Dekel Agri-Vision (AIM:DKL), the AIM-listed West African agribusiness that operates the Ayenouan palm oil mill and the Tiebissou cashew plant in Côte d'Ivoire, reported its strongest quarter yet for cashew processing alongside stable palm oil output through the third quarter's seasonal low.
Crude palm oil (CPO) production dipped 0.7% year-on-year to 2,709 tonnes, with a weaker July and August offset by a 27.9% jump in September volumes against the same month last year.
Palm kernel oil (PKO) production more than doubled, up 103.3% to 551 tonnes, as the company worked through kernel stock built up by the end of June, which it had flagged in its July trading update.
CPO sold at €951 per tonne, down a marginal 1.3% year-on-year and described by the company as historically elevated, while PKO prices rose 6.4% to €1,334 per tonne.
CPO sales volumes fell 6.6% to 2,535 tonnes, leaving roughly 170 tonnes of unsold production carried into the fourth quarter.
At Tiebissou, raw cashew nut (RCN) processing rose 28.6% to 2,130 tonnes, averaging roughly 710 tonnes a month and exceeding the company's previously targeted 700-tonne monthly run rate.
Cashew production climbed 71.1% to 657 tonnes and sales rose 72.3% to 679 tonnes, both quarterly records, aided by 1,491 tonnes of third-party RCN processed into a specialised unpeeled product that the company said delivers margins comparable to internally processed nuts.
Average cashew sales prices, excluding third-party processed stock, eased 2.0% to €4,800 per tonne.
"Q3 is seasonally the quietest period for the Palm Oil Operation, and we are pleased to have delivered CPO production broadly in line with last year, alongside a doubling of PKO production and continued strong CPO and PKO prices," said chief executive Youval Rasin, adding that the company looks forward to "the high season commencing in the new year."
The update comes as Dekel works through a refinancing programme centred on a new six-year bond carrying a 9.5% coupon and a two-year principal grace period, intended to replace its existing €3.8m and €9.2m bonds and better align debt repayments with cash generation from Ayenouan and Tiebissou.