(Yicai Global) May 13 -- Chinese edible oil and grain supplier Yihai Kerry Arawana Holdings has provided Shanghai residents with almost 70,000 tons of foodstuffs during the city's over a month-long lockdown.

The agriculture and food processing company has kept its factories open by using a closed-loop system since March 28, which means that more than 500 workers live in production facilities to comply with the eastern city's Covid-19 restrictions, Yicai Global learned from the Shanghai-based firm.

The company had provided about 16,500 tons of edible oils to the Shanghai market as of May 8. Yihai Kerry is a unit of Wilmar International that is owned by Singaporean conglomerate the Kuok Group.

Yihai Kerry is optimistic about its 2022 sales even though the Covid-19 pandemic and the rising raw material costs affected its first-quarter net profit to some extent, an insider at the owner of brands Arawana and Golden Carp said to Yicai Global.

In the first quarter, Yihai Kerry's net profit slumped almost 93 percent to CNY114 million (USD16.8 million) from a year ago due to surging raw material costs that caused narrowing gross margins, according to the firm's earnings report. Its revenue climbed 11 percent to CNY56.5 billion (USD8.3 billion).

Yihai Kerry is expected to sell more products in 2022 than it did last year, mostly because market conditions in the soybean processing industry are improving, according to the same person. Still, a specific full-year forecast would be hard to make, the person added.

Local authorities helped Yiwai Kerry in applying for permits to secure production and logistics amid the lockdown and even sent medical supplies and vegetables to its workers, the source added.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi