Olam International, a commodities supplier partly owned by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, said its first-quarter profit rose 56% because of higher sales and wider margins.

Net income advanced to $29.7 million in the three months ended Sept. 30 from $19 million a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the Singapore exchange. Sales gained 31% to $2.45 billion from $1.88 billion.

 

“We are executing well against our key strategic initiatives and the results of these initiatives have met or exceeded our initial expectations,” Chief Executive Officer Sunny Verghese said in the statement. “We believe that this industry will continue to offer attractive growth opportunities and positive returns.”

 

Olam, one of the world’s three biggest cotton traders, benefitted as prices of the fiber, coffee, cocoa and sugar advanced. Robusta coffee has surged about 60% in London this year, sugar in New York has gained about 23%, while cotton is at a record.

 

Net contribution — revenue after cost of sales, shipping and logistics expenses, claims, commission, bank charges and net interest — rose 16% to $128 per metric ton. The company said it had “broad-based” growth in net contribution across all business segments.

 

The results came after the market close. Olam’s financial performance is traditionally the weakest in the first quarter due to the seasonality of the products it trades in, the company has said in previous results announcements.

 

The stock gained 0.3% to close at $3.30. It has risen 25% this year, compared with a 14% gain in the benchmark Straits Times Index.

 

Olam runs cotton operations in countries including the U.S., India, Uzbekistan, Australia, and Brazil, according to its website. These are the top five biggest exporting countries, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

 

Cotton has doubled this year with demand driven by China and U.S. supply cut by weather disruptions. U.S. output will be 18.42 million bales in the year ending July 31, down 2.4% from last month’s projection, after hailstorms in Texas, the largest producing state, destroyed crops, the USDA said Nov. 9.

 

China, the biggest cotton buyer, may see stockpiles falling to 13.22 million bales, a 10% decline from 14.72 million estimated last month, the agency said.

 

Olam has been raising capital for acquisitions and investments and in June said it had $1 billion to spend. On Sept. 24, it announced it was in talks with closely held Louis Dreyfus Commodities over “possible business collaboration, which may take the form of, among others, a merger.”

 

Louis Dreyfus Commodities, about 20% owned by its employees, has offices in more than 55 countries, according to its website.

 

Olam raised on Aug. 24 its takeover offer for NZ Farming Systems Uruguay by 27% to 70 New Zealand cents, and held 78% of the dairy producer when the offer closed in September, after paying NZ$101.8 million ($79 million) for a stake of 59.5% stake.