, 1st of all, by improving our financial results and secondly, providing more and more resources, not only financial, but human resources as well to work on all those R and D projects we have in our group in order to achieve those strategic goals we have set for the group for upcoming years. So as you can see from the table, as I mentioned, we have quite nice growth, 14% growth in revenue, 21% growth in gross profit and 16% growth in EBITDA comparing 1st quarter results for 2020 2021.
And as always, maybe let's go to overview of our business segments and then we will provide more information what is behind those figures. So, Crop Growing, our largest segment, and it's really quite difficult to be very specific and provide facts about crop growing because it's really like the very beginning of our growing cycle. But I would say, we can view on some of the assumptions, market environment, we are operating because this gives understanding how the segment is doing. So first of all, if we talk about prices in the market, I would say that here, the situation is really positive. And if we see and we look at majority of cultures, we see a trend that prices for conventional and for organic crops are growing.
I would say legumes are the best example of this trend, and here you can see a trend of wheat, which is the largest culture for us. So maybe wheat and wheat price in Germany is not the best example of the trend, but still, I think it clearly shows developments we are having in organic and conventional markets. So as you can see, we had this very stable, very small decline of prices for almost 2 years, and this trend was reversed in Q4 2020, and this growth continues in the Q1 as well. Organic wheat market in Germany is quite specific. It's really affected by exceptionally good result of food quality wheat in Germany last year.
So I think the explanation of those fluctuations is that there are some fluctuations in the market, some tradings not based on market trends, but just because of there is quite big supply from the previous year harvest in German market exceptionally. But overall, still, I think it clearly shows the trend organic food market is going. Secondly, then we talk about assumptions. Of course, second very important factor is weather. And it's always very difficult to talk about the weather because you can forecast, you can say what you think and how you see the situation, but it can change.
But if we talk about situation for today, I would say that we are quite positive once again about weather conditions and how our cultures are looking at the moment. So first of all, if we look at winter crops, it was already said during the similar presentation when we talked about annual results that the sowing process went very successful in the autumn because we had very good weather conditions. Winter in general, though it was quite cold and lots of snow, all those things really didn't have that negative effect on quality of crops. So we are quite positive crops, at least winter crops. For some of crops, yes, there are, I would say, not problems yet, challenges, because some of the processes are a little bit late, and we are still sowing the last cultures at the moment.
So the process is not finished yet. But overall, I think there are really good things that in terms of water, we have really enough water for coming couple of months and this is positive side for some of the cultures, same legumes example. Secondly, we see forecasts that now it seems the weather is also changing in the vein and we will have much more snow. So this also gives optimism for us that at the end of the day, weather for time being seems quite good for agricultural business. So based on those two facts, then we go to financial results and try to evaluate what is our gain on revaluation of biological assets, crops generally.
So we have an increase and this increase is really affected by a couple of things. So this growth in the market price is one thing. And secondly, this year, we have a little bit more of winter crops, which are evaluated at the end of the Q1. So overall, our gain for Q1 is increased 25% comparing to last year. And it's also maybe important to mention that total gain is almost €3,500,000 €3,600,000 for the end of the March, but almost more than €2,000,000 were accounted for 2020.
So this gives €1,600,000, which are recognized in the Q1 of 2021. If we go to, once again, to financial results, So yes, we have this positive development in crop growing activities. In terms of sales, we had the increase of losses we had from this activity, but this was mainly affected almost €400,000 by one off event. So if we just take account into this effect, so results, I would say, are very similar in line to what we had last year and what we forecasted. And also, we have a substantial increase in subsidies.
And this is mainly affected not mainly, but affected by that from starting from this year, we are receiving organic subsidies for all land plots we are operating because previously, we were getting those subsidies for only part almost 26,000 hectares from 40,000 hectares we operate. So for this year, for next year, we expect to receive subsidies for full for all land plot we work. So overall, this gives increase of 16% in gross profit of our crop growing activities. What is also maybe important to mention what is status of our contracts and what is the status of our selling of harvest. So for last year harvest, almost everything is already contracted and majority is already sold and nothing in our balance sheet.
But we also trying to contract using maybe this positive situation in the market, harvest new harvest for 2021. So as you can see, almost 55% of expected harvest is already contracted. But I have to say that majority of those contracts are really based on long term time cooperations, which are related to some of the cultures we are producing. So yes, if we look at overall figures, we have a slight increase in contracted prices. And we still believe that there will be a positive upside if the trend of growing prices will continue.
Moving to another segment, Dairy. I think I have to say that our expectation or expected we expected, I would say, better results from production in dairy. And I think last year for the last year, we are really talking that this is really the segment we are putting lots of we are doing a lot and then putting lots of effort to increase and improve the situation there. So after 2 years of growing yields, I would say we had a setback in the Q1 of 2021. When we made some maybe decisions in production, we made some changes in the feed structure, which really led not only to increasing costs, but unfortunately also to lower yields.
So that's maybe the story we have to learn and then move on. But on the positive side, if we have some issues with production, so from sales side, we are, I would say, in a very positive situation because as it was started from maybe Q2 last year, we have possibility and we are selling almost 100% of raw milk as organic. This year, we added a couple of customers in Germany, so we have even more much more alternatives and options if we want to sell. So now we don't have a question if we will be able to sell what we are producing as organic raw milk and get price premium for that. It's just a matter to choose the customers and choose the best price for raw milk we are having.
Overall, even we had problems with production due to lower losses from revaluation of biological assets and increased subsidies due to the same reasons as we talked in the crop growing. We have positive result if we talk about gross profit, so it increased. But as I said in the very beginning, overall, we faced some problems and challenges in production, and we're really working to solve that and to change and to get back on the track of improving yields in dairy production. Just to comment, because this is first time when we showing separate like business line of milk commodities. So what's here and what we wanted to show.
Maybe I would go to history a little bit because in the very beginning, this was the way how we can sell our raw milk as organic and get the premium. So generally what we did, we were looking on buying some processing services from dairy producers product milk producers and we were selling commodities as butter, milk powder as organic butter or organic milk powder. So that was previously for us the way to sell our raw milk for organic prices. Now then we don't have this problem anymore. So we really see this as a possibility to get additional profitability on this additional value we are getting, not selling raw product, but something which is already processed from the raw milk.
So this is quite small business at the moment. I think we did the separation just to have a clear overview of the overall dairy segment, but also we see some potential in this business. So we just really want to measure and to see, you know, what can be done in this business as well. And we are still we still believe that there is a huge upside and possibility to improve results in dairy, and we continue with our target that, you know, we want to increase the herd to 3,600 cows. So as you can see from the graph, we had decreasing herd for last couple of years.
So now we have this plan and this plan is still happening. So maybe we will be a little bit late, but by the end of the year, Q4, at least, we will have this maximum capacity of 3,600 cows, milking cows in place. And we believe that this also will give positive effect on the segment. Mushroom growing, I maybe will start from what was already told during presentation of annual results. It was already mentioned that, unfortunately, this segment was really affected by COVID-nineteen and we had several areas which really hurt the segment, and that's why results slightly deteriorated in the last quarters of 2020.
So if we look at results for Q1, yes, we also see that total amount of mushrooms sold is slightly, slightly less than it was in Q1 of 2020. And gross profit for the Q1 is also less by 20%. But overall, we still believe and see this as a positive result. I think what is the biggest change what happened during this quarter because that was also our plan going forward to the segment is, 1st of all, to look into diversification of sales. So we are working on that.
We did some first tries or try out sales to completely new markets, but we're still waiting for final results. So hopefully, we will be able to elaborate on that in the next presentations we will be having. But second thing, I think we also changed our focus not to grow maximum amount of mushrooms possible, but to grow amount which we are able to sell at the most profitable price. So generally, the focus really switched from just to grow as much as possible, but to get the best financial result from what we are doing. And why I'm saying that we see this first quarter results as a positive one.
First of all, if we compare Q1 this year to the Q1 last year, we have to have in mind that really this COVID effect didn't started in the first quarter. You know, we had all the current situation just at the end of the March last year. So generally, Q1 results were not affected last year. If we look at even the results in Q1 2019, we have significant improvement. But more importantly, if we look at trend of the last quarters, so we really see that all those changes management of the company did, they really starting to give results and we had much better quarterly results than we had for the last three quarters.
And usually, the last quarter is the best quarter for for our mushroom business. So that's why I said, we see this as quite positive development and just believe that and wish that trend will continue going forward. And consumer products, so FMCG, this is the segment, it is very easy to talk about the segment because I believe that we always have almost only positive news about it. So I think for this quarter, we also just can say once again that the growth of the segment continues. We have really nice growth of revenues by almost 56% for the Q1.
And what is also important that with larger sales, with larger utilization of our production capacities, we also have positive effect on our profitability. So gross profit of the segment also improved substantially from 60,000 to almost 400,000 euros for Q1 2021. The only maybe change or new effect for the segment is that we have quite substantial increase in logistic costs, though those costs are usually not on our side, but on the buyer side, but what kind of effect this has on our activities. So this creates much more fluctuation in orders because buyers really try to instead of giving larger number of smaller orders, we are trying to have one big order and in that way minimize their logistic costs. So this creates some fluctuation, which this creates a little bit more stress for our production colleagues.
But this is not really a problem which could create some issues. So we really believe that this positive trend in the segment should continue this year as well. And this is really a new activity for us. I wouldn't dare to call it a new segment, our business new segment. So generally, we made the announcement that we are starting this activity.
And I think for us, we just really want to see and test the market what we are trying to do. As you know, we are really the company who is working with lots of specific machinery, which is really dedicated for organic farming only. So we have knowledge, we have expertise, we have some of the representation rights for some of very niche, but at the same time, niche producers in terms of overall size, but largest producers in very niche organic machinery segment. Based on overall situation in the market, when we see that EU really supports organic farming and they have a target set how we want to increase organic farming in the EU and Lithuania, we really believe that the market also should be there. So generally, there should be demand for this equipment.
And if farmers will have incentive and wish to switch, of course, for them, it makes sense to go and talk to us because we are not only sellers of the machinery, but also the ones who are using the machinery. So we have also the knowledge. We have, you know, give practical advices how specific machinery works in very, very different conditions. So as I said, this is really like a test for us. We don't have huge expectations.
I think for this year, we just said for ourselves that we really want to see what is demand in the market and how this market will develop overall. But we are planning to open the exposition center in Reseni in Q2 this year. And hopefully, at the end of the year, we could tell you about the success of this business unit and then name it as clear business segment going further. Just to sum up all those slides which we're showing before, just short summary about changes in our EBITDA for the Q1 this year. So as it was said, I think we had positive developments in all the segments except for mushrooms, but this negative result is really understandable, and I still see this as a positive change.
So as I said in the very beginning, I think that we are quite positive about results for Q1, and we believe that there are reasons to believe that this trend will continue. Secondly, I think it's maybe also important for our investors what is our status with financing and then how this situation has changed after all those refinancing things we did. So I think the most important thing that, yes, we had this increase in working capital due to our business model for a couple of years in 2018, 2019. But for the last couple of years, working capital need is really stable. And with additional limits we had from last year, I think we have much more freedom to operate.
Secondly, as you can see from the table below, our net debt is really on very stable level. Yes, we have slight increase in Q1, but it's more for seasonal reasons because we have in the same situation last year. But overall, I would say that we see our debt level as a substantial sustainable one. And we are really focusing on not decreasing our indebtedness in all ways possible, but we are really trying to put available resources to our innovation, to our investments, R and D development. So that's where we have possibility and that's what we are doing this year.
And moving to share price information, as I said, we see this as a positive quarter for Algo Group. So I believe that Q1 was also positive for our shareholders. So share price increased by almost 18% up to May end of the May. We're also having quite large turnover of our bonds. So it's also good sized sign that investors value not our shares, but also see bonds as very interesting option for the investments.
So here, as always, more information about our group, our reports, data in Excel format and my contact information. So as I said in the very beginning, feel free to contact if you have any questions. And I think we can move to questions from the audience now.
Thank you very much for the presentation. As already mentioned, we will proceed with questions. And before that, I would like to remind everyone of you that you can send in your questions in the question box of your screen. So let's begin. The first question is as follows.
Large U. S. Retail chains were main drivers for growth in fast moving consumer goods. Are these sales recurrent? Thank you.
Thank you for the question. Yes, last year, biggest growth in FMCG segment came from U. S. Market and it was mainly driven by sales to new retail chains, Kroger, for example. And yes, I can say that this was not like onetime sales.
We already working for this year's orders and generally, so this is like the current sales and the current cooperation with those chains. I even will say more because those retail chains, they usually organized in different regions in the U. S. So, with a few of them, we started from a couple of regions only in the very beginning, and now we get orders from bigger number of regions for the retail chain. So yes, this cooperation continues.
Thank you very much for your answer. Another question is as follows. According to your strategy, investments of €35,000,000 are needed for 20 nineteen-twenty 23 in order to reach set targets. What are investments planned for 2021? Thank you.
As it was mentioned in presentation, I think this year we really have possibility to invest much more into new activities, into development and so on. So yes, I think that we are following our plan. Investment plan for this year is around €9,000,000 So yes, this is in line with the plan in our strategy.
Thank you very much. Once again I would like to remind our attendees that you are very much welcome to send in your questions in the question box of your screen. So let's proceed. And we have one more question, which is as follows. Can you please clarify what is milk commodity and briefly explain this new line in the report?
Thank you.
I think I already did this during presentation, but maybe just additional clarification. So this is not something new what we are doing. This was already done in our history, but it was calculated not separately. So it was part of our dairy business and part of it was even accounted in commodity in sales in crop growing. So generally, just to have really clear results per segment, we wanted to separate this activity and also just to see if there is any potential for dairy segment to get additional profitability from selling not only raw organic milk, but from processing raw milk into some commodities and selling commodities instead of raw products.
So this doesn't change our strategy. FMCG products is still the ultimate goal, but it's still yet another step from raw material we are growing and producing to more added value products.
Thank you very much. And could you please explain what are other cash crops that are mentioned in the financial statements and that amount approximately to 1 third of total land cultivated by AGA. So the question is about other cash crops
line. It's we are not specifying specific crops we are growing. But I think what we can say that we see ourselves and we what we want to be is we really believe that we have specific knowledge in organic growing. So we really want to go and cultivate maybe niche products, specific products, which require additional knowledge, additional experience, but also gives additional profitability. So moving from very like popular crop as wheat because we see that competition there and then supply there will grow with increasing organic farming.
So, you know, by specializing in some niche products, we see much more benefit for our group. So I think it was already mentioned and it's also in the reports that, for example, very niche business with clover seeds is one of the cash crops, but it's quite a big list of those crops which fall into this category. But I don't think that we will specify this in the report.
Thank you very much for your explanation. And once again for the new joiners, I would like to remind that your questions are very welcome so please do not hesitate to send them in the question box of your screen. And we have one more question which is as following. Why only a very small amount of mushrooms sold are sold as organic? Thank you.
You. I think, yes, that's a really good question, and thank you for that. I think this is one of the areas where we see the biggest upside in mushroom business because as it was very rightfully mentioned, very only small part of our mushrooms are sold as organic and this percentage even decreased this year. So I think that's really a task for us and challenge for us. This was somehow made difficult by the same COVID situation because, though we also see this potential and we really want to expand this business area, and we already have people and sales team in place specifically to work with organic mushroom sales.
But this team had very little possibilities to be active last year and still this year because due to all the restrictions, traveling restrictions, our major customers, they are dealing somehow to stick to the products they are selling or we are selling and they are buying right now, but not to go into new categories. And we still believe that introduction of those new categories really needs still and still needs physical meetings, visiting your customers. So unfortunately, this is area where I think we should and can do better, but we are really focusing on that because as it was rightfully pointed, I think potential is really large in this area.
Thank you very much for your answer. And we have one more question, which is, are the 2021 crop contracts at fixed sale prices? If so, are the prices higher than those in 2020?
Yes, prices are fixed. And I don't have a specific number right now, but in average, prices are slightly higher than we had last year. But as I mentioned, it's difficult to say very clear answer to the question because some of the crops we already contracted, they are really the ones we have long term cooperation and we have like long term contracts for couple of years already. So there is one logic how the prices is calculated. But even to take those cultures aside, yes, if we look at like normal contracts, So in average, price is slightly higher by a couple of percentage points.
Thank you very much. It looks like we have covered all of the questions for today. So on behalf of NASDAQ, Vilnius, thank you everyone. It was our pleasure being with you today. Recording and the presentation will be available in the NASDAQ Q2 channel.
Thank you for the presentation, Mr. Ambrose, and it was a very interesting Q and A session. Have a good day everyone and goodbye.
So once again, thank you.