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Adani Wilmar Ltd
NSE:AWL

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Adani Wilmar Ltd
NSE:AWL
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Price: 351.45 INR -1.72% Market Closed
Updated: May 2, 2024

Earnings Call Analysis

Q3-2024 Analysis
Adani Wilmar Ltd

Adani Wilmar Regains Profitability in Q3 FY24

Following previous losses, Adani Wilmar has achieved a significant business turnaround, now reporting increased retail penetration across 2.1 million outlets. The company's market share slightly rose from 19.5% to 19.8%. Growth has been robust with a 16% uptick in the edible oil segment and over 40% in domestic food consumption. Gross profits recorded were INR 1,630 crores, a 12% decline year-on-year, attributed to aggressive food business pricing strategies, but EBITDA has returned to the normal rate of about INR 530 crores. Revenues sequentially grew by 5%, despite a 17% year-on-year decrease which aligns with lower raw material costs channeled through pricing. Food and FMCG revenues increased 26% over nine months. Notably in foods, the wheat flour business grew by more than 45%, signaling a specific area of strength. Raw material prices have stabilized even amidst international market volatility, with food plant capacity utilization hovering at 50-55%.

Turnaround with Top Line and Bottom Line Restoration

The company successfully overcame previous losses, seeing a turnaround that brought it back to a phase of normal top and bottom-line performance. This recovery is a significant marker in the company's trajectory, instilling confidence among investors about its operational resilience.

Expanding Reach and Market Share

Domestic retail penetration has climbed to about 2.1 million outlets, which includes both direct and indirect coverage, while rural coverage also incremented. In the competitive edible oils market, the company managed to grow its market share modestly from 4.7% to 5.3-5.4%. This suggests an effective distribution strategy that has the company well-positioned to capture continuing market growth.

Impact of Global Events on Supply Chain

Geopolitical tensions, such as the Israel-Hamas war, the Argentinian election, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, have introduced supply chain risks, particularly in the edible oils segment. Despite these challenges, the company has learned to navigate through such upheavals, as evidenced by the stabilization of variable oil prices.

Sector Performance Insights

Food consumption in India has seen robust growth, with the domestic consumption of the food business growing by over 40%. Specific data from Nielsen highlighted consistent growth in the consumption of edible oil and wheat flour. Such industry trends are vital for pointing out areas with high growth potential.

Financial Health Analysis

There's been a significant sequential improvement, with the company rising from a loss to profit. Gross profits stood at INR 1,630 crores, with EBITDA reaching a stable run rate of approximately INR 530 crores. Overall revenue grew sequentially by 5%, although there was a year-on-year decline of 17%.

Product Segment Performance

Notably, the wheat flour business surged by more than 45%, contributing to a growing basket within the food segment, which altogether grew by nearly 20%. The brand mix is improving, and rural demand continues to be a strong driver of volumes. On the contrary, the edible oil volumes were relatively flat, impacted by a slight slump in edible oil consumption.

Outlook on Capacity and Growth

The company's current capacity utilization is between 55% to 60%, indicating substantial room for future growth without immediate need for capacity expansion. As demand in branded sales for edible oil and food continues to grow, the company is well-poised to enhance its market positioning further.

Enhanced Supply Chain and Distribution Focus

Strengthening the supply chain remains a priority to accommodate the spikes in staple demand, ensuring product availability across 93 depots, and bolstering both direct and indirect retailer coverage. The expansion of the supply chain operations and wider distribution reach are strategic moves to secure a more substantial market share.

Branded Exports and Advertising Efficacy

Branded exports saw an impressive growth of over 80% in nine months. Despite being less visible in mass media advertising compared to top competitors, Fortune and Kohinoor brands are reported to have a considerable promotional spend. This reflects the company's efforts to strengthen brand recall and foster long-term consumer relationships.

Expanding Rice Business and Market Positioning

The rice segment has seen expansion from 4-5 units last year to 13 units today. The company is processing paddy in numerous states, indicating a strategic approach to localize production and foster closer ties with farmers. This expansion suggests an anticipation of capturing more market share in the rice business segment.

Prospects with Commodity Price Movements

Edible oil industry dynamics indicate a potential advantage of steady or gradually reducing prices. If these conditions persist, branded staples like Fortune may gain as consumption typically increases when prices are lower. This could bode well for the company's profitability going forward, with the effect of lower prices possibly fueling growth in brand market share.

Revenue and Profitability Strategies

Revenue has aligned with raw material price trends, but a significant 15% increase in segment profit from December '22 to '23 highlights efficient management of the cost structure. In the branded food and FMCG segment, aggressive marketing strategies have been adopted, driven by the turnaround in the edible oil sector.

Performance Metrics and Future Goals

Monitoring key performance metrics like supply chain efficiency, retailer coverage, and market share increments drives the company's strategy. With sights set on expanding food contribution to 25% of overall company volumes by FY '25, the company remains focused on growth and operational efficiency.

Seasonal Trends and Product Performance

October volumes were particularly strong for the company, with the basmati rice business contributing significantly to a positive O&D quarter performance. The chemical business also demonstrated strong performance, with the company boasting substantial market shares in acid and castor oil production. The ability to capitalize on seasonal trends and diversify product offerings underlines the company's adaptability.

Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2024-Q3

from 0
Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Adani Wilmar Q3 FY '24 Results Conference Call hosted by ICICI Securities. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Karan Bhuwania from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

K
Karan Bhuwania
analyst

Thank you. Hi, good afternoon, everyone. It's our pleasure at I-Sec to host Q3 FY '24 Results Conference Call of Adani Wilmar. From the management today, we have Mr. Angshu Mallick, CEO and Managing Director; Mr. Shrikant Kanhere, CFO; and Mr. Saumin Sheth, Chief Operating Officer.

I now hand over the call to Mr. Angshu Mallick for his opening remarks and then post that, we can open for Q&A. Thank you.

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

Welcome everyone here. Hearting to start with that after Q1 and Q2 losses, we have turned around and we are back in normal phase of top line and bottom line. So that is 1 good. Retail penetration and retail availability has increased. Now it's around 2.1 million outlets, direct and indirect coverage.

Rural coverage has also increased. Market share has improved from 19.5 to 19.8 is another good story. And overall, overall, Edible Oil pact has been growing, up to 9 months has been around 16%, which is quite good in terms of past records.

And Food business in India, domestic consumption has been growing at more than 40%. So overall, few things are very, very good. And more Shrikant will take you through.

S
Shrikant Kanhere
executive

Hi. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining this call. As a ritual what I'll do is take you through a quick update on this quarter. This quarter, of course, also remain an eventful quarter. I think for last 1 year, we are looking at a lot of geopolitical events even which we have never thought of but are happening. This quarter also was not different from other quarters.

The recent Israel-Hamas war and red sea conflict does suppose some kind of supply chain threat on the food business where the container freights have gone up very high. Argentinian election and the populous government there has got a significant impact on the supply chain of soyabean.

Similarly, the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to grow, and therefore, we have some kind of risk always on the sunflower supply chain. Variable oil prices, at least now, we can say have been stabilized from as high as $2,000 a tonne sometime same time last week, last year, to now close to $1,000 and below $1,000.

So this is something a good story. And lower prices, of course, lead to higher demand and the companies like us who have got a greater market share, certainly gain from this.

On a supply chain. Demand for edible oil, India is expected to conclude this oil year, which is November to October, with -- close to 16 million of import and close to 24 million to 25 million of consumption, which is in line with the projection, which -- or estimate, which industry had made at the start of the oil all year.

On the food front, the wheat prices continues to go up and down. I mean they typically follow a cycle of low at the time of harvest, which is sometime in the month of March and April and steadily keeps going up until the month in the month of November and December, and that's where then it starts falling. So that cycle continues. And therefore, for the company like us, our policy of procuring wheat at the time of harvests always pay up not only on the price, but also on the quality of the wheat flour, which we are able to deliver to our customers.

On our industry growth trends. The recently published Nielsen data suggests that edible oil consumption continues to grow. Quarter 1, it grew by 14% at an industry level. Quarter 2, it grew by 12% and quarter 3, 24%. So overall, the industry is consistently growing as far as edible oil is concerned, which has contributed both equally by urban as well as rural markets. And growth in consumption certainly helps a company like us who have got a leading position on the market share.

Wheat flour par also a similar story as edible oil. The industry -- industry kept growing at 19% for the quarter 1, 13% for the quarter 2 and 3% for the quarter 3. So overall, good story here and same story is there and what when we see look at the basmati rice.

So this is a very quick update on the various fundamentals, parameters and various events that impact the business. Let's now talk straight on the performance for the quarter 3. But performance on quarter 3 as Mr. Mallick said in his opening remarks, we are happy to see that there is a complete turnaround sequentially from the loss that we reported in the last quarter to the profit.

And also, what we have seen is now we are back to our normal run rate of EBITDA as well as PAT including the volume growth. The gross profits for the quarter at INR 1,630 crores is quite good. When we look at the same time last year, it is down by close to 12%, of course, because the oil business has delivered better. However, on the food business, we remain a little bit aggressive in terms of pricing and therefore, food didn't deliver the way it has delivered same time, same quarter last year.

EBITDA, as I said, we are more or less now back to our original run rate of close to INR 530 crores, INR 530 crores of EBITDA for the quarter. Second best highest EBITDA for us in last, I think, 10 quarters.

On the edible oil, the branded sales for the 9 month continued to grow at 16% year-on-year, very healthy growth for Edible Oil segment. Capacity utilization are in the range of 55% to 60%. So we still have good headroom available as far as the capacities are concerned, to take on any growth that we can get in the next couple of years.

The ROCP market share, as Mr. Mallick said in his opening remarks, as we have been able to consolidate this market share from 19.5 to 19.8. So for a leader, every consolidation of market share is good story. It is not that how much of market you have been able to grow. I think leader, if he is able to control his market share itself is a very big achievement. And so we have been growing on market share.

Similarly, when we look at the wheat flour business also, our market share has gone up by 50 basis points from 4.7% to now close to 5.3%, 5.4%. On overall company highlights, the volume growth of 5% year-on-year as well as sequential volume growth of 5%. The revenue grew by -- sequentially grew by 5%.

Year-on-year, revenue are down by 17%, but those are more in line with the lower raw material costs, which have been kind of pass-through for us. Company recorded second highest stand-alone EBITDA for INR 530 crore. However, it is lower by 15% year-on-year due to the strong base quarter as well as I said earlier, we were a little aggressive on the food business on pricing.

In fact, within the food while the basket grew by close to 20%, but within the food, our wheat flour business grew by more than 45%, and that's a very encouraging story for us. We are improving on the brand mix. Our rural demand continues to drive our volumes. And that is there something which we feel very happy about and those are the big highlights for the quarter.

As far as the edible oil is concerned, the volumes are slightly flattish. Of course, because we saw a little bit slump in edible oil consumption in the month of December. But as we see -- we are seeing in January, I think we are back in the kind of volume-demand which we saw in October and November. So I hope the part of overall on demand side and the volume side will be better than quarter 3. The branded volume, of course, grew more than the overall Edible Oil segment and the raw material price are now more or less stable.

We did see the high volatility of soya prices increase due to the domestic economic situation in Argentina. On food and FMCG metrics, our revenue grew by 26% for the 9 month as against 55% growth that we saw in FY '23 and 38% we saw in '22. But I think this drop in food revenues more to do with the rice export brand, which India has put in, and therefore, we are not able to export the rice, which is more of a non-basmati rice. Basmati rice export is still happening out of India.

Capacity utilizations on the food plant continues to be in the range of 50% to 55%. The food FMCG revenue as such grew by close to 26%, branded food is scaling up very fast. As I said, wheat business, we grew close to 45%, and we are slowly getting strong in the southern market, which are more revenue market for us. And of course, we are scaling our branded food exports in more markets as we go forward.

On general trade distribution key metrics, I think, a good story to report. Now our overall reach is close to 2.1 million outlet with a direct reach of close to 6.8 lakh outlet. Rural coverage of now close to 27,500-plus towns. So of course, we have a target of taking this 27,500 to 30,000 towns by end of this year.

And of course, rural saliency remains at 30%, 31%, which is good story. That shows that with urban, the rural demand is also picking up. On direct of course, when -- if you compare with March '20, there is a 2.3x growth and in terms of rural town coverage as compared to March '20, there is 8.58, So of course, the distribution remains a very focused area for us because we know that distribution will take our food business to the next level.

On just general trade update, I think we are quite well placed on the distribution and network expansion. We are going deeper and deeper into existing towns and we're trying to capture the demand.

On brand activities, I will not dwell much upon this. There are a lot of Fortune brand commercials that we released to spend -- to sell our products. On channel performance, I think branded export is 1 thing which we have been able to grow more than by 80% in 9 months, which is very good.

HoReCa is a segment where our focus is down, we have been growing it slows to it is a very small segment as of today, but it is growing quite well. And we are very optimistic on this e-commerce and modern trade, which is growing very fast for us.

To summarize, I think company has brought the focus on HoReCa 1. And of course, all the 3 channels are growing very fast as far as the branded sales are concerned. On the new product launch, finally, we have launched a premium Fortune atta, which is Sharbati atta which is in competition products available in the market.

And of course, the biryani kit, which was there in the domestic market, now we are pushing it more and more into the export markets and [indiscernible] and the export now accounts for more than 44% of our biryani kit sales.

Going forward, a lot of marketing activities and social media engagements have been done, which I will skip to save the time, and I will straightaway go to the financial performance.

So on financial performance on the segment level quarter-over-quarter, sequentially, edible oil grew by 11%, whereas year-on-year growth is flattish. Food and FMCG grew by 17% and industry essential grew by 17% on year-on-year.

If you look at a 9-month basis, the edible oil grew by 8%. And within this 8%, as I said earlier, the pant oil grew by 16%, and the food grew by 19% and industry essential by 20%. The food continues to contribute close to 17% to 18% of overall volumes of the company, which is good.

We have a plans to take it to close to 25% by end of FY '25. On the revenue front, of course, the drop in revenue is in line with the raw material prices led primarily by Edible Oil segment. However, the food FMCG revenues went up by 25% and industry essential revenue were flattish, in line with, again, here also in line with the raw material prices correction.

When you look at the segment result, and this is what I have been telling the entire profitability for this quarter is driven by the edible oil turnaround. I think on a year-on-year basis, segment profit has gone up by 15% from INR 258 crore of December '22 to INR 297 crore for December '23.

Food FMCG has gone down. As I said earlier also that on food and FMCG, we had been very, very aggressive in some of the markets as far as the food is concerned, and that's how -- and it has been reflecting in our wheat flour business improvement also, which has grown by 45% year-on-year.

So overall, when you look at the financial performance, the volume growth for the 9 months of 5%. And of course, the EBITDA and the PAT are down as -- because of the pressure from the food and FMCG business. For the quarter, we have been able to deliver the volume, we have been able to deliver the revenue.

And now more or less, we are there as far as the run rate of EBITDA is concerned and the run rate of the PAT is concerned. So overall, things have been changed for us in this quarter. And as we go forward in quarter 4, I think we should continue with the performance, which we have been able to post in this quarter 3. In fact, we have -- we do have a vision of giving better numbers as we get into quarter 4.

With this, I end this presentation and will not dwell much up on this, you can certainly go through the presentation, which have been uploaded on the site. And then I open the floor now for the question-and-answers, and we would be happy to answer.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Abneesh Roy from Nuvama.

A
Abneesh Roy
analyst

Yes. Congrats on the margins coming back. My first question is on edible oil the volumes are flat. The other listed company also saw a dip in volumes. So whenever we see sharp inflation followed by sharp deflation, generally, the local players come back. So wanted to understand the competitive intensity. I'm not referring to the market share data because that can or cannot capture the real situation on ground.

I wanted to understand are you happy with the flat volumes you're seeing given festival season this time, there was a full benefit unlike last year, when it was split between Q2, Q3, plus the marriage demand was also very strong. So in that context, flat volumes and local sales if you could discuss in terms of competitive situation?

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

See, Abneesh, the flat volume is at the company level. But when you look at the pact versus the institutional supply that we make to the frying industry, like the chips and wafers people or to the snack foods or biscuit manufacturers, that has actually declined. But pact oil has grown at around 5% in Q3, overall, overall, obviously, 16% growth.

Now when you look at this Q3, last year also, the Q3 was very, very big. And marriage season, of course, this year is also there, last year was also there. Last year's quarter 3 was a big quarter for us. This year, also it has like that. So I don't think the smaller players have taken in share because the market prices have come down, which have made the edible oil affordable.

So all the brands have done at these levels only. And Nielsen also said the overall the market has grown by around 4%, 5% in Q3. And that is what has happened with us also.

A
Abneesh Roy
analyst

My second question is on the Argentina soya issue in terms of the political development there and the container cost, which has gone up sharply. So could you discuss what can be the impact? Because after many quarters, you have seen finally a stable quarter with 3.9%, 4% EBITDA margin, which is a good number.

But do you see the margins coming at risk because of the Argentina development or the container risk -- container cost escalation? p

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

I think Argentina's major issue was the currency, that is the blue currency or the official currency and the farmers were reluctant to supply at the pegged currency because that was much lower than the blue currency that was going on in the market. And so the supply was less.

And last year, Argentina was really under drought. So they had less than 25 million tonne crop. This year, the sowing is good, and everything goes well, the crop is expected to be at least 45 million tonne. Now somebody is saying 50, but then 45 million to 50 million tonnes should double the crop. So the Argentinians are very happy about it.

This year, the agriculture is going to be good. The new president is also good in terms of bringing stability and at least making the currency closer in official and blue that they call is much closer now. So that is good.

We don't see any disruption of supply from Argentina or Brazil. Brazil also has a wonderful crop, 125 million tonne and harvest has started. Processing will start from February. So February onwards supply chain will improve. So soyabean we are not at all worried.

As far as red sea is concerned, this issue is more now on containers that goes to Europe, U.S., even Jeddah some of the places where it passes through the container rate has gone up. Now one, it has gone up. Second, availability has also shrunk because a lot of cargo has got stuck or something.

So our problem is that rice exports that we have done to these countries, so there, there is some slowness. So it should improve if the situation improves there, but there is some amount of increase freight. Now that freight can be $30, $40 a tonne can increase on a cargo of $1,100.

A
Abneesh Roy
analyst

Last question on rice. Now could you discuss, are you happy till now with the acquisition, the kind of development you have seen in terms of either market presence or market share? Second is the top 2 players are extremely large versus you in India branded rice, they have a very strong supply chain and strong relationship with the mundis with a lot of experience of many decades. So in that context, where are you, given you also have done an acquisition, so you must have gained some of the know-how in terms of this.

So if you could discuss the gap and how do you want to close that gap in terms of sourcing?

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

Last year, in this time, we were operating from 4 or 5 units in the country. Today, I am operating out of 13 units in the country, out of which 2 are our own and 11 are -- I have taken the full factory and managing it ourselves to our staff and running it as it it is ours. Now we have increased our footprint surely.

Now we are available and processing paddy to rice in Bihar, UP, Karnatak, Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Punjab, Haryana. So we are now there. Maharashtra, I'm starting very soon near Nagpur. I'm also working at Andhra Pradesh, so we are starting there.

So I think what we have decided is that we will go to every state wherever rice is available and we will convert paddy to rice and bring that business closer to the market, that is one. Two, we have started taking a lot of graduate -- agriculture graduates just as we take the graduate engineers and put them at GET, similarly, we have taken graduate agriculture trainees and putting them in the market to work with FPOs, to work with the farmers and bring up closer connect between the farmer, FPO and AWL factories.

Now that we are doing to ensure we get into the roots.

We are working continuously on it. Yes, I would agree with you, Abneesh, that we don't have so much of expertise in contract farming or rice growing with these farmers. But surely, we have bought paddy this time, basmati paddy from 125 market yards out of 250, what they call. So 125 means the potential ones we have gone and we have put our people and we are sourcing from them. And I think we are a serious buyer in paddy this year. People have seen our purchase.

A
Abneesh Roy
analyst

Sure. That's helpful. One last follow-up on rice So we see top 2 players to advertise heavily. One has been a brand sponsor of Master Chef India and there has also been extremely strong advertising. So mass media advertising, I don't see much of Kohinoor or your own rice. So is that depending upon the development of the core expertise, which is still yet to be built? Is that depending upon that?

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

I think our Fortune and Kohinoor spend this year has been...

A
Abneesh Roy
analyst

For rice only I'm saying.

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

Yes, only rice, I am saying possibly is higher than #2 brand. That is what I know because that is what statistics I've seen. You may not have seen it much is another issue because possibly, we are not available in all the business channels. But still, we were there. Kohinoor has the new ad that we have made has turned out to be one of the best ads as per the research by some agency that it's the top 5 recalled ad which highlights on the aroma absolutely different type of style and all that.

Now surely, advertisement of 1 year, 2 year doesn't make much. You look at their competition doing it for 10 years, 15 years. In oil, you will find that we are visible, much more visible than anybody. That is because over the years, we have put it. But surely going forward, you will see us in many of the places. And we have also taken such type of programs wherever we feel that the brand and the program has connect.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from the line of from Capital.

U
Unknown Analyst

So a competitor of yours recently on the con-call said that -- made a statement that the edible oil prices have bottomed down and the worst is over for this industry right now and things will only look up from here. So what's your view on this? And how do you see pricing and demand shaping up margins also for players like you shaping up over the next 2, 3 years in the space, edible oil space?

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

See, industry, edible oil industry, what we always fear is sharp decline or sharp increase. Sharp increase is obviously good because most of us are long physically. But when it comes to sharp decline, we are all afraid because you don't get much time to cover yourself. But the edible oil prices have been steady and the hedge is now in tandem.

It is not reverse. Earlier what happened, was going up, India was coming down. So you had lost in both the places. Now the hedges are in tandem. And it's a little much more safer business, I would say. Going forward, if this oil prices remains like this or even it reduces and gradually, it reduces the way that is happening now, we see better.

Because brands always do well when commodity prices are lower, that is one. Two, consumption is always high of staples when the prices are lower. Both the things will surely help AWL because the brand Fortune will gain when the prices are low.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Akshay Krishnan from ICICI Securities.

A
Akshay Krishnan
analyst

Sir, I just wanted to understand on the branded segment, what are the key drivers that we are monitoring and do we expect any further acceleration down the line? And what is that we can actually look in for that?

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

See, brands, what we normally monitor, one, supply chain because the demands shoot up many times because these are staples. So we have to ensure that we have excellent supply chain. So possibly, we have the largest number of manufacturing points and we have 93 depots across the country, areas, including Srinagar, and all that.

So stocks are available. 10,000 distributors handling our products many of them all the products and many of them are exclusive. So supply chain is one. Two is the retail universe increasing is our direct coverage increasing. So we have seen that our direct coverage is now around 6,60,000, which we started the year at around 4,75,000 or 5 lakh, and we hope to go up to 1 million in the year-or-so.

Indirect coverage is also increasing, which Nielsen is saying is growing and has grown at 2.14 million, which in itself is a very good figure.

Third is absolute market share, which has grown from 19.5 to 19.8 so that we are looking at. We look at what is the volume that the retailer is handling what we call a PDO. So all these things matters.

Apart from that, let me tell you, our gives us huge that competition is weak in this area, competition supply chain is tight and we should gear up fast. So we don't take much time to react and all of us get into the act and just blast with our volumes.

That is our strength areas. So these are the things that we do.

A
Akshay Krishnan
analyst

Right, sir. Sir, one more question, just a follow-up. I just want to understand the performance trends that has been seen through the quarter? So I just wonder, can you just help us in quantifying the October versus November, November versus December trends that we are seeing in?

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

In terms of volumes or sales or something?

A
Akshay Krishnan
analyst

On the overall levels, sir, both the sales and the volume. So...

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

See, I think we did the highest in October [indiscernible] oil did highest in October. Basmati rice, Kohinoor did higher 6,500 tonne in December. So O&D was very good because basmati rice season starts in October and October, November, December was very good for us for domestic basmati rice business. This trend continues also Jan, Feb, March.

Our chemical business has done very well. Let me tell you, we are almost 25% of the country's suppliers. We almost have 33% market share of acid in the country, 11% noodles, so that business also, except for noodles, other 2 products are doing very well in O&D.

Castor oil was good. Castor oil exports were very good. So that has been helpful for us. Overall, overall, October, November and December, October volume was very, very good. November was a little medium and then December was low. So that is how it is. But volume-wise, it was a good quarter.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We have a follow-up question from the line of from Capital.

U
Unknown Analyst

Yes. So maybe from my lack of knowledge, but this question more pertains to understanding how do we track the prices of -- for, let's say, mustard oil than soybean oil for those type of edible oils, how do we track the raw material prices? Do we just link it to crude oil? Or is there some other way you recommend us to attack those prices?

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

See, mustard oil, I will tell you, is simple, it is the prices are available in exchanges, solvent extraction associations regularly issue this, brokers are there we supply the rates on a daily basis. But for us, we buy a mustard seed, we are possibly one of the largest mustard buyers and processors.

So we keep a track of mustard seed available in Haryana, Rajasthan, UP and we are buying oil in 9 places. So overall, we get a feel of the country supply chain, and that is how we ensure, one, raw material, and we ensure the raw material prices are least cost basis. So whichever is cheaper we buy from that area and seed also we go by But for you, you can get into solvent extraction association, and you will get their report monthly, daily. Daily, I don't think they will, but they are giving weekly rates.

U
Unknown Analyst

Okay. Okay. Great. And 1 more question was, for the end edible oil product, how much is the -- what is the percentage of imports that come into the country?

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

See, today, we consume roughly around 23 million tonne. And domestic is around 8.5 million, 9 million tonne and 16 million is imported. So 2/3, 1/3.

U
Unknown Analyst

So out of these imports, is there any import duty?

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

Yes, yes. 5.5% import on crude oil.

U
Unknown Analyst

And is the company lobbying for a higher import duty in the future? Or are you guys happy with this equation right now?

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

No, no, I will always say if the duty is less, prices of commodities less, volatility will be good and manageable and consumers will find the prices attractive and will consume more. End of the day, lower prices help. But then if you look at the farmer, surely, they are worried because in soyabean if you have seen recently in MP the rates are lower than the MSP. So there is some amount of discussion going on So from a consumer point of view, lower duty is good.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

S
Shrikant Kanhere
executive

Yes. On the behalf of the management of AWL, I would like to thank the participants for taking out time and joining our call and listening to us, do keep tracking our numbers to keep tracking us on a quarterly basis, and we do connect with us for any connect with offline also for any explanation of queries, which we have around the business model. Thank you very much.

A
Angshu Mallick
executive

Thank you all for attending and hope to continue with this trend. Q4 onwards, a lot activities are going on in AWL and I hope we'll continue with our good performance.

Operator

Thank you. On behalf of ICICI Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.

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