KTG Agrar has promising start to harvest season
Farming company benefits from high rapeseed price
Hamburg, August 2, 2010 – A few days ago, KTG Agrar AG (ISIN: DE000A0DN1J4) completed the rapeseed harvest and hence the first phase of the 2010 harvest season. The farming company grows grain, maize and rapeseed on more than 30,000 hectares of farmland in east Germany and Lithuania. This year, it has harvested some 10,000 tons of rapeseed. This is still a good level, even though it is eight to ten percent below the level of the record year 2009. “If the season continues like this, we have every reason to be very satisfied,” says Siegfried Hofreiter, CEO of KTG Agrar AG. “Quantity alone does not make a good harvest. The price must be right.” As a result of the anticipated crop failures of 20 percent and more in South-Eastern Europe, agricultural commodity prices have risen sharply in recent months. KTG Agrar benefits from that. The company has already sold as much as 75 percent of its rapeseed. The price per ton amounts to more than EUR 300 per ton and thus exceeds the prior year level by 30 percent. By selling the remaining 25 percent of the harvest, the achieved average price will rise further. Currently EUR 360 are paid for a ton of rapeseed. Says Siegfried Hofreiter: “This will more than offset the moderately lower harvest.”
KTG Agrar will continue to expand the cultivation of rapeseed in 2011. Apart from the good margin achieved already today, the company expects a positive price trend. One of the reasons for this optimistic expectation is the German Biofuel Sustainability Ordinance, which will come into force in 2011. Under the new Ordinance, biodiesel producers may use only input materials from sustainable production. Many foreign producers are unable to provide such proof. As a result, demand for – and hence the price of – certified locally grown rapeseed will increase. Today, it is already possible to save a price of about EUR 350 per ton of rapeseed from the harvest 2011 at the commodity forward exchange.
About KTG Agrar:
With cultivable land of more than 30,000 hectares, KTG Agrar AG is one of the leading producers of agricultural commodities in Europe. The Hamburg-based company’s core area of expertise is the organic and traditional cultivation of market products such as cereals, maize and rapeseed. For organic market products KTG Agrar is the european market leader. The company mainly produces in Germany but has also operated production in the EU full member state of Lithuania since 2005. The third mainstay the production of bioenergy. At present, KTG Agrar operates biogas plants with a total capacity of around eleven megawatts. In the year 2009, KTG achieved a total output of EUR 59,7 million and EBIT of EUR 9.2 million. Since November 2007 the company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and currently mote than 200 employees. Further information can be found at www.ktg.ag.
Contact:
Investor Relations / Press
Fabian Lorenz
IR.on AG
Tel: +49 221 914097 - 6
E-Mail: fabian.lorenz@ir-on.com