Alliance Grain Traders Q3 sales down 32 percent on-year

Alliance Grain Traders Inc. (AGTI) announced that its third quarter sales have declined 32 percent on-year to US$73.32 million from US$107.886 million.

The cost of sales was US$59.735 million during the third quarter, compared to US$91.669 million for the same period last year.

Gross margin was US$13.584 million, down from US$16.217 million last year.

EBITDA for the third quarter of 2009 was US$8.305 million compared to US$10.842 million during the same period last year.

With a late harvest, volumes within this quarter were down but there continued to have positive results of company efforts to diversify products, markets and origins, said AGTI president and CEO Murad Al-Katib.

''The new crop harvest of pulse crops is complete in North America and we expect a better harvest in Australia. Ample stocks of our products and strong demand fundamentals bode well for AGTI in the coming periods," said Murad Al-Katib.

AGTI is engaged in the business of sourcing and processing specialty crops, primarily for export markets.