LT Foods reports profit of 75% due to strong demand in March quarter

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's LT Foods, which sells Daawat basmati rice, reported a 79% surge in quarterly profit on Thursday, helped by strong demand for its packaged rice and robust export prices.

The rice producer's consolidated net profit rose to 1.28 billion rupees ($15.65 million) in the quarter ended March 31, from 715.1 million rupees, a year earlier.

The company, in an exchange filing, said that the number of households consuming its products grew 31.26% to 4.5 million in the fiscal ended 2023.

LT Foods also exports rice to more than 60 countries like the United States and in geographies such as Europe, the Middle East and the Far East.

The profit jump comes as prices of Indian rice exports climbed to a near two-year high by end-February as importers preferred the Indian variety over the more expensive staples from hubs like Thailand and Vietnam. [RIC/AS]

Consolidated revenue from operations in the fourth quarter rose more than 19% to 18.21 billion rupees, spurred by a 30% year-on-year growth of the company's basmati and other specialty segment.

"Our India volume market share continues to increase and currently stands at 29.6% (annually)" said Managing Director and CEO Ashwani Arora.

India, the world's biggest exporter of rice, dispatched record high numbers of the home-grown staple in 2022 despite government curbs on overseas sales.

Shares of LT Foods rose 3.7% after results on Thursday.

($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)

 

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng and Shailesh Kuber)