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Borges Agricultural & Industrial Nuts turned over €177.8 million during the 2018/19 financial year

  • At year-end, Borges Agricultural & Industrial Nuts (BAIN) registered a net profit of €2.3 million
  • Borges Agricultural & Industrial Nuts (BAIN) sold a total of 35,191 tons of nuts during the year

Borges Agricultural & Industrial Nuts (BAIN) closed the financial year on 31 May 2019 with a net turnover of €177.8 million, having sold 35,191 tons of nuts and increased its net business turnover by 2%. The Tons sold was up by 5% compared to the fourth quarter of the previous financial year.

Consolidated income at year-end was down by 34.5% compared to the previous year. Two factors with a negative impact were mainly responsible for this sharp fall in profits. Firstly, California walnuts were under heavy pressure to reduce prices -23% (€0.77/kilo) and, secondly, this was an OFF-production year in the summer production cycle on our pistachio estates. Together, these factors reduced consolidated agriculture business income by €2.3 million, while the €1.6 million improvement in the industrial business includes the effects of selling off machinery and installations from the popcorn packaging unit.

BAIN, which is quoted in the Continuous Market of the Spanish Stock Exchange, registered an adjusted EBITDA of €5.1 million, as compared to €8.1 the previous year. These figures do not include potential income from the PALM agricultural development plan, which was recently launched by BAIN. In recent years the plantation covering 1,152.6 additional hectares started producing and in September 2018, a further 117.7, which produced slightly more than expected. If everything goes according to the forecasts, the PALM farming project could triple BAIN’s current consolidated income within the next seven years.

BAIN is continuing to create wealth for society and created 15 new jobs during the financial year, bringing the total number of direct positions to 493, an increase of 3.1% over the previous year.

In the last twelve months, the BAIN workforce has grown by 3.1%, adding a total of 15 new positions.

High profile and international leadership

BAIN has established its position as a world leader in its sector, with sales worth €177.8 million in 62 countries. Exports account for 57.7% of turnover, confirming its international profile. Almonds are BAIN group’s top seller, accounting for 66% of all sales in terms of value, followed by walnuts, with 10% of the total.

BAIN makes substantial investments in the farming business

BAIN manages a total of 2,401.5 hectares, 320 of which are in California, 941.9 in southern Portugal and 1,139.6 in Spain, particularly in the autonomous regions of Extremadura and Andalusia. Of these, 968.4 hectares are in production and 865.4 will gradually start yielding fruit in the coming years. Additionally, BAIN leads the Pistachio Project in cooperation with farmers, which has already reached 129.2 hectares. These, added to the 2,401.5 already managed directly or indirectly by BAIN, come to a total of 2,531 hectares. The main objective of the Pistachio Project is to enable vertical cooperation between BAIN and producers and to start up new irrigated farms which will soon produce high-quality pistachios.

Regarding the production of the estates managed directly by BAIN, this remained constant in general terms, except for the fall in pistachio production since this year’s summer season is OFF. This low volume was offset by a good walnut harvest and the start of production of the first 117.7 new hectares of almonds with a slightly higher-than-expected yield.

The BAIN business project focuses on sustainability

The new BAIN plantations operate according to strict sustainable agriculture criteria. After adhesion to the EsAgua platform, the purpose of which is to make Spanish companies’ leaders in the water footprint and sustainability area, BAIN has started obtaining GLOBAL GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) certification, an international standard on ethical farming and sustainable agriculture practices.

The Company also has a total of 96.6 hectares allocated to environmental conservation and biodiversity.