Agricover reports 48 percent turnover surge for 2011

Romanian agribusiness company Agricover Group has reported total revenues worth RON 920 million (approximately EUR 217.5 million) for 2011, up 48 percent in 2011 y-o-y. The growth was higher than the company’s initial objective, said Robert Arsene, Agricover’s CEO, adding that the performance was also the result of the “exceptional growth” reported by the agricultural sector last year.

Compared to the turnover reported in 2007, the company has managed to increase its revenues four times in 2011. Also, the group’s EBITDA amounted to over RON 44 million (approximately EUR 10.4 million), up 40 percent y-o-y.

For 2012, the company targets a 29 percent turnover increase, said Agricover’s CEO.

“In 2011 we continued to rely on the two pillars of our business, the grain trade and the distribution and sale of certified seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. At the same time, in order to continue our development strategy, we launched at the end of 2010 and two new business lines, the trade with meat and live animals and the sale of diesel fuel which are very popular with farmers. These last two have come to represent, together, more than 10 percent of the turnover “said Arsene.

Grain trade represented over 55 percent of the group’s total turnover, up 20 percent y-o-y in volume. The distribution and sale of certified seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel fuels generated, in 2011, 50 percent higher revenues than a year before.

Also, the group’s division in Bulgaria saw revenues from the sale of certified seeds, fertilizers and pesticides increase six times, to EUR 6 million. Through its credit division, Agricover Credit IFN, the group lent credits worth RON 300 million, up by more than 54 percent against the previous year.

Agricover Group is owned by Jabbar Kanani, an Azerbaijani businessman who has been living in Romania for the past 27 years.