Camellia Regulatory News (CAM)

7 Jun 2005 13:00

Camellia PLC07 June 2005 Camellia Plc Chairman's statement at AGM I would now like to take this opportunity to bring shareholders up to date withdevelopments in the current year. Although it is still very early in the season tea production in both India andBangladesh are ahead of last year's levels. Prices in India are slightly behindlast year but in Bangladesh somewhat ahead. Pressure on cost of production is anongoing concern but we are maintaining our policy of producing the highestpossible quality of leaf. Tea production in Kenya is ahead of budget however prices are disappointing. TheKenya shilling has strengthened against the dollar and consequently margins arecurrently substantially reduced. In Malawi production is reasonable althoughprices have also declined over the last few months. The sale of our interest in East African Coffee Plantations in Australia hasbeen completed and the funds have been received. These funds have been utilisedto reduce borrowings. Our macadamia operations in South Africa and Malawi are progressing well and wehave plans to expand our edible nut interests. The 2005 table grape harvest in South Africa was greatly reduced on account ofadverse climatic conditions and results continue to be affected by the strongrand. In view of the prospects for this sector, we have recently exchangedcontracts for the sale of one of our table grape properties for Rand 14 million. Brazil has experienced some inclement weather conditions and prices in dollarterms for its maize and soya production are reduced. The Brazilian currency hasalso strengthened against the dollar. In the UK most of our engineering operations are experiencing increased demandbut Associated Cold Stores & Transport is still suffering from over capacity inthe cold storage market. The investment management business of Douglas Deakin Young, which was acquiredby Duncan Lawrie earlier in the year has now been consolidated into the HobartPlace premises of the bank. The prospects for this acquisition are encouraging. Siegfried have recently announced the acquisition of the Penick Corporation,located in New Jersey, which will strengthen its position in the US market forcontrolled substances. Penick owns unique technologies and processes for themanagement of active pharmaceutical ingredients for pain management. As usual it is impossible at this stage to anticipate with any certainty thelikely results for the first half of this year. For further enquiries please contact Camellia PlcMalcolm PerkinsTel: 01622 746655 MCP/vjj/misc/1077(07.06.05) This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange