REG - Dekel Agri-Vision - Q1 2023 Cashew Operation Update

Dekel Agri-VisionAnnouncement

20/04/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 8030W  Dekel Agri-Vision PLC  20 April 2023

 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
the UK version of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 which is part of UK law by
virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended ("MAR"). Upon
the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service,
this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

 

Dekel Agri-Vision Plc / Index: AIM / Epic: DKL / Sector: Food Producers

 

Dekel Agri-Vision Plc

('Dekel' or the 'Company')

Q1 2023 Cashew Operation Update

 

Dekel Agri-Vision Plc (AIM: DKL), the West African agriculture company focused
on building a portfolio of sustainable and diversified projects, is pleased to
provide our maiden Q1 2023 production update from our large-scale cashew
processing plant at Tiebissou, Côte d'Ivoire (the 'Cashew Operation').

 

Key Highlights

·      The Raw Cashew Nut ('RCN') buying season commenced around mid Q1
2023.  The quantity and quality of RCN available to purchase has been in line
with the Company's expectations and the pricing of RCN has been slightly
better than the Company's expectations.  We purchased an additional 820
tonnes ('tn') of RCN during the period and hold a closing Q1 2023 balance of
2,128tn of RCN.

·      We processed a total of 533 tonnes of RCN during Q1 2023 with
daily production noticeably increasing at the end of Q1:

o  Daily RCN processing (excluding installation and testing days) during Q1
2023 was approximately 10tn per day.  We expect to report a further material
increase in daily RCN production during Q2 towards our initial target of
20-25tn per day.

o  The increase in daily production rates is largely being driven by the
shelling station which was the final key equipment to be installed.  The
shelling machines are being integrated gradually and we have already seen a
material increase in production in early Q2 2023 driven by the new shelling
machines.

·      Peeled cashews, which included both whole and broken cashews,
were sold at an average price of €4,500 per tonne, which is in line with the
Company's expectations. The reprocessing of backlog unpeeled cashews has been
completed and moving forward, any unpeeled cashews are being sold with Q1 2023
prices achieved of €3,375 per tn.

·      The feedback on the quality of our product from both European and
US markets compared to our competitors remains favourable and positions us
well to enhance prices as we become a consistent, high quality producer of
cashews.

 

                                 Q1-2023

 RCN Inventory
 Opening RCN Inventory (tonnes)  1,841
 RCN Purchased (tonnes)          820
 RCN Processed (tonnes)          533
 Closing RCN Inventory (tonnes)  2,128

 Cashew Processing
 Opening Cashews (tonnes)        111
 RCN Processed (tonnes)          533
 Cashew Extraction Rate          23.1%
 Cashew Produced (tonnes)        123
 Cashew Sales (tonnes)           103
 Closing Cashews (tonnes)        131

 Average Sales prices per tonne
 -       Unpeeled Cashews        €3,375
 -       Peeled Cashews          €4,500

 

Lincoln Moore, Dekel's Executive Director, said: "We are excited to have
entered the commercial phase of our Cashew Operation and to report our first
period of producing and selling commercial quantities of cashews. The short
term focus now is to materially increase daily production during Q2 2023.  We
look forward to our next quarterly reports highlighting this further
production growth as the Cashew Operation becomes a material contributor to
the short and medium term growth of overall Company performance together with
the Palm Oil Operation which is currently in the peak harvesting season."

 

** ENDS **

 

For further information, please visit the Company's website
www.dekelagrivision.com or contact:

 

 Dekel Agri-Vision Plc                     +44 (0) 207 236 1177

 Youval Rasin

 Shai Kol

 Lincoln Moore

 WH Ireland Ltd (Nomad and Joint Broker)   +44 (0) 20 7220 1666

 James Joyce

 Darshan Patel

 Optiva Securities Limited (Joint Broker)  +44 (0) 203 137 1903

 Christian Dennis

 Daniel Ingram

 

Notes:

Dekel Agri-Vision Plc is a multi-project, multi-commodity agriculture company
focused on West Africa. It has a portfolio of projects in Côte d'Ivoire at
various stages of development: a fully operational palm oil project in
Ayenouan where fruit produced by local smallholders is processed at the
Company's 60,000tpa capacity crude palm oil mill and a cashew processing
project in Tiebissou, which is currently transitioning to full commercial
production in 2023.

 

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