After a dismal year and a half when the value of its shares has fallen by almost 75 per cent, Fyffes chairman Mr Neil McCann had some reassuring words for his shareholders at yesterday's annual general meeting and told them Fyffes was set for a much better 2001.

"I'm well aware you have all had a very tough year and you're not entitled to have suffered the way you have," he told a meeting of 250 shareholders.

Fyffes' shares peaked at €3.98 (£3.13) in early 2000 after the company announced the introduction of the worldoffruit.com portal, but crashed to a low of €0.79 after the collapse of the dotcom sector and also after it faced very difficult trading conditions in the fresh produce industry. Yesterday, the positive a.g.m. comments helped the shares gain three cents to €0.98.

"Market conditions have improved relative to last year. The cost savings of €20 million per annum anticipated at the time of last year's restructuring measures are coming through as expected. The situation regarding the future regulation of the EU banana market has also been clarified. Supply and demand are broadly in balance at the present time which should help to secure the prices necessary to offset the higher costs resulting from the continuing strength of the US dollar.

"Overall, the trading performance to date is encouraging and ahead of expectations."

Vice-chairman Mr Carl McCann said that last year had been very tough "but we are now six months into a new and much better year".

He said Fyffes had been hit last year by the strength of the dollar, increased costs, illegal imports into the EU and also bad weather in South Africa which badly affected trading by its Capespan associate. "It's no consolation that others in the industry suffered equally or had a tougher time," he said, adding, "we were unable to get our selling prices increased to cover the higher costs and as a result the numbers were lower".

Mr McCann said that the current year looked better for a number of reasons. A balance between supply and demand had been restored, the outlook for Capespan looked better and cash was strong.

Fyffes profits fell from €83.8 million to €7.5 million last year, exacerbated by a €15.6million write-off related to worldoffruit.com.