Camellia Regulatory News (CAM)

8 Jun 2006 12:16

Camellia PLC 08 June 2006 Camellia Plc Chairman's Statement at AGM 8th June 2006 I would now like to take this opportunity of bringing shareholders up to date with developments in the current year. Drought conditions in Kenya and lower than expected rainfall in India and Bangladesh have led to crops being at a reduced level compared to the previous year. The drought has now broken in Kenya. Prices have been ahead of last year but remain insufficient to compensate for the lower production. Malawi has experienced good growing conditions and satisfactory prices. Prospects for our macadamia operations are reduced on account of lower crops and a decline in prices as production in Australia returns to normal levels. Other horticultural crops are performing reasonably except for table grapes in Chile and South Africa where low crops and prices will produce poor results. The continued weakness of the American dollar is a cause for concern and particularly impacts on the export earnings of our operations in Kenya, South Africa, Brazil and Chile. Our UK based engineering operations continue to benefit from increased activity particularly in the oil, gas and aerospace sectors. The proposed development of our galvanising operation in Great Yarmouth has been deferred due to a delay in obtaining approval from the local planning authority. The cold storage division is still suffering from over capacity in its market place but some further progress has been made in controlling costs. Duncan Lawrie has started the year well and further development opportunities for the bank continue to be examined. I am as usual unable to give an indication of the likely results for the first half of this year. Further enquiries please contact Camellia Plc Malcolm Perkins Tel: 01622 746655 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange