Croatia's major fertilizer maker Petrokemija Group earned a net profit of 267 million (€35 million) in 2020, an increase of 89 percent from 140.5 million kuna (€18.6 million) in 2019, the company reported on Wednesday.

Total revenue was 1.82 billion kuna (€240 million), down by 15.1 percent from 2.14 billion kuna (€283 million) in 2019, as a result of lower sales prices and slightly lower sales quantities. The cost of raw material and other material costs were 23 percent lower than last year’s, reaching 1 billion kuna (€132 million).

CEO Davor Zmegac was quoted as saying that last year the Petrokemija Group had achieved “one of the best results in its history.”

He said that the Covid-19 pandemic had not adversely affected the demand for mineral fertilizers, which resulted in high volumes of output and sales. Considerably lower prices of natural gas and better efficiency also had a positive impact on last year’s performance.

In 2020, Petrokemija invested 55 million kuna (€7.3 million) in its manufacturing, and slashed its net debt by 76 percent to 96 million (€12.7 million).

(€1 = 7.56 kuna)