Palm oil producer DekelOil (LON:DKL) more than doubled production in its latest quarter as it ramped up output from a new extraction mill.
The Ivory Coast-based group produced 7,301 tonnes of crude palm oil (CPO), a 115% like-for-like increase over the same period a year ago.
DekelOil sold 9,814 tonnes of palm oil at an average price per tonne of €610 - a significant premium to the current international CPO price.
The company produced 1,336 tonnes of kernels and sold 917 tonnes of kernel sold at €183 per tonne.
It is slowly stockpiling kernels in readiness for commissioning of a crushing facility in the final quarter of 2015.
At present, DekelOil sells kernels it produces but with the crushing plant it can make kernel palm oil, which sells at a 30-40% premium to ordinary palm oil, and kernel cake, an animal feed.
Total production for the nine months to 30 September was 29,137 tonnes of CPO and 5,069 tonnes of kernels.
Lincoln Moore, executive director, said: "Following another excellent quarterly performance during what is a low fruit harvesting season, we have now produced more than twice as much CPO in the first nine months of the year as we did for the whole of 2014.
"We expect the strong momentum behind our project at Ayenouan to continue to build in line with our strategy to increase CPO production towards the Mill's 70,000 tonnes per annum capacity.”