Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Vidya, moderator for the conference call. Welcome to Avanti Feeds Limited Q1 FY24 earnings conference call. We have with us today from the management, Mr. C. Ramachandra Rao, Joint Managing Director, Mr. A. Indra Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. A. Venkata Sanjeev, Executive Director, Mr. A. Nikhilesh, Executive Director, Avanti Frozen Foods Private Limited, Mr. Shantilal, GM, Finance and Accounting, and Miss Lakshmi Sharma, Senior Manager, Corporate Affairs. As a reminder, all participants will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need any assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touchtone telephone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand over the floor to Mr. C. Ramachandra Rao, Joint Managing Director. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Thank you, Vidya. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I extend a warm welcome to all of you for this investors' conference call to review the unaudited financial results for Q1 FY 2024. Along with me here are Mr. A. Venkata Sanjeev, Executive Director, Avanti Feeds; Mr. A. Nikhilesh, Mr. Nikhilesh joining from Paris, Shantilal, General Manager, Finance and Accounts, Satyanarayana, CFO, Frozen Foods, and Lakshmi Sharma, Senior Manager, Corporate Affairs. Shortly, Mr. Indra Kumar also would be joining. He is on the way. Okay, now let me start the proceedings. The results of Q1 FY 2024 are already with you for some time now, and we are sure that you will have gone through them. However, I would like to share with you some of the key indicators relevant for our discussion today. Let me first discuss about consolidated financial results of Q1 FY 2024. A comparative performance of Q1 FY 2024 with that of Q4 FY 2023 and Q1 FY 2023 have been given in the presentation already circulated. Gross income in Q1 FY 2024 is INR 1,586 crores, as compared to INR 1,117 crores in the previous quarter, that is Q4 FY 2023, an increase of INR 469 crores, representing about 42%. Compared to Q1 FY 2023, Q1 FY 2023 gross income of INR 1,582 crores, there is a marginal increase of crores, 4 crores, representing 0.3%. The PBT is INR 157 crores in Q1 FY 2024, as compared to INR 140 crores in Q4 FY 2023, an increase of rupees 17 crores, with representing 12%. Compared to Q1 FY 2023, PBT of INR 100 crores, there is an increase of INR 57 crores, by 57%. The consolidated results indicate net impact of several factors, such as increase, decrease in income, expenditures and exceptional items, et cetera, relating to Feed and Frozen Foods division, which have been discussed in the following, in the divisional performance of these units individually. Let me take up the standalone financial results of Feed Division. At Q1 FY24, the gross income for the Q1 FY24 is INR 1,351 crore, as compared to INR 875 crore in the previous quarter of Q4 FY23. An increase of INR 407 crore, mainly due to increase in quantity of feed sales and other income. The gross income in Q1 FY24 increased to INR 1,351 crore from INR 1,311 crore in the corresponding quarter of Q1 FY23, an increase by INR 40 crore, representing 3%, due to increase in sales quantity by 404,164 metric tons. The PBT for Q1 FY 2024 is INR 125 crores as compared to INR 107 crores in Q4 FY 2023, an increase of INR 18 crores, representing 17%, mainly due to relatively stable without much volatility of prices of its major raw materials and increase in other income. The feed sales increased to 165,507 metric tons in Q1 FY 2024, as compared to 103,376 metric tons in Q4 FY 2023. The PBT in Q1 FY 2023 has increased by INR 48 crores from 77 crores in Q1 FY 2023, representing 62%. As you know, the cost of raw materials constitute major share of cost of Feed and Feed Production, particularly fish meal, soybean meal and wheat bran. The average raw material cost in terms of percentage over feed sales prices, sale price, was 84.75% in Q1 FY 2024, as compared to 80.63% in Q4 FY 2023, and 87.74% in Q1 FY 2023, indicating a marginal increase by about 3% as compared to Q1 FY 2023, and an increase of 4% in Q4 FY 2023. The increasing trend is continuing so far in the current quarter, that is, Q2 FY 2024. The average cost takes into consideration volatility of the major raw materials like fish meal, soybean meal, and wheat flour, sometimes increase and sometimes decrease during respective quarters. The present rates of fish meal, soybean meal, and wheat flour are INR 150 per kg, INR 54 per kg, and INR 30 per kg, respectively. The prices of fish meal, soybean meal, and wheat flour are INR 130 per kg, INR 57 per kg, and INR 28 per kg, respectively, when we had our investors call, previous investors call on 31 May 2023. You may observe that fish meal prices have steeply gone up from INR 130 to INR 150, while the marginal reduction was there in the soybean meal, from INR 57 to INR 54. The prices of fish meal, the INR 28. The fish meal, the soybean, wheat flour prices also have, has gone up to INR 30 per kg from INR 28 per kg. Let me just analyze why this fish meal from India. Ex-, India- fish meal in India is going up. The export of fish meal from India to countries like China, Taiwan, Vietnam, has gone up steeply over the past eight to ten months, creating shortage of fish meal for domestic consumption. The structured demand for export is due to increase in import of fish meal from India by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, et cetera. Added to this, the Indian rupee has been depreciating against the US dollar, giving a higher price realization to Indian exporters. Further, exports, sorry, incentivized by duty drawback at 3% on FOB value and at 3.10% on RODTEP. The fish meal production in India is about 3.75-4 lakh metric tons per annum, and shrimp feed industry consumes about 3 lakh metric tons per annum for feed production. That is, 75%-80% of fish meal is required for feed production in the domestic market. With the present trend for export demand, almost 3-3.5 lakh metric tons per annum are likely to be exported in this year. This will create a significant shortage of fish meal for domestic consumption. The decrease of customs duty on import of fish meal to 5% from 15% recently is not going to make perceptible decrease in imported fish meal to the advantage of the domestic consumers. There is no advantage for the domestic consumers as far as the reduction in the customs duty is concerned. Though the soybean meal price has been going up and down, it was only marginally, whereby the average soybean meal price has been about INR 54 per kg during the quarter. However, in the case of wheat flour, the price has been increasing, and with the price being 53 INR/kg from 28 INR/kg earlier. To sum up, I would like to share with you that the prices of these, major raw materials, along with related products like fish oil, soya lecithin, et cetera, keep changing from time to time, depending upon the seasonality, production, global trends, et cetera, which has a direct impact on the raw material cost of the feed beyond the company's control. Now let me discuss about shrimp processing division. The results for Q1 FY 2024. The gross income for Q1 FY 2024 is INR 238 crores, as compared to INR 245 crores in Q4 FY 2023. A decrease by INR 7 crores, representing 3%, mainly due to decrease in sales quantity by 7%. The gross income for Q1 FY 2024 includes sales-based incentive of INR 6.85 crore received under Production-Linked Incentive Scheme. The gross income in Q1 FY 2024 decreased to INR 238 crore from INR 273 crore during Q1 FY 2023, a decrease of INR 35 crore, representing 13% year-on-year. The sales volume during Q1 FY 2024 decreased to 2,658 metric tons from 3,260 metric tons in Q1 FY 2023, decreased by 602 metric tons. The average realization of sales also went down by $0.48 per kg, resulting in decrease in gross income. The PBT before the exceptional item for the quarter Q1 FY 2024 is INR 32 crore, as compared to INR 38 crore in Q4 FY 2023, decreased by INR 6 crore, mainly due to decrease in sales quantity. Though the sales quantities decreased in Q1 FY 2024, the higher PBT is maintained due to receipt of a sales-based incentive under PLI scheme, decrease in ocean freight charges, and increase in average USD INR conversion rate by 0.21 per dollar during Q1 FY 2024. The PBT in Q1 FY 2024 is INR 32 crore, increased from INR 30 crore in the corresponding quarter, Q1 FY 2023. Though there is a significant decrease in sales quantity by 602 metric tons in Q1 FY 2024, the PBT is maintained at the same level of corresponding quarter due to a receipt of sales-based incentive under PLI scheme, decrease in ocean freight charges, and increase in average USD-INR conversion rate by 6.10 per dollar, and INR 6.10 per dollar in Q1 FY 2024. Provision for recall expenses in the financial statements, we would like to bring to your notice that the company has not made any additional provision for recall expenses in Q1 FY 2024, since full provision has been made in the financial statements till 31 December 2022, against the total claims received from the suppliers. Status of the product recall is, one, the value of claims received and charged to be in the profit and loss account is INR 35.62 crore. Amount of claims settled up to 31 March 2023 is INR 32.57 crore. Amounts of claims settled during Q1 FY 2024 is INR 2.06 crore. Balance claims provision in the books of accounts as on 30 June is INR 0.92 crore. I would like the product liability, the claims, for bodily injury caused by consuming company's contaminated product under the recall. The company has received all the claims and confirmed insurance surveyor to submit the final report to insurance company for claim processing, for our claim processing. Since the liability has been covered under commercial general liability insurance policy, no provision has been made in the financial statements. As we stated in our Q4 FY 2023 investors call, the outlook for the current year 2023 appears to be as bleak as far as the improvement in the performance of the shrimp culture industry is concerned over the previous year's performance. The export price of shrimps declining due to global shrimp market, global shrimp market continue to face oversupply issues, which is likely to persist into the second half of 2023. As you know, the import of broodstock is a major indicator of shrimp culture in the country. The import of broodstock by India in 2022 was just 255,000, and representing a marginal decrease of 7% over 2021. In the normal course, December to January import of broodstock indicates the shrimp culture in the first crop of the year, which is the main season. The broodstock imports registered a marginal increase from 112,032 animals during December 2021 to March 2022, that is the previous year, over the import of 108,217 animals during December 2020 to March 2021, earlier to that year. However, in 2023, import of broodstock dropped to 67,777 animals during December 2022 and 2023, that is the current year's first crop, indicating a consequential steep fall in shrimp production. During the first half of 2023, India's frozen shrimp exports dropped 16% in value terms, despite volumes falling only by 3% to 323,680 metric tons, according to trade data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. By volume, India's shrimp exports total was less year than anticipated. The average unit value decreased by 13%, so $7 per kilogram. The decline was led by reduced export to major markets like US, China, Japan, as global inflation dampened the demand. The shrimp production in 2023 is likely to be around 7.5-8 lakh metric tons as against the 9 lakh metric tons in 2022. We're now coming to the shrimp production and feed consumption in FY 2022 and plans for FY 2023. On the basis of estimated shrimp production in 2023, the estimated consumption, feed consumption is about 10.5-11 lakh metric tons. The company's feed sales during the previous year, FY 2022, was about 5.41 lakh metric tons, as compared to 4.73 lakh metric tons in FY 2021. It is 4.967 lakh metric tons in FY 2023, down by 44,000 metric tons when compared to FY 2022. However, it is listed a marginal increase of 24,000 metric tons for FY 2021. Now that the new shrimp feed manufacturing unit in Vandavapuram is capable of operating to its full capacity, the company looks forward for a regular supply of feed to the farmers as per the requirement, as against the shortage during the earlier year. Now, coming to the processing and export. The company's vannamei shrimp exports declined in FY 2023 compared to FY 2022 by 8.11%, from $5,234.36 million to $4,809.99 million. The country's overall export of frozen shrimp for FY 2023 was 711,099 metric tons, as compared to 728,123 metric tons in FY 2022, a decline of 17,024 metric tons, representing 2.34%. The company's shrimp exports during FY 2023 is about 12,497 metric tons, as compared to 12,836 metric tons in FY 2022. It is estimated that export during FY 2024 would be around same level as 12,500. Avanti Frozen, as you know, is in the process of expanding shrimp processing plant, and the status of the expansion is the new processing plant and cold storage unit at Krishnapuram, East Godavari District, is with a capacity of 7,000 metric tons. 70% of the civil works are completed. Plant and machinery installations will be starting from September 2023 onwards, and amount of INR 31.83 crores has been spent on the project till 30th June 2023, against an estimated project cost of INR 64.6 crores, excluding land. Pre-processing trial has been commenced from 19th July 2023, expecting commercial operations by March 2024. The company has been selected under two incentive schemes of the Government of India. One is the sales-based incentive under Production-Linked Incentive Scheme, and the other one is the grant-in-aid under Operation Greens Long Term Interventions Scheme. The Production-Linked Incentive Scheme, the company is eligible for incentive of 6%, value-added products 10%, on incremental sales over a period of six years from the financial year 2021-22 to financial year 2026-27, subject to a maximum incentive of INR 79.44 crore, with minimum 5% CAGR sales. The company has received an incentive of INR 6.85 crore in the PLI scheme of Government of India for FY 2022 during April 2023, which has accounted for during Q1 FY 2024. Operation Green Scheme, approval from Government of India for grant-in-aid for the proposed investment in new shrimp processing plant at Krishnapuram is received in December 2022. Maximum grant-in-aid under the scheme is INR 10 crore. The company has submitted an application for first installment of grant-in-aid on 15th July 2023. Application is under review by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries. I think I have covered up almost a bird's eye view of what has happened in this financial year and this quarter particularly. And now I would request you to give your questions so that we can answer them. Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will move to the question-and-answer session. If you have a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad, and wait for your turn to ask the question. If you would like to withdraw your request, you may do so by pressing star and one again. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. The first question comes from Mr. Onkar from Shree Investments. Please go ahead. Yes. Hi, my question was regarding the projection of the revenue and profitability for the rest of the financial year. What would be, it would be, as you have already said that the outlook looks bleak for the current financial year, what can we expect? That's the first question. Yeah. The projected financial results. So see, there has been a lot of changes, ups and downs in this aquaculture activity as of now. See, as I told in my, you know, discussion on the subject, I told that the what we thought initially is not happening now. At one stage, we thought that it would be very good, but it is not happened because of the global shrimp continued price, the then price coming down and a lot of stocks piled up in the markets like US, and it is likely to continue for the rest of the year. The rest of the year, we may expect maybe about 25%-25% less, 25%-30% less in the second half of the this year. That's what we are expectation, that is, will start from the your October, November, December, and again to March. That's what we are expecting. But, the aquaculture, the culture is not progressing as we expected. There has been a lot of, disappointment, depression among the, farmers. We are guiding them and advising them to keep, the stocks and allow the shrimps to grow, may get, better prices, and we are hoping for that. But still, the situation is bad, because as I told earlier, there is an oversupply issue. So the markets have to really, come back, for the demand. There should be increase of demand because the production has gone up. The countries like Ecuador and all, there's a lot of production. We, I think, in India, have to focus more on Value-Added Products, so that we would be able to improve that. That is what we are focusing now. We are trying to increase our exports of Value-Added Products. I think, Nikhilesh, if you can just give your inputs, views on the market likely to have in the next, the second half of this year. Good evening, everybody. So on the market side, things have the price, we believe, has reached to its lowest point. So there is some price recovery that is expected. In terms of demand, we see that there is slow demand, and there is month-on-month retail sales of seafood have come down in the primary US. market. But we feel that the consumption will start going up from the end of the year or next year, if the right pricing strategy, the lower cost is passed on to the consumer by the supermarkets. So that's the Thanksgiving, Christmas period is a most important period for sales. I feel that they get for a good season of sales in the US, after which they will reassess their inventory for next year. So on the total, I feel at current price levels, it's desirable for higher consumption, if the general market environment also picks up. For us, Avanti as such, there's still a lot of opportunity left in the market because the market share is quite low. It's very fragmented amongst all the suppliers, so there is some kind of consolidation that we can target in the next 12 to 16 to 24 months. Thank you. Yeah, that's the update on the market situation. And definitely, as we have been telling, even in our earlier investors calls, that this is going to be a challenging year. So we have to, you know, take all steps on the two sides. One is that the cost reduction, and the other is the productivity, increase in productivity and focus on value-added products. All these things put together, we have to be able to increase the volumes and also make reasonable margins. But as far as the raw materials for feed is concerned, it is consistently has been growing, going up. Being the natural products like fish meal and soybean meal and wheat bran, it all depends on not only the production and also the government policies from time to time that they take. This will have a lot of influence on the pricing of these. As far as the company is concerned, we are trying to mitigate any hardship due to this kind of unforeseen changes. We keep sufficient stocks and see that an average cost is maintained in our cost of raw material production, production cost, our feed. It's what we are trying to do. Many things are beyond our control, so we have to keep our fingers crossed. I would say that it is not so dismal. But definitely, the thing looks, as Nikhilesh said, it looks bright. We are going to have Thanksgiving Day and Christmas, and definitely the consumptions will go up. That is one of the important developments we are all looking for, because the per capita consumption of shrimp should go up, so that definitely it will automatically, whatever the production that is now coming, will be able to be absorbed by the market. Okay, I think we have answered your question. Yeah, thanks for the detailed explanation. Just, one clarification on that. You mentioned that you are expecting a decline of 25%-30% in terms of revenue and profitability as compared to Q1 of this financial year or Q- Yes. First half, Q1 and, see, we said basically you take Q1. Q1 of the current financial year, right? Yeah. I think if you look at the Q4 FY 2023 and Q1 FY 2024, if you take the average of that, I think over that we'll have something like 30% less. That's what we are expecting. But still, this is only our only estimate or guesstimate, whatever you call it, that but we are still hoping that things will improve in the rest of this year, till 31st December. Okay. The second question is on the capacity front. Since you are sounding little bit bearish for the current financial year, I mean, what makes you bullish on increasing the capacity as far as feeds, as well as shrimp division is concerned? You have increased the capacity or, or you are in the process of increasing capacity as far as the frozen shrimp busi- feed is concerned, right? So I mean, what is the bullishness? Yeah. See, as far as the increase in production of feed is already through, and we are now in a position to meet the demand, whatever that is the market requires. We are ready to meet it, number one. Number two, we are also increasing the production capacity of processing plant also. So see, long term, what we consider, this is as a temporary, you know, development that has happened because of so many other reasons. But definitely in the course of time, we need to get ourselves equipped to improve our value-added products and increase our exports to other markets apart from US. This is what is our objective. Okay. I'd like to also add on the processing side. We're building a new facility under the PLI scheme, and this would enable us, I mean, this is being built because there was higher requirements for our product, was good reception for the product to cater to that requirement. The seasonality of the business, where, like, there are few months where a lot of product needs to be processed and exported. Also, there are some renovation requirements in Unit 1. So at the time, this can take in the capacity, and because we need to continue servicing the contracts that we have in the long term as well. It would give us that flexibility, and also us capacity to take in more value-added products. Value-added products take a lot of manpower requirement, pre-processing requirement. It would cater to multiple different users, gives us flexibility in the next, in the foreseen future, it's required. Okay. Another question is on the newly, that was a new development which has occurred. I wanted to know more about what's your plan on Avanti Pet Care? See, in our AGM, CMD has informed the share- I mean, shareholders, that the pet care project is going to come up, but we are in the process of, you know, entering into memorandum of understanding and technical know-how agreement and also joint venture agreement. These things are happening, and we will be able to come, because project cost is going to, is being estimated with the, depending on what is the domestic requirements of these pet care products and things like that. I think, Mr. Venkatesh Venky, who is handling the project, would give you more information about it. With the Petcare, as Ramchandra Garu said, we are in the process of making the joint agreement and all. We see right now, the pet food market is around for cat and dogs, is around 70,000 metric tons in India, and it's growing at a rate of 20% year on year. Most of the brands which are right now playing a part in the market are mostly imported brands, except two brands which are produced in India, that is Pedigree and Royal Canin. We think there's an opportunity for us to penetrate the market and capture a certain market share in this arena. Yeah. See, what we are doing is, in fact, we have taken a very senior executive to do the market survey and also to prepare the project report. He's on that job now. And then simultaneously, we are also working with our partners in exchanging the memorandum of understanding, the terms and conditions of joint venture agreement, and also the conditions of technology transfer. All these things are happening in a reasonably good speed, which was happening. And we hope that in maybe in a month or so, we should be able to come out with all these sort of figures. And perhaps in the next quarter, we will be able to give you more information about the total pro- demand, supply, the what is going to be the estimated project cost, et cetera. All these details we can share once we are through with the all information availability and also entering into joint venture agreement and technology transfer agreement with our partners. Okay, so financials, we can discuss in the next quarter, but just wanted to know what is the major raw material for this pet care, and what kind of margins generally we can expect in this business? Not your margin, but industry-wide margins, you can give us a number of that. The technology itself means what is the raw material that is going to be used, what is the formulation for different types of, you know, these particular dogs or cats, whatever it is. There are several types of dogs and breeds, and there are also wet feed, dry feed, there are varieties of feed. See, all these things require a systematic study in Indian context. We have to take into Indian context, that too, we have to see from North India, South India, and all this data is being collected. That is, we are in the process of that. So once we have all, you know, total picture, then we will be able to arrive at the total cost of project, what is going to be the estimated sales for the next maybe four or five years, and what is going to be the profitability. All these things we'll be able to give, as I told you, in the next quarter, so we expect that lot of information we will be able to gather in the next three to four months. Correct. But since you have formed the company, you must have generated this information early, earlier also, right? I mean, what kind of margins you can expect and all that stuff, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't have formed the company, right? I'm not asking for your margin, sir. I'm asking for the, what is the industry margin? See, it's not like shrimp feed, sir, where, you know, we produce only a single type of feed, and everyone buys it. For dog food and cat food, there are different segments. Like, if you take, for example, if you take Royal Canin, it's in the meat, it's in the low segment. If you take something like Acana, it's in the premium segment. We're still deciding on which segment we should be entering, and the raw materials also will vary according to the segment. If I take a premium segment, they use non-grain feed. If I'm going for something like low budgeted, they'll be using grains like wheat and et cetera. We are still in the process of doing the market research and et cetera. So after it's done, we can give you a proper answer, and where we're going to enter, and which segment we're going to enter, or what we're going to, the raw materials we're going to use for the production. See, what we have done so far has been, there is an in-principle understanding of, with the technology, which is being used by the foreign company. They have agreed to invest, they have agreed to give the technology, they have agreed to support us with the what type of feed that is required in India. That all these things have been in-principle agreed, and we are bringing all these aspects into the first level of MOU, which is a broad understanding. Then we'll be doing simultaneously, once we have an MOU signed up, then they'll give more information. Once the MOU is signed, then we'll get more information as to what kind of machinery, what kind of fishing is required, and what is the process, what is the raw material. All these things we will get in the course of time, once we have signed, signed up memorandum, it's understanding. We are now circulating that, draft MOU, and, most probably in the next one or two weeks' time, we should MOU, it should get, signed off, and then we start working on other details. Okay, I hope you got this point. Yeah, just one clarification on that. So within this financial year, we can see something- Sorry for interrupting, sir. If you have more questions, please join back the queue, sir. Sure, thanks. Thank you, sir. I request the participants to restrict with two questions in the initial round and join back the queue for the more questions. The next question comes from Mr. Nitin Awasthi from InCred Equities. Please go ahead. Hello, sir. Wanted to understand the developments on fish feed, sorry, fish meal. It seems that Peru has suspended everything that they were doing in this industry for some time because there's no availability of fish there, and the prices seem to be moving very high and very rapidly. So do we have some kind of inventory? Yeah, I see. The fish feed is also in the same state. Fish meal. Fish meal. Yeah, yeah, fish meal, yeah, it's true that, this one major, the, challenge which we are facing is the export market. See, as you rightly said, Peru, they have, they banned and, things, already, you know, even before they banned, the Indian exports have started almost like more than a year now. The exports from India, the fish meal to Vietnam, Japan, the, the Taiwan, and all these things has, started for many other reasons, like, you know, freights are less, and they are able to get good quality here, the distance, they travel, everything, they are able to get it. So, and the Indian producers of fish meal also, they get benefit because of the advantage that they are getting and higher prices they are getting, and the government incentives, and also the dollar appreciation of the US dollar against the rupee. All these things put together, it is getting. So the demand for fish meal is continuously growing. But it is a natural product. We have to see how best we can. We have made a presentation to the government also, that the domestic producers of fish meal, I mean, shrimp feed, have to be taken care, because this is going into a value-added product for export purpose. So they have to give some quota, some sort of, you know, or they should reduce the incentives to be given, being given to them. But all these things are under consideration. It will take some time to actually get some results out of this. Understood, sir. So we have built some kind of inventory on fish meal, or are we going to be buying at the market rates? No, see, inventory means you cannot build inventory for a longer period. You can, may, at the most, one month or 45 days you can build. Even, so the, and also the availability, see, because it is in so much demand now, Indian fish meal for export, most of the Indian fish meal producers are exporting. So as and when, it is a process like you catch fish and process it, and the entire modus operandi of this fish meal production has undergone a sea change in the last couple of years. Because they are paying advance to fishermen to get the fish, and then process, and they, their exporting commitments are there for export. Like this, the entire system has undergone a change. So we try to, because the Avanti has a very good reputation in the market, where all the vendors, our suppliers have. In India, they give the first priority to us, and even a part of their export commitments also, they are just giving it to us because of our reputation and our prompt payment, you know, situation, that we are able to get at least the quantities which we require. But definitely, there is a shortage. Understood, sir. Thank you. Thank you, sir. The next question comes from Madhur Rathi from Countercyclical Investment. Please go ahead. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. Sir, I just wanted to know our shrimp processing segment, are we trying to move out from the- Are we trying to- Could you speak louder? Yeah. You are not audible. Can you please speak louder? Yes. Sir, our shrimp processing segment, sir, are we trying to move out of the US market, as majority of our revenue comes from US, and our competitors, Coastal Corporation, also has highlighted that due to Ecuador, competition is very high in the US market. So if you could, like, give your thought on that. Are we trying to move out of the US to some different countries or all? Nikhilesh? So how you take this question, please. Yes, sir. I would say we're definitely not looking to move out from the US market. It's our primary market, and will continue to be our primary market, but we are expanding our sales with a focus on other countries as well. So we're allocating a little more resources than we used to before, as a percentage to other countries, just to diversify the risk from one market. Even though Ecuador is growing to be one of the dominant suppliers to US market, India is still one of the largest exporters, and we are targeting categories which Ecuador cannot cater to at the moment. So, in fact, I would say we are our strong focus is still to service our primary customers in the US market. Oh, I may add to what Nikhilesh said. Mainly, in fact, the last week there was a round table of this global aquaculture in which it was said that US continues to be the largest consumer of shrimps, and they are the largest importers of shrimps in the world. So they are more than about 70%. Nikhilesh, am I correct? They said about 70%-80% of the world's fishing they are consuming. That's what I saw in the Global Aquaculture Round Table. So that being the case, I in case like he said, there's no question of going out of US market. It is in fact, we have to consolidate the US market with more value-added products and more, as you said, primary markets. We should be able to, to concentrate on that and to improve. Okay? Okay, thank you. Next, I think, I think we have answered your question. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. The next question comes from Aniket Kulkarni, from BMS Capital. Please go ahead. Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. So has India, you know, lost any competitive advantage to other countries on the export front? And, if so, what are the reasons for it, and how do you see the processed shrimp export shaping up for the company over the next three years? No, I think, I think that- Please repeat the question. Yeah. Repeat. Yeah. So, I, my question is, has India lost any. Yeah. Shall I repeat the question? Yes, please. Yes, yes. Yeah. My question is, has India lost any competitive advantage to other countries on the export front? And, you know, if so, what are the reasons for it, and how do we see our processed shrimp exports shaping up in the next three years for the company? I'll take the question. Good evening. On the competitiveness, I wouldn't say that. I would say that India is still very competitive in the global market. Ecuador is definitely today's lowest cost producer, but they have certain limitations, and India has certain strengths. So we are very competitive to the US, mainly because we do a lot of value-added shrimp in general, compared to Ecuador. India has a huge population, a huge workforce, 1.5 billion population, compared to the smaller population of Ecuador. So we can process a lot more value shrimp than Ecuador. Why it's lost a little bit of its competitiveness is just because Ecuador's culture has been growing rapidly. Good weather conditions for the shrimp in general to grow, so they've been doing it systematically as an industry. And also, they've been targeting China, which has a great appetite for the Ecuador raw material. There are a lot of Thai companies buying Ecuador raw materials for reprocessing. It's closer in nature to the US, the North American market. So there are a few things which have helped them, but I feel in the long run, India will be competitive as we look more into technology, better facilities to accommodate the high standards of export the global food environment. For us as a company, we have, I would say we have a very bright outlook. Avanti still constitutes a very small portion of market share in the Indian exports of frozen shrimp. There are so many exporters. The market share is very, very fragmented. So there is opportunity in that way. We still have to explore a lot more new markets, which we are starting to do more, more like with a more aggressive nature. And also, we're also looking now into starting distribution of seafood in India itself, so we've formed a domestic team to look into it, which looks to be very interesting in the long term. But it's a small pilot project that we're running on the side. So overall, I think there's a bright outlook. We are expanding, we are getting new customers, we are processing more shrimp as we go every day. So in that way, I feel there's a bright outlook. Once I feel the market kind of recovers in the US, where Mr. Rao had already explained in the previous one, the previous question, at this price point, it's very attractive to have shrimp as an alternate protein compared to chicken and beef, so as a primary seafood commodity. So it looks very interesting that way. Yeah. I hope this answers your question. Yeah, yeah. And secondly, is the shrimp, I mean, is the processed shrimp market not strong enough to pass on high raw shrimp prices to the customer, without drop in volumes? I mean, the reason I'm saying higher raw shrimp prices, because I'm assuming the higher fish shrimp prices would reflect in the raw shrimp prices as well. So, I see right now, the lower price is not due to, I mean, if there was low supply, we could have passed on the raw material price, but there's also a production oversupply. All shrimp-producing countries have been ramping up their exports for the last few years, especially during the COVID time, and so now it's just normalizing, I would say. So that way, right now it's an oversupply situation, so we're not able to pass on the prices, but once things normalize, yes, shrimp prices have been passed on, higher prices have been passed on in the past. Okay, understood. Okay, thanks. Thanks for the detailed answer and best of luck for the coming quarters. Thank you. Thank you, sir. The next question comes from Rajiv Venkatesh, an individual investor. Please go ahead. Thank you, sir. All my questions have been answered. Thank you. Thank you, sir. The next question comes from Harsh Beria, an individual investor. Please go ahead. Hello, am I audible? You're audible, sir. Please go ahead, sir. Okay. My first question is about our feed segment. I think last year we had some government intervention in pricing of the feeds where we couldn't pass on the entire price in raw material. How is that situation right now? Is the government still controlling the end feed prices in the market? So they're still, they're still controlling the prices, because right now the farm gate prices are also really low, and it increase the shrimp feed price, it might affect the farmers profitability, profitability. So the, the government, so we have been actually, it is some sort of, I don't say it is 100% control. It is something like, monitoring. It is, see, whenever there is a representation from the farming community as, the, to the government, the government calls all the, both in, feed manufacturers as well as the processors to the pr- to increase, decrease the feed price and increase the farm gate price. That is always been the, government's stand. See, whereas we tell them that, "See, unless the raw material prices come down, there is no scope for further reduction." This is what, we have been telling. And, you know, it is like, the convincing to what extent, this thing, they convinced, get convinced about the increase. Same thing, it is not possible to increase the farm gate price and make losses while doing the processing. That is also an issue, because this is something like an ongoing process. We keep discussing with the governments and convincing them about the situation in the market and all these things. It goes on. It doesn't have any cruel, I mean, crude effect like that, stopping that and all, not there. It is going on, but only thing is, here and there, the corrections are required, as and when is required, by the government also to, they are answerable to the public, so they are also, we have to do a kind of some sort of, I know, this thing with them, convincing them. That is what is happening now in respect of feed as well as farm gate prices. Thanks for the clarification. My next question is about our fish feed business. So if I remember in the past, we had also planned to go into seeds of other fishes other than shrimp. Can you talk a little bit more about that venture? So with the fish feed venture, we are looking, so the fish feed market is around 1,600,000 metric tons as of now, but most of it is very low value fish, so the feed value is also very low. We are only looking at high value fishes like barramundi and snakehead fish, which is only around, like maybe 20% or 15%-20% of the market share right now. And also, so the civil structures and everything for the fish feed plant are ready. We are looking at machinery and et cetera for the fish feed plant as of now. Now, we are, may I add to what Mr. Venkat Sanjeev just said, that we have already civil structures and all plant and machinery. We have already entered into technical know-how agreement already there with the Thai Union. They are ready with all, but we have to tell them which kind of species that we require, the feed formulation, and only depending upon our requirement. So, they will be able to provide whatever formulations that that is required for that particular specific species. So we have actually recruited one, a senior manager for business development on this fish feed business, and he is on the job. He is on the job, and he recently has joined, and he is on the job. Once we have complete data of the market, Indian market, and what type of the species, as Mr. Venkat Sanjeev just said, we're going for high-end products so that you have more formulated feed consumed, used by the farmers. So that process, we are also on the job. We'll be able to get some clarity by end of this year, I think, most probably. And it should not take much time to implement the project, because we are already, civil structures are already ready, already available. Only the order the machinery, we get the machinery and we start off. So only basic market research is yet to be done for that product also. We are on the job. Can we expect commercialization of this in FY 25? Okay. Yeah, I see FY 25 should be there, because it appears that we have taken in-principle decision to go ahead. So the thing is that immediately we have made the technical law agreement with them. And then, of course, we have long back created this civil structure for that. It is ready. Only the moment we get the data about the market, about which kind of species is advantageous for the Indian farmers to grow, that would be encouraged. We will take on the education program also. This is the farmer, and we start production on this. It should not take much time. As I said, FY 25 should be able to start this production. Thank you, sir. That will be the last question for the day. Ladies and gentlemen, we have come to the end of this conference. We appreciate the interest from the investors and analysts for the participation. Thank you. If you need any further information, you may connect with Ms. Lakshmi Sharma of Avanti Feeds Limited at investors@avantifeeds.com. Thank you for your participation and for using Do Saba's conference call service. You may all disconnect your lines now. Thank you, and have a good day, everyone.