Farmer-owned arable marketing company Openfield Agriculture has reported lower profitability and revenues for the 2023/24 year, in line with the wet autumn 2023 which depressed arable crop plantings.
The co-operative reported a pre-tax profit of £0.8 million on group revenues of £555m in the year ended June 30th 2024, compared to £2.3m and £806m in full year 2023 – respective falls of 65% and 31%. Net assets (excluding pension funds) increased by 2% to £29.5m (£28.9m in 2023) in the period. The Group’s operating costs reduced by 18.5% over the latest year to £14.1m (£17.3m in 2023).
Openfield says the lower figures reflect trading conditions over the year, with poor winter cereal planting conditions in Autumn 2023 and a large carry forward of crops into 2024. The year also saw the group focus on improving services to its 4,000 farmer members as well as enhancing supply chains links with UK consumer customers, supplying them with UK sourced grain and growing domestic sales.
The volume of the company’s total grain exports was 244,000 tonnes (878,000 tonnes in 2023).
Investment over the year to improve member services included enhancements to Openfield’s Insight member portal and the Insight App. This allows members to access a number of new features including the option to receive grain delivery alerts, tipped net weight information and a small seed offer to support making informed Sustainable Farm Incentive (SFI decisions.
Looking ahead, Openfield observes that supply chains are increasingly seeking strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies. To support its own ESG ambitions, Openfield is developing new supply contracts to support a sustainable agriculture model. The group is also trialling electric powered trucks and reviewing alternative fuel sources for their fleet, including Compressed Natural Gas.
It says these actions will reduce the group’s own carbon emissions, which have increased significantly in line with its larger fleet of trucks.
“I’m very pleased that our strategy to increase the size of our own fleet has paid dividends,” comments Openfield chairman Philip Moody. “These include improved service and reduced operating costs, which enabled us to maintain our profitability in another challenging year for our industry.
“It’s also very pleasing to see that our own fleet team is now a professional logistics provider, able to service our members and consumers better, as we took on additional work to increase our fleet revenues.”