Business
AGM Statement
AGM Statement.
About this update from M.p. Evans Group Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 1747C M. P. Evans Group PLC 14 June 2019 \n\nM.P. EVANS GROUP PLC\n(\"Group\" or \"M.P. Evans\")\nANNUAL GENERAL MEETING\nThe annual general meeting of M.P.Evans Group PLC, a producer of sustainable Indonesian palm oil, is being held in London today. The following statement is an update on trading conditions and progress on the Group's activities since the publication of the annual report in April.\nCrops\nThe crop of oil-palm fresh fruit bunches (\"ffb\") for the five months ended 31 May 2019 was 238,600 tonnes from estates controlled by the Group, some 5% higher than the 227,600 tonnes recorded for the same period in 2018. Crops from the smallholder co-operatives associated with the Group's new projects fell by 1% to 60,300 tonnes. The normal pattern of second-half crop being greater than crop in the first half of the year is expected to occur in 2019. Overall, the Group's crops continue on an upward trend resulting from their young average age with yields increasing as they mature.\nCrops grew strongly in the development at Musi Rawas, South Sumatra, and also at Bumi Mas in East Kalimantan, the Group's newest estate, acquired in December 2017. The latter is showing great promise as the Group embeds its agronomic standards into the estate. In Bangka, the extraordinary growth in crops over the last two years, as the region recovered from the 2015-16 El Niño weather pattern, was not expected to persist, and crop here fell by 15% in the first five months compared with last year; there was a similar fall in Kota Bangun, where the 2018 crop peaked in the first part of that year but is not expected to peak until later in 2019. In Sumatra, crops at the Pangkatan group of estates were 7% higher than last year and those in Simpang Kiri 23% higher as the benefit of the replanting programme in these areas makes itself felt.\nProduction\nThe Group produced the equivalent of 78,800 tonnes of crude palm oil (\"CPO\") during the first five months of 2019, including 64,600 tonnes in its own mills with the balance being the oil content of ffb sold by the Group to third-party mills. This compared to 77,500 tonnes for the equivalent period in 2018 (including 71,000 in its own mills). The Group continues to achieve high extraction rates, which have on average improved...