LONDON (ShareCast) - DekelOil Public, an operator and 51 per cent owner of a palm oil project in Côte d'Ivoire, said its recently commissioned crude palm oil extraction mill had become fully operational in March.

During the month, it produced 1,617 tonnes of crude palm oil (CPO) and 189 tonnes of kernels. CPO production was extracted at a rate of 21% from 7,891 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches.

The group began selling palm oil from the mill on March 19th, and kernals the following day.

It estimated that the gross sales margin for the first month was between 27-29%, at the high end of estimates. Overall the company was earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation positive for the four-week period.

Executive Director Lincoln Moore said: "For the mill to achieve operating profitability in its first full month of operations is an achievement of note. We are now fully focused on increasing our production and the steps we are taking to accelerate this process are already producing positive results.

"This will also be important in maximising production during the upcoming low season between July to September. With an operational Mill and a 1 million seedling capacity a year state of the art nursery, DekelOil is an established, vertically-integrated seed to oil business which we are on course to grow into a leading West African palm oil company."

The company's share price jumped 9.84% to 1.67p in early morning trade.

NR

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