Agriterra gains on cocoa expansion announcement

19th Sep 2013 13:19

Agriterra's shares edged higher on Thursday after the African agricultural company announced the expansion and development of its cocoa plantation in Sierra Leone. The group has acquired a further 1,600 hectares of land for its cocoa plantation, located 35km south-east of Kenema, bringing the total area to 3,200 hectares. The company has cultivated 250,000 seedlings in the 1.6-hectare fully irrigated nursery and planted seeds on 200 hectares. An additional 1,000 hectares of land will be cleared ahead of the 2014 planting season. Agriterra has also signed new offtake agreements with Noble Group and acquired of two new stores in Kono and Kailahun, in the country's Eastern Province. "The accelerated development strategy that we have implemented at our 3,200 hectare plantation is designed to maximise revenue generation from early production," said Chief Executive Andrew Groves."As we continue cocoa planting across the rest of our property over the next two years, our status as a premier Sierra Leonean cocoa trading company will be further enhanced by the important advances that our buying operation achieves, through the expansion of our buying capacity, storage facilities and logistics chain. "In addition, we have formed important relationships with major international cocoa trading and buying companies, including Noble Group, and I am confident this will give us a competitive advantage as we begin to produce cocoa from our own plantation." Shares rose 2% to 2.30p at 13:33.RD