05/07/2012 (Reuters) - Ivorian natural palm oil producer Palmci said on Wednesday that net result for the first quarter of 2012 was down 45 percent to 9.87 billion CFA francs ($18.82 million) from 17.91 billion in the same period last year.

It said turnover for the first three months was 42.35 billion CFA francs, down from 49.67 billion in the first quarter of 2011.

"This decline is as a result of lower average prices of crude palm oil, down 11.7 percent, palm kernel oil down 34.6 percent and lower volume of palm oil sold in the period," the company said in a statement.

($1 = 524.3460 CFA francs)