Golden Agri Q1 profit falls 8% to US$103.9m

THE world's second largest palm oil producer Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) earned US$103.9 million for the first quarter ended March, down 8 per cent from a year ago.

This was mainly due to higher raw materials cost borne by its downstream business despite higher production and selling prices and the oil seeds business in China which remained challenging.

GAR's topline figures denote a robust downstream and upstream business; revenue grew 34 per cent to US$1.91 billion on the back of higher sales volume in the palm and laurics segment and higher crude palm oil (CPO) market prices.