“The decrease in turnover was mainly influenced by the lack of liquidity in the agribusiness market from the first half of 2023. Due to high start-up costs and the collapse of grain prices starting from March 2023, Romanian farmers did not make significant investments in crops. At the time of writing this current report, a large proportion of farmers have not been able to cover their start-up costs for autumn crops, with hopes for spring crops, which are performing better. Drought affected all crops in H1 2023, with extreme temperatures in June and July significantly reducing crop estimates,” the report reads.
The consolidated net profit recorded by the Group in the first half of 2023 is RON3.09 million, down 45.59% compared to the corresponding period of 2022.
“The decrease was mainly determined by the increase in financing costs, as a result of the increase in the costs of bank interest related to new loans contracted. Also, as expected in agriculture, the harvest period can be delayed, so there was not as much income in H1 for farming activity, the fields started to be harvested from July, generating income and profit for H2,” as per the report.
In H1/2023, operating revenues at consolidated level reached RON26.33 million, down 22.90% compared to H1/2022. Financial revenues increased by 106.51% to RON114,026 thousand, due to favorable exchange rate differences. The Group’s total revenues stood at RON26.44 million, down by 22.69% compared to the similar period of 2022 due to a significant reduction in the activity of the Trading division, which would normally generate a considerable turnover with a very small margin.
“The group avoided grain trading due to the unprecedented volatility of the grain market and the market gridlock due to the steep price decline,” according to Norofert.
Norofert, with a market value of RON95.3 million, is 36.35%-owned by Vlad Popescu, 15% by Ileana Popescu and 12.21% by Marius Alexe. NRF shares have lost 8.8% so far in 2023, amid deals worth RON10.5 million, in line with stock market data.