KYIV. April 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Astarta agro-industrial holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, has started the spring sowing campaign. The total area for spring sowing is expected to reach 170,000 ha including forage crops for dairy farming segment.
The company said in a press release on Monday that Astarta’s crop structure will include sugar beet (up to 45,000 ha), corn (44,000 ha) and soybeans (42,000 ha).
According to the company’s report, Astarta in 2015 narrowed sugar beets planted areas by 29%, to 34,000 ha to adjust to the narrowing of the domestic sugar market.
The press service said that as of beginning of April barley sowing campaign was successfully complete, while planting of sugar beet and sunflower is on the way. Soybeans and corn sowing is to follow.
“In contrast to earlier expectations, winter crops are generally in good condition and have healthy yield potential. Despite dry weather during autumn phase of growth, especially in Poltava region, mild winter, rainy March and timely feeding of winter crops with fertilizers in spring provided accelerated dynamic vegetation process,” the holding said.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding, uniting six regional divisions in Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, and Kharkiv regions. They include nine sugar factories, agricultural farms with a land bank of about 245,000 hectares and dairy farms. The holding last year commissioned a plant for processing soybeans in Poltava region (Globyno processing plant).
