Chilean-headquartered berry grower-market Hortifrut has posted stellar financial results for the period from July 2020 to June 2021.

The company's EBITDA rose by 68.6 percent from US$121.61 million to US$205.05 million over the one-year period.

Its EBITDA increased mainly due to a 46% growth in the volume sold during the period, influenced by the increase of blueberries volume in Peru, Chile, Mexico and China, raspberries in Mexico, Portugal and Morocco.

Also contributing to the results was the segment of Value Added Products thanks to “Vitafoods”, a merger carried out during 2020 of the frozen export business between Hortifrut and Alifrut.

Regarding the profit attributable to the controller's group, it reached US$62.80 million this past season, compared to the US$22.26 million registered during the previous agricultural season, which represents an increase of 182.11 %. The higher profit is mainly due to higher sales volumes, a rise in fresh fruit prices, cost efficiencies and a reduction in net financial expenses.

Likewise, during the first half of 2021, EBITDA reached US$75.59 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 65.5%.

In relation to the profit attributable to the owners of the parent company, it reached US$11.27 million, representing an increase of US$8.77 million compared to the US$2.50 million obtained in the first half of last year.

Juan Ignacio Allende, CEO of Hortifrut, stated that “the good results are mainly explained due to good production results and the performance of our commercial platform in the destination markets which, together with the optimization of the production curve and growth in demand for our products, resulted in an increase in volumes and sales prices".

"Additionally, the excellence of our customer service, delivering new and diverse product formats associated to our proprietary berry varieties, has allowed us to develop "premium" berry programs with better characteristics accordingly to the needs of each market, thus ensuring the preference of our clients and third party producers around the world."