Fresh Del Monte has announced a lower overall result for the second quarter of 2017, despite year-on-year growth in net sales.
The fresh produce giant saw net income attributable to the group drop from US$96.2m last year to US$69.2m, the result of lower net sales in the company's prepared food business segment, lower selling prices in the banana business segment, higher fruit cost in the other fresh produce business segment and unfavourable exchange rates.
However, higher net sales in Del Monte's other fresh produce and banana business segments helped push sales up to US$1.15bn for the three-month period, rising from the US$1.09bn recorded last year.
“We’re glad to report that Fresh Del Monte achieved strong sales growth during the second quarter,' said Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh, chairman and chief executive officer at the group.
'External challenges such as oversupply of bananas in Asia and the Middle East markets, lower sales volume of canned pineapple and lower pineapple concentrate selling prices negatively impacted our overall performance,' he explained. 'However, our broad range of products and businesses, and geographic reach helped us mitigate these challenges, while continuing to grow our business.
'We strongly believe our future has never been brighter,' Abu-Ghazaleh added. 'Our recently announced joint ventures with Del Monte Pacific Limited are expected to provide us with tremendous potential to rapidly expand our lineup of healthy, convenient, fresh and ready to eat products. Looking forward, we remain confident in our ability to tap future opportunities to drive profitability and shareholder value over the long-term.”
