KTG Agrar : BIOFACH confirms that KTG Agrar SE continues to benefit from organic boom

• Organic sector records highest growth since 2008
• Framework agreements extended until 2018
• Much greater interest from abroad

Hamburg, 16 February 2016. The BIOFACH fair in Nuremberg, the world's leading organic food event, closed successfully last weekend. The conclusion drawn by the exhibitors after the event is that organic food remains a megatrend. According to the industry association BÖLW, sales of organic food and drinks rose by 11% to EUR 8.62 billion in 2015, the highest growth rate since 2008. BIOFACH itself also marked a new record, with 48,000 visitors attending the trade fair. 'Although the organic sector has grown steadily for years, moving from a niche to the mainstream position it enjoys today, there is no end to the boom in sight. The domestic and international trend towards healthy nutrition will continue to drive our industry in the coming years. This will benefit KTG, which is a leading farmer and food producer,' said Siegfried Hofreiter, CEO of KTG Agrar SE.

Having cultivated organic food crops for over 20 years, KTG Agrar SE (ISIN: DE000A0DN1J4) is today the largest organic farmer in Western Europe and increasingly processes the resources in its own facilities. At BIOFACH, KTG Agrar exhibited the products of its 'biozentrale' brand, which celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2016. Several innovative new products were presented at the Bio-Zentrale stand, including a superfood bar from chia seeds in three different tastes. In addition, the company has added two new varieties to its successful veggie range to underline the strong position in this segment. Two tasting stands invited visitors to try a mix of biozentrale's 200-strong product range, including 20 new products, which proved very popular with the visitors. Apart from interest from Germany, the company also held talks with delegations from Asia, Japan and the USA.

Georg Ferber, in charge of exports at KTG, concludes: 'In Germany, we have close to 50 kilometres of shelf and freezer space in retail stores. Over the next three years, we want to achieve the same size outside Germany. The huge interest shown at BIOFACH clearly shows that there is sufficient potential.' KTG Agrar is very well prepared for this kind of growth. Thanks to the investments made over the past years, KTG Foods, which serves as the umbrella company for the food factories and brands 'Frenzel Tiefkühlkost', 'biozentrale' and 'Die Landwirte' brands, can boost its sales revenues to roughly EUR 200 million (2014: EUR 103 million). The company will firmly be targeting this goal in the coming years.

About half of the 45,000 hectares of farmland are cultivated organically. Part of the food crops such as organic grain, organic maize, organic rapeseed, organic soya and, since 2015, organic pumpkin are processed in the company's own food factories. The company also supplies leading processors in Germany and abroad. At BIOFACH, KTG signed framework agreements for the 2016 to 2018 harvests. Customers can thus rely on continuous product availability of high and consistent quality.

'The weather to date makes us optimistic about the 2016 harvest. Our team already sowed large amounts of winter grain in autumn 2015. Spring sowing will commence in a few weeks' time and we are optimally prepared,' says Ulf Hammerich, Management Board member of KTG Agrar SE.

The important trade fair season will continue in mid-March, when the company will, for the first time, exhibit at the INTERNORGA fair in Hamburg (11-16 March 2016) with the aim of establishing itself as a supplier of frozen food and muesli to restaurants and commercial kitchens.