Harvest Minerals lowers targets amid sustained weaker demand

Fertiliser producer Harvest Minerals updated the market on its sales performance on Friday, lowering its projections for the year amid sustained weaker demand.

The AIM-traded firm said that during the first half, it achieved sales orders invoiced and delivered amounting to 27,000 tonnes of ‘KP Fértil’, falling well short of the initially-projected sales target of 60,000 tonnes for the period.

It noted that an additional 33,000 tonnes were invoiced in 2022 but not recorded as revenue, meaning those would be included in the company's revenue for the fiscal year 2023.

The demand for fertilisers was anticipated to improve in the future, the board explained.

However, due to uncertain market conditions, Harvest Minerals said it had decided to revise its invoiced sales target for 2023.

Originally set at 200,000 tonnes, the new target now stood at 120,000 tonnes.

“2023 is proving to be a somewhat complex year, with sales of KP Fértil impacted by farmers reducing spending on fertiliser in anticipation of further price drops,” said chairman Brian McMaster.

“While ultimately, we expect fertiliser demand to improve as the year progresses, given the level of uncertainty, we have reduced our invoiced sales target from 200,000 tonnes to 120,000 tonnes.

“When the market picks up as we envisage, we are positioned to continue building market share.”

At 1458 BST, shares in Harvest Minerals were down 36.17% at 3p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.