SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S. — RiceBran Technologies announced on March 30, consolidated revenue of $39.9 million for the 2015 financial year ended Dec. 31, 2015, compared to revenue of $40.1 million in 2014.

The decrease in revenue was due to RiceBran’s Brazil segment revenues being negatively impacted by $6.7 million as a result of a 28% decline in the average Brazilian real versus U.S. dollar exchange rate between 2015-14. U.S. segment revenues increased slightly year-over-year with a continued shift in business mix toward human ingredient sales.

For the fourth quarter, the company reported consolidated revenues of $9.9 million compared to $10.7 million in the same quarter of the prior year. U.S. segment revenue increased to $6.3 million, up 15% from $5.5 million the previous year. Brazil segment revenue declined from $5.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2014 to $3.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2015 due principally to a decline in the value of the Brazilian currency.

"For full year 2015 we delivered a significant improvement in consolidated bottom line results despite essentially flat revenues resulting from (i) a major repositioning for future growth of our largest U.S. Segment customer; and (ii) the severe macroeconomic and currency challenges we faced in Brazil throughout the year,” said W. John Short, chief executive officer (CEO). “In our U.S. Segment, our largest customer moved into new space to support future growth, reformulated its entire product line for relaunch in Q1 2016 and worked off inventory of legacy products throughout the second half of the year, all of which resulted in slower revenue growth for that customer in the second half of 2015. In the face of that slower second half growth, we focused on adding new customers, increasing high margin product sales and carefully managing expenses.”

Revenue from RiceBran’s Brazil segment in 2015 totaled $16.6 million, a decline of 2.4% as compared to 2014. Revenue on a local currency basis increased 36% despite a number of issues related to Brazil's economic recession that reduced the availability and quality of raw bran from suppliers. The increase in local currency revenue was driven by higher volumes of production at the company’s Brazilian plant during the course of 2015. This increase was more than offset by the negative impact of foreign currency translation. The company expects the business environment in Brazil to remain challenging in 2016 as the country continues to experience a severe economic downturn.

Consolidated gross profit for the 2015 full year reached $8.1 million, an 81% increase compared to gross profit of $4.5 million in 2014. Gross profit in 2015 increased by 9 percentage points to 20.1%.  The increase was mainly attributable to RiceBran’s Brazil segment where the company recorded a gross profit of $652,000, an increase of $3.2 million compared to negative gross profit of $2.5 million in 2014. Gross profit from the company’s U.S. segment improved by 1.6 percentage points to 31.8% reaching $7.4 million compared to $7 million in 2014.

Consolidated operating expenses decreased by $2.9 million to $14.3 million in 2015 compared to $17.2 million in 2014. The decrease in operating expenses is mainly attributable to a $1.8 million decrease in SG&A expenses and a $1.1 million decrease in depreciation and amortization.