PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – In 2023, PT Austindo Nusantara Jaya Tbk (ANJ) managed to achieve positive production performance with an increase in Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) production from core plantations by 4.8% to 881,051 mt compared to the previous year’s achievement of 840,581 mt. ANJ managed to record an increase in CPO sales volume by 4.9% to 288,941 mt compared to the previous year’s sales volume of 275,320 mt.
Meanwhile, in the first quarter of 2024, ANJ produced 173,226 mt of Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) from its core plantations, a decrease of 7.4% compared to the same period last year, but ANJ managed to catch up with FFB production in April 2024 so that FFB production during the January – April 2024 period has approached the production level in the same period last year.
Despite lower production compared to the first quarter of 2023, ANJ booked an increase in EBITDA by 28.6% to USD 8.5 million compared to USD 6.6 million in the first quarter of 2023, EBITDA margin also increased to 17.3% compared to the same period last year.
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CEO of ANJ Lucas Kurniawan, explained that to ensure business sustainability, the company has integrated ESG initiatives to always coexist with business strategies. This commitment is based on the company’s vision, mission, and values that uphold the balance between people, the planet, and prosperity.
“Thanks to this commitment, ANJ has received various awards that are clear evidence of our success in integrating sustainability aspects in its business,” Lucas was quoted by Palmoilmagazine.com at the Public Expose event on June 5, 2024, in Jakarta.
ANJ recorded achievements in 2023, by winning several awards such as Gold PROPER achieved by ANJ’s subsidiaries, namely PT Sahabat Mewah dan Makmur (SMM) and PT Austindo Nusantara Jaya Agri (ANJA) which made ANJ the only palm oil company to achieve Gold PROPER, as well as Green PROPER achieved by PT Kayung Agro Lestari (KAL) and PT Austindo Nusantara Jaya Agri Siais (ANJAS).
In addition, ANJ’s President Director, Lucas Kurniawan, was also awarded the “Green Leadership Utama” award from the MoEF.
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ANJ also achieved an improvement in its ESG rating for 2023, with Sustainalytics, Morningstar’s ESG and corporate governance research and rating agency, giving ANJ a Low Risk Rating of 15.4, an increase of 2.9 points compared to the previous rating.
This achievement puts ANJ in first place among global agricultural companies. This achievement also improved ANJ’s ranking from tenth in 2022 to third in 2023 for the global food products industry sector, as assessed by Sustainalytics.
In addition, ANJ also managed to increase its score on SPOTT, a global transparency platform for the palm oil industry, to 93.3% from 91.1% in 2022. This score ranks ANJ fifth globally. In addition to SPOTT, since 2019 ANJ has participated in the CDP disclosure platform, a leading international non-profit organization that runs a global environmental disclosure system.
In the CDP assessment, ANJ received an A- for the Forest category in the palm oil business unit, and a B for the edamame business unit for 2023. In addition, ANJ also received a B for the Water category and a B for the climate change category.
In terms of corporate governance, ANJ achieved a score of 100.27, or level 5 (>100.00) from the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard (ACGS). This score is the highest level with the predicate “Leadership in Corporate Governance.”.
According to ANJ’s Finance Director, Nopri Pitoy, ANJ is optimistic that CPO production in the long term will continue to increase, in line with the age profile of plantations that are still at prime production age.
“In the midst of the challenges faced, we will continue to maximize our resources to achieve our CPO production target of around 300,000 mt this year. This is supported by a combination of core plantation productivity and increased FFB purchases from external farmers. We project an improvement in production performance in the coming months as issues in some of our plantations are resolved,” Nopri explained.
To support the production target, this year ANJ has budgeted capital expenditure of USD 36.8 million. Most of this capital expenditure is allocated to fund several programs that support the company’s productivity improvement, including replanting programs at the Belitung Island and North Sumatra I plantations, land compensation at ANJ’s plantation in South Sumatra, road laterization, employee housing and a power plant for the mill at the Southwest Papua plantation, and a river embankment elevation and strengthening project at the North Sumatra II plantation for flood prevention.
“We believe these programs will support our productivity improvements in the coming years, combined with innovations in agronomic practices, are expected to result in maximum productivity. In addition, we are also committed to continuing the work program in connection with the strategy to mitigate and adapt to climate change that ANJ has carried out since 2012 by integrating ESG practices into the company’s business strategy to achieve the net zero emissions target by 2030,” Nopri concluded. (T3)
