AGRI-FOOD company Japfa posted a net profit of US$46.3 million for the first nine months ended September, down 59 per cent from a net profit of US$113.9 million in the year-ago period.

This comes despite a 10 per cent increase in revenue to US$3.7 billion for 9M FY2022, which was mainly driven by higher sales volume across all segments, up from US$3.4 billion the year before, the group said in a bourse filing on Monday (Oct 31).

Operating profit fell 16 per cent to US$223.7 million, down from US$266.5 million the year before, with operating profit margin seeing a 1.9 percentage point drop to 6 per cent.

Profit margins were impacted by higher raw material prices across all businesses, as well as weaker performance of its swine operations in Vietnam due to price volatility and higher costs, the group said. Cost of sales increased 14 per cent to US$3.2 billion during the period.

Earnings per share fell to 2.27 US cents for the period, down from 5.58 cents a year ago.

Tan Yong Nang, chief executive officer of Japfa, noted the group’s ability to “navigate a challenging operating environment that continues to be affected by inflationary pressures on costs and other external factors, such as African swine fever in Vietnam and geopolitical tensions”.

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“While we expect global economic conditions to remain volatile, we remain focused on the execution of our strategy to provide affordable staple proteins to consumers in emerging Asia,” he said.

Shares of Japfa closed S$0.005 or 1 per cent higher at S$0.51 on Monday, before the announcement.