During the quarter, pre-tax loss stood at Rs 88.28 crore as compared to a pre-tax loss of Rs 16.24 crore reported in the corresponding quarter previous year.

The company reported negative EBITDA of Rs 65 crore in Q4 FY23 as against Rs 3 crore posted in Q4 FY22. The decline in the EBITDA was mainly due to inventory provision & impairments of intangibles in seeds business.

Rallis India reported 44.3% decline in net profit to Rs 91.49 crore despite of 13.9% rise in net sales to Rs 2,966.97 crore in FY23 over FY22.

Sanjiv Lal, managing director and CEO of Rallis India, said, “The company delivered 14% revenue growth over the previous year despite multiple headwinds. Our domestic crop care business grew by 12% and exports by 25% during the year. Exports recorded a revenue of Rs 979 crore in FY23. The Crop Nutrition business grew by 22%.”

“Our seeds business revenue was flat vs last year. Seeds revenue at Rs 345 crore was impacted mainly due to segmental shifts in Paddy and due to supply shortfall in Maize. We have recognised provision for slowmoving/non-moving inventory Rs 52.8 crore and impairment in intangible assets Rs 30.4 crore. Work is underway to stabilise the business and improve its unit economics. The positive response to Diggaz, a cotton brand for North India, is encouraging,” he added.

Lal lastly added, “For FY24, there are forecasts of the likely onset of El Nino effects and efforts are underway to mitigate its business impact. On a longer-term basis, our capex plans, new product introduction plans and demand generation investments remain on course.”

Rallis India is a subsidiary of Tata Chemicals and a part of the US$ 128 billion Tata Group. It is one of India's leading Agro Sciences Companies, with the most comprehensive portfolio of products/solutions for Indian farmers. It has marketing alliances with several multinational agrochemical companies.