THE SunRice Group was handing out record dividends at its annual general meeting earlier this month against the backdrop of $1.3 billion revenue – up 30 per cent on the previous year.
The welcome handouts were further underpinned by earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation of $91.3 million, and an after-tax net profit of $48.7 million, up 86 per cent and 167 per cent respectively on the previous financial year.
On top of the record fully franked dividend of 40 cents per B-class share in total for 2021-22 was the record pool paddy price of $428 per tonne for medium grain reiziq.
Fixed-price contracts were also offered at $475 per tonne for limited volumes of medium-grain reiziq and up to $625 per tonne for specialty varieties.
The resurgence in Riverina rice production in 2021 drove the return of Australian rice to the SunRice Group’s most premium markets and allowed the Australian rice pool business to absorb its share of overheads.
Production has further improved, with the group updating the total tonnage for the recently harvested crop to about 688,000 paddy tonnes – the largest in five years.
SunRice upgraded the lower end of the range for the 2022 pool to $400 per paddy tonne for medium-grain reiziq, an increase of $10, while the upper end of the range remains $450 per tonne.
Looking ahead to planting of the next crop in October, SunRice will announce the opening of a pool and fixed price contracts soon.
With water availability and water pricing in the southern connected Murray-Darling Basin system at their most favourable levels in many years, another large Riverina rice crop is anticipated for 2023.
But there are a few dark clouds just beyond the horizon, as 2022-23 has started with worsening inflationary pressures on key business inputs and costs, and continuing volatility and disruption to global shipping, which is placing pressure on earnings.
SunRice said the rice revival, coupled with SunRice’s multi-origin, multi-market international rice supply capability, had the group well placed to benefit this year from an environment in which key markets were undersupplied. This was caused by factors including broader disruption from the Ukraine conflict and the impact of drought on a number of northern hemisphere rice-growing regions.
