Del Monte Corporation

Good day and welcome to Fresh Del Monte Produce third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. Today's conference is being broadcast live over the internet and it's also being recorded for playback purposes. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. For opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Vice President, FP&A, and Investor Relations with Fresh Del Monte Produce, Ana Miranda. Please go ahead, Ms. Miranda.

Thank you, Debra. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our third quarter 2021 conference call. As Debra mentioned, I'm Ana Miranda, Vice President, Global FP&A, and Investor Relations with Fresh Del Monte Produce. Joining me in today's discussion are Mohamed Abou Ghazali, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Eduardo Becerra, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I hope that you had a chance to review the press release that we issued earlier this morning via Business Wire. You may also visit the company's website at freshdelmonte.com for a copy of today's release, as well as to register for future distributions. This conference call is being webcast live on our website and will be available for replay after this call. Please note that our press release and our call today include non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures are set forth in the press release we issued today and on the company's website at freshdelmonte.com under the investor relations tab. I would like to remind you that much of the information we'll be speaking to today including the answers we give in response to your questions, will include forward-looking statements with the provisions of the Federal Security State Harbor Laws. In today's press release and in our SEC filings, we detail material risks that may cause our future results to differ from these forward-looking statements. Our statements today are as of today, November 3rd, and we have no obligation to update any forward-looking statements we may make. With that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Mohamed.

Thank you, Anna, and good morning, everyone. During the third quarter of 2021, we continue to be impacted by unprecedented inflationary pressures across our supply chain, including strained transportation capacity, lack of sufficient labor availability, and other cost pressures. These pressures were intensified by our seasonality as the second half of the year is typically more challenging due to the industry-wide excess supply and shifts in demand towards seasonal fruits. We expect these systemic cost pressures to continue. To offset the impact, last week we announced to our customers inflation-justified price increases on bananas, pineapples, and fresh-cut fruits. Despite our efforts to mitigate these increasing costs within our supply chain, they are simply too great to absorb. The unparalleled costs have been persistent and show no signs of normalizing. These pressures are not unique to our business and therefore are working collaboratively to mitigate them. within our supply chain and with our business partners. We are also cognizant of our responsibility towards our consumers who look to us to provide a reliable supply of healthy product options. From our end, we are keenly focused on effectively managing our cost, including sourcing, optimization, and consolidation of our operations and product rationalizations via improved asset utilization, better planning and execution, and cost structure. As we move forward, we remain focused on the growth of our brand by managing our business for the long term. We believe that recent capital investments aimed at automation of our production facilities, improving our margins by growing our fresh and value-added and other products and services segments, and further leveraging of our vertical integration such as the recent addition of six new refrigerated container vessels to our fleet will prove to be advantageous by putting us in a stronger, more agile position as we continue to provide reliable quality service to our customers. I would like to highlight that despite the difficult operating conditions, The first nine months of 2021, our gross profit is up $50 million compared with the prior year period, while corresponding gross margin is up 150 basis points at 8.2%. On the sustainability front, I'm proud to announce that our Chief Sustainability Officer, Hans Sautter, will represent our company at the World Biodiversity Summit in Glasgow. a great platform to address the important role the private sector has in responding to the intertwined challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change. In September, we were selected to join the Nature-Based Solutions, Finance and Regenerative Agriculture Panel at the United Nations Climate Week, And during the quarter, we published our 2020 sustainability report, solidifying our leadership position in defining what sustainable production means for large-scale producers. We set some of our key 2025 environmental protection goals. Therefore, this year, we set even more ambitious goals for 2030, including climate action, water stewardship, soil health management practices, and reducing food waste and plastic usage. At this point, I would like to turn the call to Eduardo, please.