Though there was a significant slow down in demand for Cairns Holdings’ food division products, especially during the second half, price inflation pushed sales from $5.5 billion last year to $30.8 billion during the year ended August.
Operating profit shot up from $1.2 billion to $11.4 billion with net profit at $8.5 billion, up from $1.1 billion last year.
The company says the decline in demand was largely due to hardships people were facing as well as the shortage of cash. Year-on-year inflation stood at 427 percent in August.
The company says paprika only traded for six months because of a fire during the first half. The paprika extraction plant had, however, been upgraded and was to be commissioned in November.
The company said though inflation and shortage of foreign currency were expected to continue, it had made arrangements to minimise shortages of raw materials.
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