Leading food and beverage company Nestle on Thursday reported positive organic growth of sales in the first six months this year, but noted that the strong Swiss franc hit profits.

In its latest half-year financial report, the Swiss-based multinational said it registered total sales of 43 billion Swiss francs (47 billion U.S. dollars), delivering an organic growth of 4.7 percent, or a real internal growth of 2.9 percent.

Saying it was operating in “a volatile trading environment,” the group highlighted that the strong Swiss franc reduced its sales by 8.8 percent.

Net profit of the company fell by some 10 percent to 4.6 billion Swiss francs in the first half of this year.

Nestle grew faster in emerging markets (organic growth of 9.7 percent) than in developed markets (0.6 percent) over the same period.

In addition, the group announced a new share buy-back program of 8 billion Swiss francs that will start this year and continue into 2015, providing additional competitive returns for its shareholders.

“We continued to drive the growth momentum with innovation, increased support behind our brands and a focus on efficiency,” Paul Bulcke, Nestle's CEO, said in a statement.

Bulcke forecast an organic growth of around 5 percent in 2014 based on the company's performance in the first half. Endit

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