KYIV. July 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Bunge Ukraine, one of the largest traders and producers of sunflower oil in Ukraine, exported 3.9 million tonnes of grain, soybeans and rapeseeds in the 2014/15 agricultural year.
“In the 2014/15 agri-year our turnover in Ukraine was $1.1 billion. We exported almost 3.9 million tonnes of grain, soybeans and rapeseeds, and our Dnipropetrovsk crushing plant produced around 150,000 tonnes of unrefined oil, 50% of which was exported, and refined oil was made from the rest of the oil,” Bunge Ukraine Director General Dmytro Horshunov said in an interview with the Forbes publication.
He said that the share of grain exports of the company’s turnover in Ukraine is around 75%. The rest of revenue is generated thanks to sale of oil.
With the commissioning of Mykolaiv crushing plant, the ratio will become 60% (exports of crops) to 40% (sales of oil).
“If we speak about the share of sales of bottled oil in Ukraine, according to Nielsen’s report for May 2015, it is 23%. According to our internal assessments, it is around 27%,” he said.
He said that the share of unrefined oil sales for exports is 3-4%. With the launch of Mykolaiv crushing plant, oil sales could grow by at least three or four times.
Horshunov confirmed plans to launch a crushing plant at Mykolaiv seaport with a capacity of 2,400 tonnes of sunflower seeds or 1,700 tonnes of soybeans a day. Its launch would boost crushing by 2.6 times and reach the total production capacity of 570,000 tonnes of crude oil a year, which would boost exports by at least 350,000 tonnes a year, to 450,000-470,000 tonnes.
Bunge operates in the agricultural products and food market.
The key assets of Bunge in Ukraine are Dnipropetrovsk oil extraction plant and subsidiary Suntrade (Kyiv). The company also has a grain terminal at Mykolaiv port.
