Fresh Del Monte has turned in a positive result for the second quarter of 2016, with net income attributable to the company coming in at US$96.2m, up from US$64.5m in the same period last year.
The result was achieved despite a fall in net sales, down to US$1.09bn from US$1.13bn in 2015, as Del Monte's cost-cutting measures took hold.
In addition, the group benefited from higher gross profit across all of its segments, principally due to higher selling prices in other fresh produce and bananas, along with lower transportation and banana production and procurement costs.
“We are pleased with our performance in the second quarter,” said Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh, chairman and CEO. “We continued to see strong growth in our fresh-cut and avocado product lines. We achieved higher selling prices in our pineapple and banana business segments, and we benefited from lower input costs and cost-reduction initiatives that directly improved our bottom-line performance.
'We also continued to invest in our diversification strategy and advanced our global business platform during the quarter,' he added. 'Our investment in diversifying our products and geographies over the years resulted in solid second quarter results, despite weather issues which negatively affected sales volume in several of our product lines.”
