Agriculture Current Affair 17 March 2022

Poultry players face rising feed prices heat, margins to be under pressure in the near-term: ICRA

The revenues of Indian poultry industry are expected to grow by 5-6% in FY2022 compared to 2-3% growth witnessed by ICRA’s sample set of 10 large poultry integrators in FY2021. Continued demand recovery supported by opening up of hotels & restauran ts and uptick in broiler realisations will support this growth, said ICRA in a release.

“The industry demand-supply has been less impacted by subsequent two waves of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, industry margins are expected to contract sharply in FY2022 amid high average input prices led by heating up of soybean prices, players’ earnings are expected to be supported by favorable long-term demand outlook,” said ICRA.

As per the recent report published by ICRA on Poultry Industry, Sheetal Sharad, Vice President and Sector Head, ICRA, says, “The industry is sensitive to variations in input prices, mainly feed which accounts for ~70% of the variable costs. We expect industry margins to take a hit led by spike in soybean and maize prices on an average in FY2022. While many players faced net losses for H1 FY2022, subsequent softening of soybean prices following government’s actions and new crop supply provided some respite. However, recent geopolitical tensions have heated up soybean prices yet again. In this backdrop, adequate inventory levels of favorably priced feedstock may help players arrest margin contraction to some extent. For FY2022, ICRA expects the industry operating margins to contract sharply by 350 to 450 bps Y-o-Y. While higher than normal feed prices will severely impact earnings in FY2022, in the absence of any large debt-funded capital expenditure, moderation in debt-funded capital expenditure, moderation in debt protection metrics shall be restricted primarily to the earnings impact for FY2022.”

Arya.ag announces single click agri Insta-Loan for the farming community

Integrated grain commerce platform Arya.ag on Tuesday announced single click agri Insta-Loan for the farming community across India. Arya.ag’s Insta-Loan will enable immediate and easy access to loans to users on its digital platform.

A farmer can avail a loan instantly against his or her stored commodity at his or her discretion and choice from the comfort and convenience of the home.

The integrated digital platform leverages the best of capabilities of AI, ML, IoT and overall new-age digital technologies, to convert each bag of farm produce stored in Arya.ag’s digitally enabled warehouse into an electronic balance. An automated decisioning engine on Arya.ag offers finance against this electronic balance in a few clicks. Seamless and smooth access to loans empowers small farmers as they can fend off any distress sale scenarios after harvest.

India acts to seize gap in wheat export market left by Ukraine war

NEW DELHI: India is rolling out ambitious measures over the coming weeks to try to establish the country as a dominant exporter of high-quality wheat as importers scramble for supplies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two government sources said.

The measures, which should be implemented over the course of around two weeks, include ensuring government-approved laboratories test the quality of wheat for export, making extra rail wagons available for transport and working with port authorities to give priority to wheat exports.

India, the world’s biggest wheat producer after China, has been pursuing deals to export wheat and take advantage of surplus stocks at home and a sharp rise in global prices.