Thanks. Good morning, everyone, and for joining us today on Rallis India Limited Q4 and fiscal '26 earnings call.

As mentioned, I have alongside myself our CFO, Mr. Bhaskar Swaminathan.

Good morning, everyone.

I'll open with an overview of the industry landscape before addressing developments specific to Rallis. The Indian agrochemical sector is currently transitioning from a buyers' to a sellers' market due to war-induced supply constraint and rising prices.

Post-Iran war, the industry shifted to a sellers' market with signs of panic buying and hoarding. Supply chain disruptions persist, but inventories helped most companies avoid damage.

Agrochemicals, particularly glyphosate, is facing...

...cost through in China supply chain disruptions amid global tensions. The prices of other generic AIs like glufosinate, mancozeb, metribuzin, strobilurin fungicides, pyrethroids, etc., it's a near-term cost inflation wave likely to compress downstream margins.

Quarter 4 is typically slow for the domestic market for agrochemicals. In addition, the rabi season has not gone well owing to the unfavorable climate.

As per the official data, the unseasonal rain and hailstorms have damaged rabi crop across 2,000 hectares, with wheat suffering the maximum impact. At the end of March '26, summer sowing is progressing at a slower pace, down 4.7% year-on-year, primarily driven by decline in rice, cereals, and oilseeds.

Within cereals, bajra sowing has improved by about 9%, while maize has declined by about 8%. In oilseed, groundnut sowing is significantly lower, down by 12.7%.

Pulses is a bright spot with total area rising by 17%. IMD's '26 monsoon forecast at 90% of the LPA signals normal rain, calming agri-sentiment effects like El Niño odds drive early deficit in North and Central and Western India, and which are key sowing areas, while South and East may see a relative better monsoon.

Well-distributed precipitation during key sowing windows can partly offset deficits, whereas erratic patterns, such as prolonged dry spells or excessive concentration, tend to be more disruptive. Erratic patterns risk 5% to 10% demand cut for herbicides and insecticides.

Integrated forms with balanced portfolios of seed, crop protection, and soil and plant health tend to face less impact. Expanding irrigation coverage to 55% of the arable land has notably reduced monsoon dependence on key crops for India, and also on that rural diversification into dairy, poultry, and allied sectors now contributes roughly one-fourth of the income for households, providing a structural buffer against rainfall deficits.

The MSP framework key indicator for kharif '25-'26 is broadly supportive for oilseeds, pulses, millets, and cotton, while the hike in paddy is relatively modest. From the agrochemical and seed industry perspective, this is positive for crops such as cotton, soybean, groundnut, maize, pulses, and millets, provided monsoon distribution and reservoir levels remain supportive.

Agriculture sector may see a 3% to 4% growth in fiscal '27. Seeds category remain a structural 5% to 10% CAGR story depending on the portfolio of the companies.

Volumes might shrink due to less acreages, but margins are expected to remain stable to soft. The market should favor low-cost producers with export breadth and tight working capital discipline.

The near-term outlook remains contingent on the evolution of Middle East conflict, while healthy reservoir levels of approximately 54% are supportive for ongoing season, reduced acreage, and forecast of below monsoon rainfall could possibly pose some risk. India's FCO 2026, this was a key bill which was brought to regulate biostimulant fertilizer, standardizing humic acid and seaweed formulations, thereby improving product reliability and regulatory clarity.

I think this is very good positive development for the long term. The global crop protection market estimated at approximately $70 to $75 billion in 2026, and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5% to 5.5%, supported by rising food demand, limited arable land, and need to improve farm productivity.

On supply side, the globally China-linked supply concentration remains a key issue, especially for active ingredients and intermediates, where export restrictions, price shifts, or freight disruptions can quickly affect availability and cost. Elevated raw material and logistics cost continue to pressure manufacturers, while global weather uncertainty and changing crop patterns added demand volatility.

Global recovery in this sector is visible, but uneven. US demand is supportive, Brazil is weak.

China-led pricing pressure remains a key concern. India's rice stock position remains strong, but the latest report WASDE does not indicate any fresh increase from March to April.

Global rice stocks have increased, including a comfortable supply situation and a possible pressure on global rice prices. That's a global overview.

Moving on to Rallis-specific developments, we had a reasonable Quarter 4 performance despite soft rabi season and geopolitical unrest. Our Quarter 4 revenue stood at ₹456 crore versus ₹430 crore previous year.

EBITDA improved by 96% to -₹1 crore from -₹19 crore in Q4 fiscal '25. Profit after tax stood at -₹15 crore versus -₹32 crore of Quarter 4 fiscal '25.

Exceptional items include profit on the sale of some property, land for worth ₹3 crore in Aurangabad. Across the technical portfolio, we are continuously broadening our customer base and securing additional registration with global players to drive share gains.

In metribuzin, the volumes have decreased in Quarter 4 in comparison to Quarter 4 '25 volumes. Pendimethalin volumes have increased, hexaconazole volume also have increased, and there has been some decrease in the acephate volume.

Pendi and hexa has done overall well. There's some shrinkage of volume in metri and acephate.

Overall annual capacity utilization has improved in fiscal '26 compared to '25. On new launches, we have currently launched Alster, a dual-action granular insecticide, and Fiplaan, which last year we had announced, but we were not able to launch because of some quality constraint, it has been launched now.

It will help in managing both a broad-spectrum insecticide to manage both sucking and chewing pest. We have also obtained registration for a three-way rice herbicide, and in past I've been talking about growing herbicide segment, this is addition to that.

It will be called Spyro. We are working on the launch plan.

In Q4, we had launched an initiative called Idea to Impact to establish an open innovation system to source, validate, and commercialize agri-innovations. We have also launched Saksham, a GIS platform which enables scientific identification of high-potential villages for target market expansion.

On our new initiative, Sampark Plus captures farmer-level demands, able to generate actionable insights, and improve sales conversion and move inventory as needed. We're also using tech-assisted products and generate demand, digital-led field campaigns, farmer- and retailer-level digital schemes, and enrollment of retailers on Anubandh edge platform.

All these platforms digital driven, this is all for our initiative to deliver customer-centricity goals as well as retailer and distribution connect. As a result of improved manufacturing efficiency and operational excellence, Rallis has achieved record production levels.

We have enabled digital-led engagement that strengthens data-driven decision-making and enhances farmer outreach. Our advisory productivity, we are also shifting towards high-margin, sustainable, and farmer-centric offerings, including biological and next-generation product.

That concludes my opening remark. I'll now hand it over to Mr.

Bhaskar, our CFO, for a detailed analysis of the financial situation. Over to you, Bhaskar.

Thank you, Dr. Gyanendra.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our Q4 and FY '26 earnings call. I'll walk you through our financial performance for the quarter, post which we shall commence on the Q&A session.

Starting with the top line for the year, our Q4 FY '26 revenue stood at ₹456 crores as against ₹430 crores for the same period last year, resulting in an overall growth of 6%. Overall volume growth has been 5% with pricing growth by 1%.

Overall EBITDA for Q4 FY '26 stood at -₹1 crore, higher by 96% compared to last year of -₹19 crores of the same quarter. Profit after tax stood at -₹15 crore versus -₹32 crore of Q4 last year, which is 52% higher than the previous year same quarter.

Crop care segment grew by 5% to ₹425 crore in Q4 FY '26 from ₹405 crores in Q4 FY '25 due to volume expansion, new product promotion, and increased digital engagement. Moving to domestic B2C, a 15% growth in Q4 FY '26, registering ₹255 crore revenue vis-à-vis ₹222 crore in Q4 FY '25, which was driven by volume growth of 14%, primarily led by insecticides.

Soil and plant health category grew by 27% to ₹47 crore from ₹37 crore in Q4 of FY '26 in comparison to Q4 FY '25. It registered a robust volume growth of 29%.

The volume effect is due to growth in micronutrients and biofertilizers. Moving to seeds business, seeds revenue grew by 23% to ₹31 crore in Q4 FY '26 from ₹25 crore in Q4 FY '25 due to 8% volume growth and 15% price growth, mainly driven by cotton and millets.

Exports top line degrew by 33% to ₹77 crore from ₹114 crore due to degrowth in volumes and revenue from metribuzin and pendimethalin. CSM products, custom synthesis and manufacturing products, in Q4 FY '26 revenues displayed promising growth by lodging 59% growth to ₹66 crore from ₹41 crore of last year, driven by both volume and price growth.

The revenue stood at ₹170 crore versus ₹182 crore with a decline of 7%, primarily due to volumes. For the full financial year period, top line revenue stood at ₹2,897 crore, reflecting a growth of 9% year-on-year.

Crop care revenue stood at ₹2,416 crore, reflecting 8% growth year-on-year, driven by volume expansion despite price softening. Seeds revenue increased to ₹481 crore, delivering 15% growth year-on-year, supported by cotton and maize, along with improved contribution from in-licensed products.

The B2C business recorded growth of 5%, delivering ₹1,657 crore revenue, primarily contributed by 9% volume growth. The B2B business recorded growth of 14%, delivering ₹759 crore of revenue, supported by both volume and price growth and expansion of the customer base.

In the crop care segment, expansion of our customer base and product portfolio is enhancing business resilience. We are driving focused execution across frontline and operational functions by optimizing the product portfolio, rationalizing territories, eliminating overlaps, and simplifying costs across the value chain.

In the seeds segment, our primary focus will be on five strategic crops: cotton, maize, millet, mustard, and rice. A selective and concentrated approach in these crops is expected to drive operational scale and efficiency.

Overall, we remain disciplined in improving capital efficiency across both fixed capital and working capital. At the quarter end, our inventory levels remain slightly elevated in comparison to the same quarter of last year.

Collection cycles remain smooth. We have healthy cash and liquid balance of ₹541 crores as at 31st March, 2026.

Our continuous approach towards improving digital initiatives is helping us reach targeted customer groups with greater momentum. In parallel, we are undertaking portfolio rationalization and sharpening our focus on priority markets to enhance operational efficiency, strengthen market presence, and improve profitability.

Thereby, we remain committed to achieving consistent and profitable growth. That concludes our opening remarks.

We can now commence the Q&A session.

Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, the first three bullet points of your commentary on slide 12 portrays a very pessimistic scenario, but your performance was pretty contrary to that.

I just wanted to know, especially on the gross margin part, what drove healthy margin improvement at the gross margin level?

I think when we put a commentary, it is based on what was happening in the market, right? Last year we started with a very heavy early rainfall.

That impacted herbicide uses in crops like soybean and cotton. That was a big impact.

Then we came to end of kharif season, massive rain led to decline in consumption of insecticide. As you move forward towards rabi, actually rain suddenly stopped in September and as a result there was an impact on pest disease pressure and all.

If you see the context of overall year development has been a little bit choppy, it indicates that, nothing else. Having said that, I think our focus is to those events will continue to happen.

How do we move forward and deliver better performance in ongoing basis? Now, gross margin obviously is a combination of availability.

Two things. Again it's a segment by segment.

I think our contribution in seed and soil and plant health business continues to remain robust. When we say crop protection as a category, there's always a mix of product.

If anyone of you might remember, I've been talking about two troubled child for us, Clotho and Benzilla, right? We are trying to actually liquidate that inventory.

I think we are done with majority of it. That led to compression of margin in Quarter 4, because we had to liquidate that inventory, we just cannot keep it, otherwise it becomes a write-off.

Sir, you meant that these two products' inventory was liquidated before Q4 or during Q4?

No, during Q4.

We delivered a decent margin expansion at the gross level. So...

On a overall basis you're looking at it, right?

No, I am looking at Q4 specifically on gross margin.

From the perspective of crop protection or seed?

Both. Seeds is a small thing only, mainly on the crop care side.

Look,

I think margin expansion if you see from what I know, our CSM business delivered higher margin, because we had a contract, though it is a smaller business, but there is a clause where we can actually get some benefit if volumes drop below certain threshold, so that helped. SPH business was slightly better, overall B2B business exports were better, seed was better.

That's what is reflected in overall number. On crop protection, standalone basis, it was marginally down because B2C business because of Benzilla and Clotho.

Okay. Sir, how are you seeing the initial demand for kharif?

Two things are happening. I think right now everybody has gone into a wait-and-watch mode.

The rainfall, El Niño impact nobody knows. The other thing which is people looking at how government will be able to mop up sufficient fertilizer.

These two factors might have some, and then third one is always a commodity prices, right? Rainfall pattern, commodity prices, and fertilizer, these three factors will determine to what extent farmer will plant what.

When we plan our business, we plan on a normal basis, because I believe each three of factors. For example, I believe that if farmers get 10% less urea, it will not impact the yield, because farmers are used to using high urea because it's highly subsidized.

More than urea, phosphorus, potash are going to be more critical. When it comes to rain, there's a forecast of 8% less rain over LPA.

Again that there have been instances where rainfall has been 8% lower or even much lower, but distribution was good and it arrived timely, so as a result it didn't have much negative impact. I think a lot of unknowns, and war-led petrochemical disruptions, supply chain, or solvents, energy cost, everybody increasing the prices of raw material.

All of that when you factor in, it is very very difficult to put a finger and say look, what will happen. What we are trying to see is that historically, in my agriculture lifetime experience in 40 years, there have been two worst droughts.

Even then, area sown does not go below 85%, 95%, even 90% even 90%. Farmers will plant something.

They might make different choices. They might also downtrade on the kind of seed they buy.

They may not buy very premium seed. They might reduce some fertilizer consumption.

Unless they expect a good income, they may opt for lower-cost crop protection product versus high-cost crop protection product. Too difficult to say.

From our perspective, we're trying to secure as much as possible supply for kharif, and we'll also seek opportunities to pass on at least cost increase.

Sir, just lastly, sir, our crop B2C business growth was driven by insecticide. Sir, why would insecticide sales grow this much when this would be a herbicide placement season?

Let me tell you, placement, I think first of all we have not gone for any significant placement more than what is required in Quarter 4, because some of this was low-cost inventory and we would like to sell in Quarter 1 because there's an opportunity to realize higher price. I keep saying that look, don't look at our business on a quarterly basis.

Now, that's not the right way. Always look at our business on H1 basis, H2 basis.

If you say H1 story, I was telling, H1, if you see our business, actually the leading growth had come from fungicide and herbicide, and in H1 because of August-September rain, insecticide uses had dropped. As a result, insecticide business had declined.

Come to H2, actually our herbicide and insecticide have done better, right, whereas fungicide has slightly gone down, because when there's a dry weather lesser diseases. On a yearly basis, I would say we're slightly down on insecticide because the impact which got created in H1.

We are up on fungicide and we are significantly higher on herbicide. On a yearly basis, our herbicide business is up by 15%, fungicide by 5%, and insecticide is down by 3%.

That means B2C business has gone by 4% overall.

Sir. Thank you so much for your time and all the best.

Thank you.

ahead. Hi, sir.

Thanks for the opportunity. Now, my first question on the seeds business there.

If I look at not quarterly, but let's say on an annual basis, we have done reasonably well this year along with some sort of stability or improvement coming in the EBITDA margin as well. Given your commentary of focusing on those key five crops, how do you look at growth or ramp-up in this business over the next 2 to 3 years?

There have been issues of lower inventory earlier, but despite that we are seeing some margin uptick, possibly because of better pricing. Your thoughts on, one, volume growth, pricing growth, and margin outlook for this business.

Right. I think in one statement I can say pricing across the board will be higher, because when commodity prices go up, we have to compensate more to the growers, and we have to figure out a way to continuously increase the price.

Now, when it comes to yearly construct of the seed business, to me four crops are more important: cotton, rice, maize, and millet. Each one of those crops actually had delivered growth last year.

Cotton in fact had grown by almost 35%, maize had grown by 20%, millet growth was 8%, and there was a small growth in rice because availability was a challenge. Now, when I look forward, I think cotton probably this year again will deliver highest growth, followed by maize and rice, and then millet.

Millet because of the limited area. In fact, millet might surprise us in a less rainfall area, sometimes millet area also goes up.

That's how I see it. I expect a combination of price and volume growth, and expecting to deliver high double-digit growth again this year.

Sir, just one follow-up. High double-digit is a volumetric growth that you're looking at or it includes the pricing also?

It's a combination of volume and price.

Sure. On the margins front, should we expect to sustain these margins or maybe even improve given the realization improvement?

I cannot predict that, but obviously effort is when your business grows, cost should not grow in the same proportion. That should have positive impact on the margin.

In seed, for example, last year we suffered because we had to pay higher prices for drying and processing and all. This year, there's a other phenomena.

Seed crop was on time by everybody else, and harvest came at the same time. As a result, there was a sudden capacity constraint for dryers, which is a primarily third-party activity.

As a result, companies have to pay incremental cost for drying in the open field. When you dry in the open field, what we call pad drying, it also sometimes can lead to lesser recovery.

All of those factors are not known yet. I think we are in the process of preparing for kharif, and inventory and costing and everything probably will be known towards end of the quarter.

How season fares from a consumption perspective will only known when first half is over.

Sure, sir. Second bit on the crop care side.

If you can share your thoughts and comments on the specific products, acephate, pendimethalin, etc., how is the macro behaving, especially given the supply chain volatility globally as well, both on capacity as well as on the pricing front? Thanks.

I think as far as domestic branded business is concerned, availability is not a constraint. We're okay.

Now, when it comes to our export business, I think there are four primary molecule we deal: pendimethalin, hexaconazole, acephate, and metribuzin. I continue to remain positive on metribuzin and pendimethalin and hexaconazole.

There is a structural challenge on acephate side, because the same people those who supply us raw material, they compete with us with us in the American markets. As a result, there's always a challenge, to supply those markets.

Having said that, given some supply challenges also, we're trying to prioritize domestic market for a product like acephate, and trying to balance it not lose the customer at the same time, see where we are going to be will be making more money. There are other products like metalaxyl-M we make, kresoxim-methyl we make.

Those are relatively smaller product.

Sure, sir. That's helpful.

I'll get back into the queue. Thank you and all the best.

Thank you. Thank you.

Just couple of questions. First is, just to clarify, you said the standalone B2C gross margin has softened in the quarter, and whatever increase we've seen on a consol basis is a mix of B2B, exports, and seeds.

Am I right?

Yes.

Okay. Also, yeah, just Q4.

With regards to the healthy volume growth which we saw in B2C in the quarter gone by, that would also be largely a function of the pre-placement we would be doing for insecticides or maybe for the biostimulants for the upcoming quarter. Would that also be a right understanding?

No, actually, contrary to what we should have done, we have not done that. We have been very conservative on pre-placing the stock, right?

We have only sold what is required, because as the sentiments change, we might have an opportunity to have higher realization. As a result, we haven't aggressively pushed the stocks.

Okay. Any color you can give in terms of the inventory in the system for the market?

Look, at this point of time, if you go to the market, while it seems challenging environment, but every product is available, right? We haven't seen any early sign of price increase, because consumption has not begun yet, right, except the cotton seed where probably in Northern India we're midway in the season.

Some of the folks we sell quantity where in season. It's too early to predict.

Yes, on seed, cotton prices were not increased by the government, they remain flat. We have to rely on volume, and cotton is going to be roughly 20%, 25% of our projected cotton seed business.

From that perspective, no price increase. All the price increase opportunities will come in rice, maize, and millet.

Cotton is primarily a volume game. Same way, crop protection, I think, because of rain and all.

Yes, companies do place the normal inventory. We haven't done anything beyond normal inventory.

No, I meant for the crop protection for the industry, not specific to us. Any color you can give on the inventory in the system?

Because even Q2 was bad, and rabi has not been that great. Any color you can give in terms of the inventory in the system?

I think inventory has come to normal level. 2 years ago, this whole industry was suffering from lot of inventory hangover.

I think that has reached to a normal level now. Now, obviously, I don't have company-by-company detail.

I don't have insight into other companies, but there are enough indicators in the system to say people have inventory what they need. They're not carrying forward lot of excess inventory.

Okay. No, because where I was coming from is, as you earlier did in the earlier part of the call as well, is that any cost increase which we are witnessing right now, we will be looking at opportunity to pass through.

In that sense, especially on the generic piece, just to understand the factors we are looking internally which gives you that confidence that

we

will be able to pass through.

No, we are one of the first ones to announce price increase, because we cannot absorb all the cost. Because consumption season has not yet begun, it's very very difficult to say how market will behave.

Every company is kind of indicating they have to pass on cost increase, otherwise they'll face a very challenging time.

Okay. Last question was on the exports or the B2B piece.

Any update in terms of the pipeline in terms of new molecules which we have commercialized or looking to commercialize?

Current year So, last year, we did start making There's a molecule called pencycuron. Besides that, when that happened in the last quarter, I think we'll still rely on old molecule.

There are two, three new molecules. We have narrowed down the list which used to work.

Now we have got about three molecules which should get introduced in next 2 to 3 years. We are in the advanced stages of, establishing processes, working with the supply, what do you call buyers, and obviously there's a registration process that has to happen parallely.

Okay. Thank you.

Good luck.

Thanks.

Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is, can you please give us

I'm saying, can you give us some sense on how is the trends you're looking at in April across all the three businesses in terms of volume growth and maybe some sense on the pricing?

If you say April, April basically some season for tea gardens starts in the northeastern side. That is from a consumption perspective is normal.

Apple season seems to be normal across Himachal and Jammu. Then you have cotton season which begins in North for seed.

This is a low crop protection month and low SPH month, right, because all of that will start with the rains when they start coming in the month of, end of May in Kerala, and pre-monsoon showers some some places it happens. It's too early to predict that.

I as I was saying, farmers will plant the crop. Even in the worst monsoon years, we haven't seen acreages dropping.

I think what farmers do start doing in downtrading, right? They might use lesser-price pack, they might say price seed.

In some cases, they might go for saved seed. All of that happens.

Given the uncertainty around rain and commodity prices and everything else, seed indication, I think, we'll have a fair fair sense seed indication by end of May in terms of sentiments towards crop. Crop protection, I think, is very very difficult to predict any trend before end of May or early June.

What about the global trends? Because you earlier alluded to the fact that there is some sort of panic buying that has been set in.

Are you seeing any trends that indicate that the trade channels are looking to fill up the products and volumes are moving early?

Not early. See, look, North America is the biggest season where placement happens in the March, right?

Now, their purchases would have happened in the fourth quarter calendar year last year. I think what is important for North America is their rainfall, because their agriculture is highly rainfall dependent.

Brazil had a decent season, not an outstanding season. Global commodity prices actually still are not reflecting in the commodity prices around the globe.

Commodity prices continue to remain relatively soft, which means at least world is sitting on enough inventory of everything.

You've taken some price increases in the global portfolio?

Everywhere. Wherever possible, we have to increase, otherwise we'll be paying money from our pocket.

Understood. Trying to tie this with the disruptions that we are currently witnessing, and you also mentioned that the margins in the B2B business has improved, would it be fair to assume that the worst of the margins are behind and with the price increases that we might undertake, the margins can hereon words trend on a positive side and they can get better?

In last 5, 7 years, this industry has learned a lot, right? There was a COVID, and there was a Ukraine war, and now this is new war, and every time new learning is coming, right?

During COVID period, everybody got engaged in the farming, as a result, companies did very well, and supply chain was disrupted, but still material was available. Then came Ukraine war, there's a shock of petroleum prices, that subsided.

That COVID thing also led to lot of inventory buildup, because 1, 2 year did well, third, fourth year lot of inventory. Then war happens, and now that has become normal.

Now we are dealing with a new thing, right? Too frequent, too many things happening, and now we're also talking about El Niño.

All I know is that farmers will plant the crop. Southeast monsoon, based on what it looks, is going to be good.

Punjab, Haryana, Western UP, part of Rajasthan, Eastern Madhya Pradesh, they're all irrigated or get assured rainfall. The risk is only few pockets in the country.

For example, Marathwada, Vidarbha could be a challenge. There could be a challenge in Saurashtra.

There could be a challenge in Rayalaseema. Other than that, they're pockets of challenge.

I would say still agriculture, that's a basic thing, right, will happen.

Understood. My last question

If they don't have input, they will plant the seed.

Sure, that's helpful. My last question, at this point in time, are you facing any disruptions in terms of your procurement of raw material or technicals or very high pricing which you would believe that it will be difficult to pass on?

There was a period when every company left, right, and center was issuing force majeure letter and they said wait, right? There was a time when they will say, "We are giving you a price for a quantity.

Confirm in 3 hours, otherwise after 3 hours we cannot." I think all of that is over now.

There's a bit of normalcy. When this war started, things looked very chaotic, but there's some order is getting established.

Yes, obviously, we have to pay higher for everything, and then we have to figure out a way to see how much we can increase. Obviously, it'll depend on what competitive products also do.

Attempt would be to pass on.

Yeah. Okay.

Let us say if this thing seems to continue more than what we earlier expected, would you expect any disruptions in your manufacturing in the next few critical months, month of May and June?

I think as far as kharif is concerned, we have covered ourselves quite well. See, seed is all domestic, no problem.

Soil and plant health is, by and large, covered, largely domestic. Where we have a crop protection, which is a domestic-side story, five ingredients we produce on our own.

Some of the other ingredients, we have suppliers where they might want higher price, but we have secured supply. It's not a straight answer.

I would say I'm covered, by and large, for the kharif.

Okay. Sure, that is very helpful.

It goes beyond June, right. Thank you.

Understood.

Hi, Rohit.

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity.

Sir, first question is, in your opening remarks you mentioned that the margins will be table to soft. In terms of the cost increase, we have already experienced that the raw material cost or sourcing cost has increased.

Now, we'll be passing on to the farmers by increased prices. Given that the monsoon is expected to be low, how much ability do we have in terms of increased cost completely passing on to the farmers?

Secondly, will there be any negative impact because generally the sentiment will be negative, plus as you also explained, there would be downtrading which will also happen. The farmers may go for branded generics to the normal generics.

Just a broader perspective would be helpful. Thank you.

Branded generics actually helps Rallis, because this is where we operate. We are selling generic product.

We are not an inventor company, right? As far as planting is concerned, we know that, as I said, farmers even in the worst condition will plant the crop.

If they go for lower-cost seed, lower price and priced product, it does help Rallis both on the seed and crop protection and other category side. What we don't know is basically fertilizer, how much government will be able to provide fertilizer, will farmers be making different choices.

Government has not increased any prices for the farmers, all price increase currently, if you see, is being absorbed by the government. As I said, look, even if 10% less urea is available, it will not have any serious impact on the agriculture production.

It might have a sentiment. Some people think that for growing corn, you need more fertilizer.

If they don't get enough urea, they might say, okay, plant less corn. Then there's a other side of the story where now they can easily sell that for the industrial users.

It's not a straight answer. I would say let's assume agriculture will happen.

There'll be cost increase and companies will have opportunities to pass on the cost increase, unless there's a total failure of agriculture. Monsoon doesn't come in at all in June and July.

That has never happened in the history of humankind.

Sure, thanks. Just second question.

In terms of cost increases, till now what is the kind of cost increase that we have observed in percentage on an overall

basis? 15% to 25%.

15% to 25% is generally the range.

Sure. I think that is helpful.

Thanks a lot and all the best, sir.

Thank you.

Hi. Just a clarification on the earlier question.

The 15% to 25% cost increase is on account of raw materials, and what proportion of this are we passing through versus what we're absorbing?

As I said in the beginning, right now is all placement, right? We have tried to pass on all.

We have announced the price increase. I think everybody is working.

There's always a carryover inventory which comes from January, February, March. That was supplied at the low price.

I think that will get exhausted and then new price will start getting established in the market. That's how market is structured.

All the new supplies we have been supplying at a price. Our attempt to pass on all the increase, whatever.

Then wait and watch season reacts.

Understood. Based on how you see the market right now, how long do you expect this 15% to 25% cost increase, are you expecting this to percolate for first half of this year?

Look, most of the kharif inventory people will build by June. For kharif this cost increase, you have to assume that it has happened, right, is already a reality.

We cannot ignore that fact, because we are getting into May now very soon, and most companies would like to procure raw material even if something has to be sold in July, August, and September, because there's a lead time of shipping, bringing in, processing, packing, and supplying. Generally it's a 100 90 to 150 days cycle depending on the product and crop.

For herbicides, anyway every company has made all the arrangement, because herbicides need to be supplied in May and June for consumption in June and July, right? Herbicide is all done.

Insecticides also start early, that's happening. Fungicides come later on.

I think you have to assume this cost increase, even if, say, war settles tonight, we have a surprise announcement that war is over, right, Strait of Hormuz is open, life is normal, it's going to take 3 to 4 months to unwind. To me, kharif, this is a reality.

We'll have to live with it, we don't have a choice.

Understood. Thanks.

Good morning. Thank you so much for taking my question, sir.

Hi,

sir. Just first of all, one clarification on the numbers, the revenue breakdown.

Bhaskar had given us a number of ₹255 crores for B2C sales for the quarter compared to ₹222 last year. Just wondering if it might be possible to also give us a crop protection component within that specifically.

Yes, he will be able to provide that. Those are micro-details, but by and large, I would say it is split between SPH and crop protection, 20% and 80%, but we'll get back to you details separately because these are exact splits.

Okay.

No problem.

You can probably mail to separately.

Sure. When you guided to high double-digit growth for seeds in the next year, just to clarify, that is basically referring to say something like high-teens, right?

Is that the range we're looking at?

Mid-teens easily.

Sure. There was one comment, sir, you made in the opening remarks that the sector may see 3% to 4% growth in FY '27.

No, that's a GDP growth, that's agriculture.

Okay. All right, understood.

On the crop protection side as well, the margins, when you mentioned stable to soft,

you're

basically expecting...

Percentage revenue growth will be higher this year because price increase. Revenue growth probably will be maybe double digit, I don't know what it could be, because your input cost has gone up by 15% to 20%.

It is going to lead to price increase for sure. It'll be 5%, 8%, 10%, I don't know at this point of time, because ultimately many factors are not clear yet.

Margins, depending on how competition will react, how commodity prices will behave. Generally in such situations, commodity prices tend to rise, and again it tends to be crop-specific.

Other than rice, I expect commodity prices to remain firm on everything else. Rice, globe is sitting on a excess supply, including India.

Now, India, for example, grows a lot of basmati. If Middle East remains disrupted, then basmati demand will go down, as a result farmers may plant less basmati.

They might plant regular rice, they might plant a little bit more maize as some other crops. I think those are the things, too early to say.

Again for maize, they will say, "I need more urea." Now, if more urea is not available, will they do something else?

Too early to say.

Got it, sir. Just last couple of quick things from me.

One is at some point if we assume that this war ends and the price of crude comes down, how do we sort of protect ourselves from the risk that we may be sitting on high-cost inventories at that point?

Actually, your line the question well, because line was breaking.

Am I audible right now, clearly?

Thank you, sir. Just asking that

Repeat the question.

Sure. Just asking that

was breaking, actually.

Sure, I hope you can hear me now.

The question is that assuming the price of crude comes down by some extent over the next say 3 to 6 months, how do we sort of manage the risk that we might be sitting on high-cost inventories at that point in time?

I think two ways to look at it. One is that we don't have to become greedy in hoarding the inventory, right?

We will go as per the business plan based on what can be sold. We're not going to hoard the inventory.

Even if war unwinds in 3 to 6 months, I'm saying we're not building inventory beyond kharif, right? Kharif is something we want to protect.

I think I can tell you and I don't know what other companies do, I have every call in the morning. Every day we talk, right?

We are almost back to a situation during COVID. Now we were doing calls since morning, 8:00 a.m.

to 8:00 p.m. We're into that situation.

We are building inventory which we think is right. We're not building excess inventory because that could be a good opportunity and a bad opportunity.

We're very calibrated about what we buy, what we sell. We'll only buy what we can sell.

Understood, sir. That's clear.

Just last quick thing. This liquidation of Clotho and Benzilla in the fourth quarter, was that one of the key contributors to this 14% volume growth that we saw in domestic formulations?

Out of that, Benzilla, when you can say 80% of the problem is solved, very little problem left, that it's all sold, right. Clotho was more dependent on the chilli crop.

Because thrips, chilli crop didn't get planted, commodities were low. Seems for chilli farmers Benzilla was preference of the farmers.

We are launching new products in those segments. At the same time, we are unwinding inventory completely.

Understood.

Thank you so much, sir. All the best for the year ahead.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. Hope I'm audible.

My question is regarding the inventory. If I look at your FY '26 numbers, I think inventory days are a bit higher.

This is predominantly that we are building some inventory at a lower cost, maybe the pre-war scenario or during the war scenario to protect our margin going forward. How it is like, is it RM-related or like a finished good related inventory that we have already built?

No, it is not related to what we build for the season, it is related to So, this war thing was almost imminent right from the month of January, right? We didn't wait for war to happen, we did take some risk to build some inventory.

Understood. These are predominantly RM inventory and maybe a low-cost kind of inventory that you have built?

Absolutely.

Understood. Sir, second thing, if I look at in terms of in the current pricing of the few of the commodities, in your earlier remarks you said that expecting a good crop in terms of maize and other crops.

If I look at pricing of maize from the month of October, November, the prices are very low compared to the MSP prices. How do you see the impact, are farmers going to stick to the maize crop or there will be some shift that will happen?

If that happened, what are the scenarios in terms of CP business and in terms of your seeds business will get affected?

I think, look, low and high has to be seen from the perspective of farmers makes per acre of money. Don't worry about commodity prices that much.

I think at the end of the day, it will be matter of relative economics. How much I can produce by growing a crop, how much it is going to cost, and what price I can sell to me what they have seen for a period of time.

Crop is still very very competitive to grow.

Understood. Crop prices might not impact significantly in terms of crop shifting, right?

Yes. It's again I'm saying, for example, rice.

I think a lot depend on global inventory build-up and what country allows to import and what country restricts. For example, India had a restriction on how much maize can be imported.

We said we will not allow GM maize commodity, soybean which is GM grown. I think a lot of other factors will play.

I would say other than rice, global inventory is at the normal level.

Understood. Sir, in terms of CP business, right now we have done 15% kind of a growth.

In the domestic CP business, if you could clarify in terms of volume and the realization growth in the 15% growth that we have reported this quarter?

15% growth in which segment?

CP business that we have recorded this quarter.

No, crop protection Where did we say 15%? Oh, you're saying B2C growth, right?

Correct,

sir. See, when we say crop protection business, there's a soil and plant health and there's also crop protection, and so these are the two major component.

Now, this is B2C. Within that, there's a higher growth in soil and plant health relative to crop protection.

I have been saying that look, my focus is to sell more herbicide, more soil and plant health, and more seed, right, because disease sometimes because of moisture and all can come and go, insects come and don't come, right? Actually our focus segments have contributed more in terms of growth if you see from that perspective.

Understood. Sir, if we remove that 27% kind of a growth in the SPH, how much will be our B2C CP business growth for this quarter?

It'll be flat.

It will be flattish kind of a growth.

Marginal growth. You can say marginal growth, low single digit.

It won't be flat, it's still marginally positive.

Understood. Yes, thanks, sir.

Thanks for clarifying all the questions.

Hello, sir. Just wanted to understand on your new venture, the aqua feed business.

What is the current investments and the thought process behind this? Given that the Tata Group in Maharashtra does have expertise in fresh water fisheries with its hatchery, it's a social commitment perspective.

That linkage and the basic thought process behind this business, where we are, what do we see to invest, where we're going to invest, that if you could outline.

Look, as part of the Tata strategy in agriculture, we did the whole mapping and we identified this as an idea to worth experiment, right? I think still at the experimental stage, because we believe as economies grow, per capita income grows, more animal origin protein becomes a preferred food.

The consumption of fish which can be grown in land, even our Prime Minister keeps talking about mission so that we're not only dependent on ocean, we can also have more fish in land. Look, this is still at a relatively smaller scale.

It hasn't gone to a stage start discussing cost and how much we want to make investment. I would like to see one more year, this year to say where I am able to take it and then start thinking of the strategy.

Yes, it's an important segment. We're trying to understand rather than trying to rush into this segment.

Understood. The current products in the market are completely outsourced?

Products are outsourced. Similar to soil and plant health business, we incubated 7, 8, 10 years ago, because when we sold Tata Chemical bulk fertilizer business, we were left with some residual micronutrients, right?

We said, okay, what do we do with this business? We built this business.

Now it has reached to a scale of ₹250 crore plus. Now we are saying, okay, how do we invest more, because this we find it very exciting, right?

I think aqua is probably there 5, 7 years ago our soil and plant health business was. Probably one or two more cycle before we can say anything about it.

Understood, sir. Second question on the Market potential-wise, but

I think, see, there's so much potential in everything, right? We can't do everything.

It's a still understanding phase.

Understood, sir. Sir, secondly on the seed perspective, the whole industry has a lot of GE trials approved, including Rallis, and it's been going on for quite some time now.

Given that the new policy of GE which has come out, which differentiates itself from GM regulation, do you see what do you call the traction in that segment increasing exponentially going ahead or do you still see hurdles in this segment picking up?

See, when I look at seed R&D, there are clearly two components. One is called genetics improvement, where you keep accessing genetics and start applying tools to improve the genetics to develop product faster.

I think there we are doing everything which needs to be get done. When it comes to GE basically, it's not about GM crop now any longer, it's not about bringing gene from outside.

The conversation is all about gene editing. Gene editing is one space, I think, where while government has cleared the regulation, but the big global multinationals continue to hold patent rights, right?

We would rather initially, rather than trying to do everything in-house, we would rely on outside skills to get the job work done and their technologies we're accessing. For example, our cotton business is built on the foundation of Bt technology.

Now

we are actually launching what do you call Paryan technology-led rice seed business where there'll be herbicide-tolerant gene and will be sold as a bundled product along with seed and herbicide. We would rather license those technologies rather than trying to invest 10 years on researching those technologies, because global multinationals, they have disproportionate R&D on those areas.

I think by spending small money and for the sake of conversation I can say I will do it, but I would rather prefer accessing those technologies.

Understood, sir. Thank you.

Thanks.

My question has been answered. Thank you so much.

Yes, please go ahead.

Thank you.