The General Trading and Food Processing Company (Trafco) achieved a net profit of more than BD2.1 million ($5.6 million) last year.

'The company was able to maintain the same level of profits compared to the previous year, despite the impairment provisions on the investments portfolio due to the current recession and the global financial crisis impacting on the stock markets in the region,' chairman Ebrahim Zainal told shareholders at the company's general assembly at the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry yesterday.

The general assembly approved a cash dividend at 22 per cent or 22 fils per share to shareholders.

The report of the board to the General Assembly referred to large fluctuations in the trade and the food industry during last year and the unprecedented rise of prices in all sectors of food, and consumer goods to a very larger extent.

However, the company stressed that this upward trend of price change reversed in the fourth quarter of last year with a gradual decline in prices due to the repercussions of the global financial crisis and the significant decline of the price of oil and its derivatives.

The total sales turnover of the parent company exceeded BD21 million compared to about BD17 million in 2007, reflecting an increase of 23.5 per cent, while the total sales of the entire group was around BD36 million with an increase of 20 per cent over the previous year figure of around BD30 million.

The chairman said that with a view to maintaining sufficient stock of food for the state, during the year the company awarded contracts by inviting tenders for the construction of a new warehouse at a cost of around BD5 million at Gallali.

The refrigerated cold storage and dry stores will provide additional storage space for the company of over 97,000 square feet and the project is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Awal Dairy Company, the subsidiary of Trafco, achieved sales over BD12 million, an increase of 10 per cent over the previous year but the net profit was reported at BD320,000, a 29 per cent decline as a direct result of the high cost of production due to increased prices of raw materials and packaging coupled with stiff competition with other companies in the Gulf.

The company is focusing on exports to other Arab countries like Jordan and Iraq in addition to their operations in Kuwait through their subsidiary.

The company is continuing the expansions through its direct sales outlets under the name Metro Markets spread across the country with 10 branches after the recent new openings in Gudaibiya and the university campus (Sakhir) last year.

A new joint-venture of Trafco with Qatar started its operations during the fourth quarter of last year and it is expected that the results of the new operations will be reflected in this year's results, especially as Qatar has a promising market with a growing demand in the food sector.-TradeArabia News Service