Inventory Valuation and Management in an Agro-Food Manufacturer: A FIFO-Based Case Study of Parakh Foods and Oils Limited

Inventory valuation sits where operations meet finance: the way a firm counts, rotates and values its stock determines the cost of goods sold it reports, the working capital it ties up and the tax it pays. This paper examines how the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) cost-flow assumption is applied and what it reveals at Parakh Foods and Oils Limited (PFOL), a Pune-based manufacturer of maize, gram and pulse-based staples. Using a descriptive single-case design, the study combines monthly stock reports for the Bhandgaon maize plant (June to August 2025), a packing-material consumption report (July 2025) and the company’s standalone financial indicators for FY2024 to FY2026. Four research questions address the fit between physical and cost flow, the efficiency of stock movement, the concentration of packing-material cost and the financial capacity to carry inventory. Packing and dispatch stayed within about six per cent of each other in every month. Approximate monthly inventory turnover rose from 4.38 to 5.70 times while days of stock on hand fell from 6.9 to 5.4. Aggregate figures concealed wide differences across product groups, and one reconciliation difference of 261 bags was found in July. A single jumbo-bag category cost about ₹506 per bag against ₹17 to ₹26 for other itemised materials. At company level, operating income fell by 49 per cent between FY2024 and FY2026 while profit after tax rose almost fivefold and interest coverage improved from 2.7 to 99.9 times. The paper concludes that FIFO suits PFOL’s perishable product mix and recommends product-level turnover and ageing reports, a formal reconciliation control, packing-cost review and forecast-based production planning