OREANDA-NEWS. December 02, 2015. In the year thus far, the Thomson Reuters CRB Agriculture Producers Index, which consists of 35 global agriculture stocks, has declined 11.2%  Meanwhile the nine integrated processors and nine plantations currently listed for trading on Singapore Exchange (SGX) averaged an 18.3% decline. The two segments of the resource-related plays faired similarly with integrated processors averaging a 19.0% decline and plantations averaging a 17.7% decline.

These nine integrated processing stocks and nine plantations are the agriculture stocks that can also be considered to be ‘resource plays’, rather than the businesses manufacturing or operating in the food and beverage industry such as Thai Beverage PCL, China Minzhong Food Corp, Sino Grandness Food Industry, Yeo Hiap Seng and Chew’s Group.

The integrated processing stocks are involved across the agriculture supply chain with activities such  as production, refining, packaging, merchandising, marketing and sales. All Singapore’s integrated processors will complete their 2015 Financial Year at the end of December. Plantations are involved in the production of palm oil, fruit and vegetables, livestock rubber, timber and grains. The production of crops and livestock are subject to supply and demand risks, in additions to risks spanning regulations, environmental factors and climate change. With the exception of Del Monte Pacific – all plantation stocks will also complete their 2015 Financial Year with December. Del Monte Pacific will complete its 2015 Financial Year at the end of April 2016 and is dual listed on SGX and Philippine Stock Exchange.

Recent Moves of Integrated Processors

Declines have not been gradual over the year thus far – of the nine integrated processors, three stocks formed 52-week lows in September, and six stocks formed 52 week lows in August. For the stocks that formed 52-week lows in September they have averaged a 14.7% gain from their respective 52-week lows. Meanwhile the stocks that formed 52-week lows in August have averaged a 33.6% gain from their respective lows. Together, the nine stocks have averaged a 27.3% gain from their 52-week lows through to 1 December 2015 close.

The recent partial price recoveries of the stocks have corresponded with regional currencies posting gains to the US Dollar (USD). From the start of 2015 through to end of September 2015, the Indonesia Rupiah declined 7.1% to the USD before gaining 5.8% to the USD over the last two months. For the Malaysian Ringgit, the first nine months of 2015 saw a depreciation of 26.8% to the USD, followed by a 4.4% gain to the USD over the past two months.

The recent moves of the integrated processors are detailed in the table below. Click on each stock to visit its profile page on SGX StockFacts.

Source: SGX & Bloomberg (data as of 1 December 2015)

*Please note Changjiang Fertilizer Holdings has been omitted from the integrated processor list as the business requested suspension in April 2015. Click here for more details.

Wilmar’s business activities include oil palm cultivation, oilseed crushing, edible oil refining, sugar milling and refining, specialty fat, oleo chemical, biodiesel and fertiliser manufacturing and grain processing. It’s integrated agribusiness model encompasses the entire value chain of the agricultural commodity processing business, from origination and processing to branding, merchandising and distribution of a wide range of agricultural products. It has over 500 manufacturing plants and an extensive distribution network covering China, India, Indonesia and some 50 other countries. For more information, please click here.

Olam International also operates an extensive distribution network. Olam International supplies 44 different food and industrial raw materials (including cocoa, coffee, cashew, rice and cotton) to over 13,800 global customers. It’s operations span upstream activities through plantations and farming, origination activities through sourcing and logistics, midstream secondary processing and downstream manufacturing and distribution. For more information, please click here.

Recent Moves of Plantations

The nine plantation stocks have seen their 52-week lows span across as many as five months.  During the month of August and September, six of the nine stocks formed 52-week lows, with gains averaging 16.7% from the respective lows.

The recent moves of the plantations are detailed in the table below. Click on each stock to visit its profile page on SGX StockFacts.

Source: SGX & Bloomberg (data as of 1 December 2015)

Golden Agri-Resources is the world's second-largest palm oil plantation company with a total planted area of 484,221 hectares (including smallholders) as at 30 September 2015, located in Indonesia. It focused on sustainable palm oil production. In Indonesia, its primary activities include cultivating and harvesting of oil palm trees; processing of fresh fruit bunch into crude palm oil and palm kernel; merchandising and refining CPO into value-added products such as cooking oil, margarine and shortening. It also has operations in China and India including a deep-sea port, oilseeds crushing plants, production capabilities for refined edible oil products as well as other food products such as noodles. For more information, please click here.

First Resources is also a palm oil producer managing over 190,000 hectares of oil palm plantations across the Riau, East Kalimantan and West Kalimantan provinces of Indonesia. The Group’s core business activities include cultivating oil palms, harvesting the fresh fruit bunches and milling them into crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel (PK). In addition to plantations and palm oil mills, the Group through its refinery, fractionation, biodiesel and kernel crushing plants, processes its CPO and PK production into higher value palm-based products such as biodiesel, refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) olein and RBD stearin, palm kernel oil and palm kernel expeller. This enables the Group to extract maximum value out of their upstream plantation assets, with products sold to both local and international markets. For more information, please click here.