The delay in the progress of the monsoon and uneven rainfall in June has had a mixed impact on the agri-input companies during the April-June quarter. Though the pace of kharif sowing was sluggish during June impacting the overall industry growth, companies such as Kaveri Seeds and Bayer Cropscience among others saw increased sales volumes in seeds such as maize and cotton during the quarter.

“We have witnessed good growth in cotton acreage, volumes and revenues on account of continued high cotton price support, market share gains and renewed marketing efforts. Despite a 15 per cent decrease in rice acreage due to rain shortages in some regions of the nation, we have surpassed the market in terms of volume growth,” said G V Bhaskar Rao, CMD, Kaveri Seeds, commenting on the results. Kaveri Seeds saw cottonseed volumes increase by 8.33 per cent, while hybrid rice volumes were up 6.09 per cent.

With corn being one of the preferred choices for farmers this kharif, companies such as Kaveri and Bayer Cropscience saw an increase in maize volumes.

Volume growth in corn

“Our Q1 revenue from operations registered a robust growth of 18 per cent despite global supply chain constraints. This was driven largely by our crop protection portfolio and product liquidation. We also witnessed volume growth in corn seeds, driven by portfolio growth and better acreages in kharif. Our rice hybrid volumes were impacted due to a delay in monsoon and unfavourable market conditions. Going forward, we expect challenges to persist specifically around global supplies of RoundUp in the near term,” Simon-Thorsten Wiebusch, Executive Director, Bayer CropScience Limited.

UPL, which saw 8 per cent growth in Q1 revenues to ₹2,067 crore from its India business saw strong growth for field corn seeds in the country.

Rallis India saw a 16.5 per cent revenue growth during June quarter on higher growth in domestic crop care and exports. “In Q1, we witnessed a strong growth of 16.5 per cent in revenue on the back of 17.1 per cent growth in domestic crop care business and 51 per cent growth in exports. However, we faced cost headwinds which affected our margins. In the seeds business, there were challenges of delayed monsoon and crop shifts. The revival of monsoons in July augurs well for agriculture,” Sanjiv Lal, MD and CEO, Rallis India said in post-earnings statement.

The uneven rains have impacted the off-take of agrochemicals. “This year, the rainfall has been very uneven and although the overall rainfall is above average, the East and North region has suffered from very less rainfall whereas South and West have seen unprecedented rains resulting in flooding. This impacted the first quarter of the company. Now, the rainfall has covered most of India in July except for the East region, therefore, we expect that rest of the year to be good for the company,” Chairman of Dhanuka Agritech, R G Agarwal, said post Q1 results.

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