Fertiliser co-operatives Ravensdown and Ballance have delivered increased profits during a phase of high fertiliser prices.
Ravensdown’s profit before tax, bonus shares and rebate of $95 million for 2021-22 is well up on the previous $52 million.
Overall revenue of $922 million was up $210 million on last year.
Chairman Bruce Wills said one of the best results by Ravensdown was achieved in a year dominated by volatile pricing and global supply challenges.
Total fertiliser sales were slightly up at 1.22 million tonnes, and the higher revenue reflected the rising price environment that dominated the year, he said.
"The rapidly rising international prices makes fertiliser hard to budget for our farmers. To help them, Ravensdown focused on product margins and yielded a FY22 group margin percentage lower than last year."
A cash rebate of $25 per tonne is down on the previous $30/tonne as it prepares for the challenging year ahead.
That compares with a $30/tonne rebate put out by rival fertiliser co-op, Ballance, which is back on its $50/tonne released last year.
Ballance’s total revenue was $1.195 billion, up on last year’s $897 million, with sales also up slightly at 1.58 million tonnes.
Its adjusted profit before rebate and tax was $112 million compared with $63.1 million last year.
Ballance says $37 million will be returned to farmers and growers through the rebate. Another $56 million was held by the board to "future-proof" the co-op as it transitions to a low emissions, carbon-neutral direction for fertilisers.
Chief executive Mark Wynne said $54 million in price benefits was passed on to customers to ease the impact of rising commodity prices internationally.
"Along with local manufacturing, we assured affordability in a global context and reliability of supply in reasonably challenging circumstances."
Maintaining a solid balance sheet would help to insulate the firm as markets inevitably corrected, he said.
During the past year Ballance invested $95 million into a large capital programme, including the rebuild of the Whangarei hub.
The co-op credited a long-term gas supply contract for helping it supply, and manufacture urea from its Kapuni site, at a competitive price when energy price increases forced the closure of fertiliser factories in other parts of the world.
Ravensdown says its balance sheet is set for another challenging year with $347 million of stock in storage so farmers can access fertiliser this spring.
The overall equity-to-debt ratio is down to 62% (from 78%), while Ballance has dropped to 53% (from 62%).
