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Sorry rugs, there's always one! I think the market is very heavily discounting the cashew start-up, whether this goes well and they can make a success of this new business. All the recent RNSs re-iterate the Q2 timing so this is still the case, if it had changed subsequently they would have had to tell us. At kick off of production the big discount should start to unwind and the brakes come off the price. Until then it is the Alex Ferguson squeaky time. Come on guys, Avanti, sbrigati!

Unfortunately fk1 I think that was a late reported trade from the 8th when the spread was 5.10/5.20. The trade was at 4.95 so it must have been a sale. Would explain the recent weakness but still, as long as the cashews start up on time and the cash keeps rolling in from the CPO then the fundamentals will re-assert themselves on the price.

Haha yes that dog must be getting desperate! They say why the PKO volume is down, they are holding a large stock of nuts to process later (as they can store these), smoothing usage of the plant and perhaps forecasting future price movements.

An excellent performance with record volume and a high selling price. The cash rolling in right now and high potential for the future with cashews to add to the palm oil, what's not to like?

I'd say broker to broker transfer.

Can't even buy £100 worth online

Buying the extra stake in the Cashew project was a good piece of business. I think the share price has been under a cloud due to the violence around the presidential elections, but things seem to be quietening down in Cote D'Ivoire and we should hopefully see a good uplift here, CPO price is roaring away and the cashew mill is getting ever nearer to production.

Haha I thought that too fallingknife, as it mentions Tiebissou. You need Google Translate for the full pleasure..

https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2020/11/06/cote-d-ivoire-le-centre-c-ur-de-toutes-les-tensions_6058760_3212.html?xtor=EPR-33280896-[afrique]-20201107-[zone_edito_1_titre_1]

2.02 to sell, 2.19 to buy on HL right now.

Phil, I think the market is still absorbing that sale of £34K from a few days ago, I guess the MMs have their hands full at the moment.

Phil/Rugs, Looking back to the 2013 launch documents I see the company owned land at Ayanouan was 1900 ha. So that has not changed at all! At launch they declared a plan to boost company owned estates to 26,000. However they had (still have?) 24,000 ha at Guitry which is labeled 'Expansion Land' . That 24,000 plus 1,900 at Ayanouan would meet the 26,000 target. So I've changed my mind and think they never planned more company land at Ayanouan, only at Guitry. That of course has dropped down the pecking order of projects.

On a different subject, prices, some optimism looking ahead to next year from India's Business Standard 11 July:

India’s demand for vegetable oils, including palm, is seen recovering to pre-Covid-19 levels in the second quarter of 2021, according to veteran analyst Dorab Mistry, a director at Godrej International.

“I am looking forward to high commodity prices from the second quarter of 2021” helped by a recovery in the global economy next year, Mistry said. Until then “we have to live with low prices.”

“If we push up prices unnecessarily we are going to destroy demand,” he said.

I just think Dekel should tell us if the strategy has changed and why. As you say philpot, the volumes from their own estates are relatively small. In Malaysia, company owned estates alongside (and sometimes leasing land to) small holders and employing a large pool of foreign workers is an important part of their business model. Maybe that is what DKL had in mind for Cote D'Ivoire but it hasn't really worked out in that setting. In that case just tell us! Putting a nice gloss on things is unnecessary and makes shareholders less not more comfortable. If you are reading Lincoln....

Not a great quarter then compared to last year, 11,801 tonnes compared to 14,013 last year. But Q2 2019 was always going to be a difficult comparator, the prior year Q2 2018 was 8,637.
I would like to know how the company owned estates are going. When the plant was set up this was a key part of their strategy, their own land along with the nursery improving yields. We haven't heard much about this for the last year or so. Also how is the fertiliser plan going?

The initial delay in Cashew production from January to April next year was stated to be because of Covid.
On 9 April 2020 we had "Manufacturing of the milling equipment in Italy continued until mid-March but work has since been suspended due to COVID-19. Commencement of production may see some delay from original target date of January 2021"
On 12 May they said "Delivery of the equipment is now expected to take place in four shipments commencing in July which the Company now anticipates will extend commencement of production at Tiebissou by up to a maximum of three months from the original target date of January 2021"
The wording softened in the 14 May RNS to become "continues to expect" commissioning in April 2020. A month later they opened the timing window from April to H1 on 10 June with "remains on course to commence production in H1 2021." The 6 July had "management believes the mill will commence production in Q2 2021" which allowed too much wriggle room in my view, and was tightened a bit today with "The development of our large-scale cashew processing project at Tiebissou is gaining momentum and remains on track to be commissioned in Q2 2021". Changing the wording from "believes" to "remains on track" sounds more positive to me.
The indication was that the cashew machinery from Italy was on the critical path. This has been shipped in line with the revised promises. Covid has probably played a part in the overall project timings. Hopefully they can bring forward as much activity as possible to maximise cashew production in the peak season next year.
When they did the palm oil plant I thought this was quite a risky venture. They succeeded in getting that up and running in a greenfield location in Cote D'Ivoire. That does give me confidence that the same team can do it again.

Good they have tightened the wording since the last RNS, now "remains on track".
The development of our large-scale cashew processing project at Tiebissou is gaining momentum and remains on track to be commissioned in Q2 2021.

When they shipped the Palm Oil Mill, it arrived at Abidjan port on 9 March 2013 and cleared customs and was ready to ship on the 25 March. They have 32 containers to ship for the cashew infrastructure, so budgeting 4 weeks sounds consistent with past experience. It would have been known about ahead of arrival so I don't see this as causing any delays to the plan.

Thanks rugs, can't fault the MMs for the spread but its still strange.

Should be up again tomorrow if it is tracking the CPO futures, up 1.4% today.

Big delayed sale announced. Maybe that submerged sale being worked accounted for the odd reversal in the bid and offer prices?