ALICO INC

Management Comment

John Kiernan, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented:

To begin, I want to recognize that Alico has over 125 years of experience as a leader in Florida agriculture and land management. We have repeatedly stated that Alico seeks to provide our investors with the benefits and stability of a conventional agriculture investment, with the optionality that comes with active land management. We own approximately 53,371 acres of land across eight counties in Florida, as well as approximately 48,700 acres of oil, gas and mineral rights in the state.

Since 2022, Alico has continued to face challenges in recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. More than half of our crops dropped before harvesting in fiscal years 2023 and fiscal year 2024 fruit production did not return to pre-Ian levels. These lower levels of production remain a concern to management as we begin to harvest the 2024-2025 crops, and the Company is evaluating our performance daily.

We are unable to forecast the size of the 2024-2025 crops at this time, and cannot provide any financial forecast for this fiscal year until we have greater visibility about our expected revenues. However, Alico is committed to focusing on operating income potential, protecting our balance sheet and preserving our capital to ensure that we have adequate financial resources to invest in the business so that Alico can continue to provide competitive returns for our stockholders.

Lower production for Early and Mid-Season and Valencia harvests this season resulted in lower levels of pounds solid being produced, which required the Company to write-down $28.5 million of total inventory related to our 2023-2024 harvest and $19.5 million of total inventory related to our 2024-2025 harvest.

On October 9, 2024, Hurricane Milton impacted most of our citrus groves with sustained hurricane or tropical storm force winds for varying durations of time. The Company believes that our groves sustained minimal tree damage; however, there was measurable fruit drop from trees in our northern groves, particularly in Polk and Hardee Counties. At this time, it is not possible to reliably estimate the amount of additional fruit drop, if any, that may occur as a result of Hurricane Milton.

As Alico reported previously, the Company entered into a new three-year Orange Purchase Agreement to sell oranges to Tropicana at prices that are approximately 33% to 50% higher, over the life of the contract, than the average price for all the citrus fruit sold to Tropicana last season. In addition, in 2024 we treated nearly all of our producing trees with an oxytetracycline or (“OTC”) injection to combat citrus greening, approximately 35% of which have now been treated for a second time. Our decisions to treat our trees with OTC were supported by scientific research which indicated that the benefits of OTC trunk injections include a decrease in fruit drop, improved fruit quality and mitigating some of the impacts from citrus greening. We have and will continue to apply to the Florida Citrus Research and Field Trial Foundation for grant monies to offset the costs of these OTC injections. In January of 2024, we received grants that covered substantially all of the OTC-application costs incurred in fiscal year 2023 and to date we have received approximately 35% of the money spent during fiscal year 2024. We have applications pending that would cover the rest of our fiscal year 2024 treatment costs.

Despite the recent challenges in our citrus operations, we remain optimistic about the future success of Alico. In December 2023, we completed our sale of 17,229 acres of the Alico Ranch to the State of Florida for $77.6 million in gross proceeds, which we used to repay all of our outstanding borrowings under our line of credit and $19.1 million Met Life Variable-Rate Term debt, thereby strengthening our balance sheet and reducing our required principal payments through fiscal year 2029 to less than $1.5 million per year.

In addition, in September 2024 we amended our Credit Agreement with MetLife which increases our financial flexibility by extending the maturity of our RLOC until May 1, 2034 and demonstrates the continued support and confidence in Alico by MetLife. We believe that the RLOC provides us with ample liquidity, should we need it, to manage significant weather events; as well as to ensure that we have time and capital to realize the long-term highest and best use of our real estate assets.

We are continuing to evaluate all of our properties to enhance and build value for our stockholders. The multi-year entitlement process which we began in 2023 for our 4,500-acre grove near Fort Myers, in Collier County is proceeding well under the leadership of our Executive Vice President of Real Estate. While there is considerable work yet to be done, the Company has made significant progress including, but not limited to, the completion of environmental assessments, the development of conservation strategies, the preparation of market assessments to facilitate planning and beginning to conduct selective stakeholder outreach efforts.

In addition, other real estate properties in Polk, Highlands and Hendry County are also being considered for potential transactions. The Company remains committed to considering all options for the most profitable use of all the land in our portfolio.