For the first time in our company’s history, we crossed a performance milestone into 10 billion Baht sales with a consistent improvement in our profitability levels and EBITDA performance pre-Covid. The strategy that our company has embarked on 3 years ago – to improve and increase our Asia Pacific network of sales and marketing offices, balancing our portfolio of new products across B2B and B2C portfolio and acceleration of new businesses into bioplastics and new geographies have managed to bear fruit as the company continues to scale in a sustainable, meaningful and profitable way.
As we witnessed in 2022, companies that can adapt well to an increasing inflationary and high-cost environment will be positioned well in the coming decade. We had our fair share of market challenges over the last two years weathering through Covid and have managed to navigate through this environment with a strong portfolio of products, an unprecedented pipeline of new product launches and continually scaling up our businesses in Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and also other regional markets. In 2022 we accelerated our solar energy plans as well, with a broad strategic goal for 50 percent of the company to be powered by renewable energy by 2025.
Our Food business continues to grow steadily and profitably by more than 14% growth in our total business with high double-digit growth seen in our Vietnam segments, Modern Trade and launch of our new Instant Vermicelli business which caters to a new, modern and convenient-seeking consumer. This was one of our most successful launches in recent years and now with a full portfolio of noodle products, glass noodle, rice noodle, RTE noodles and even soon sweet potato noodle, we now continue to strengthen our position as a leading consumer food company in Southeast Asia and able to address a broader segment of customers seeking quality, taste and convenience. The export business continues to grow well, and Thai Wah Food products are now available on the shelves in the USA and Europe, through our various partner brands.
For our B2B ingredients and starch solutions business, the challenging environment in USA and Europe around corn, wheat and potato starch presented an opportunity for the company to increase the usage and adoption of tapioca-related food and starch solutions, which now exports to over 20 different global markets. While we have historically been market-leader for tapioca food products in China, we have now diversified the reach of our products to further countries including new markets such as those in North America, Middle East, Turkey and many others.
Over the course of 2022 we continue to scale our new business platforms in tapioca-based bioplastics, Thai Wah Ventures as our agri-food tech VC fund, and new solutions in agri-biotech such as pioneering the use of bio mulch film, and new forms of biodegradable packaging and flexible solutions across the Thai Wah ecosystem. These new businesses present a very deep and large long-term opportunity for Thai Wah in the agri-food space, as we draw upon our heritage in Southeast Asian raw material crops, processing ability and R&D innovation, to develop future new solutions across the spectrum of food, starch solutions and flexible packaging.
We are proud to share and announce that despite managing the various cost pressures, inflationary cost environment and global supply chains, we managed to improve net operating cash flow by more than 15% in 2022, in line with our improvements to achieve a new revenue high of 10 billion Baht sales which is the highest in our history. Compared to our pre-Covid levels in 2018 – 2019, the overall profitability of Thai Wah has almost doubled while we continue to issue a steady dividend for the 8th year in a row, demonstrating our deep commitment to work hard and responsibly for all shareholders.
All-in-all, the Company’s net profit for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2022 based on its consolidated financial statements amounted to Baht 298 million (Baht 0.34 / share). On this note, the Board of Directors has resolved to recommend a dividend payment of THB 0.2158 per share in respect of the full financial year ended December 31, 2022 which is subjected to shareholder’s approval at the Company’s Annual General Meeting on 21 April 2023.
Thai Wah today is very different from 10 years ago and will continue to be different 10 years from now. Today, more than 45% of our top 100 leaders are female, and almost more than 40% of our leaders are under 45 years old. There is a renewed sense of purpose, energy and commitment in the Company to continue our vision to create Innovation and Sustainability from Farm to Shelf, henceforth from 2022 onwards, we can do it at scale operating in 7 countries and 16 operations. Most recently, we announced the opening of new subsidiary offices in the USA and India, and we expand our footprint.
Change is inevitable, and yet our values are timeless. Over multiple generations of Thai Wah, we continue to forge the future, moving ahead with consistency, passion and purpose. We are grateful for all your support and look forward to growing with you in the decades to come.