Astarta, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, has begun its 2026 spring planting campaign, starting with sugar beet sowing in the Poltava region, the company announced on its Facebook page on Wednesday.
According to the report, 32,000 hectares have been allocated for sugar beets this year, which is 5.9% less than last year’s 34,000 hectares. At the same time, the area planted with sunflowers will decrease by 21%—to 23,000 hectares—and the area planted with winter wheat will decrease by 15%—to 39,000 hectares. The largest increases are planned for grain corn—by 43%, to 20,000 hectares—and winter rapeseed—by 36%, to 15,000 hectares. Soybean acreage remains unchanged at 56,000 hectares, as does the area under organic farming at 2,000 hectares.
“This year’s planting season is taking place under challenging conditions: increased moisture caused by abnormal frosts and frozen soil requires special attention from agronomists. They are adapting cultivation technologies and carefully monitoring field operations to improve production efficiency. Operational control is ensured by innovative solutions from AgriChain Machinery, AgriChain Scout, and AgriChain Barn. Combined with an updated fleet of equipment, this allows for a rapid response to weather and technological challenges, ensuring the stability and quality of the planting campaign,” said Vasyl Khmeliuk, Chief Operating Officer of Astarta, as quoted in the statement.
The holding noted that the final crop structure will be determined based on the results of the campaign. The use of digital ecosystems and an updated fleet of machinery allows the company to maintain a high pace of work despite challenging weather conditions.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220,000 hectares and dairy farms with 22,000 head of cattle, an oil extraction plant in Hlobine (Poltava region), seven grain elevators, and a biogas complex.
According to the results for 2025, Astarta reduced its total revenue from sales of key product categories by 15.6% compared to 2024—to UAH 21.05 billion, while physical sales volumes of its main products fell by 23.5%—to 1.21 million tons.
