Kormotech, a leading Ukrainian manufacturer of cat and dog food, will expand its production in Kėdainiai, Lithuania, investing more than EUR60 million in four production stages to be commissioned in 2025-2028, the company’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
“Lithuania is now our window to the world. Our plant in Kėdainiai has become a reliable support for us – it always operates at 100% capacity, while in Ukraine we have to take into account the risks of shutdowns due to the war. We aim to further expand our capacity in Lithuania by building four additional production lines by 2028,” said Rostyslav Vovk, CEO and co-owner of Kormotech.
Kormotech launched its first foreign plant in Kėdainiai, Lithuania, in 2020. Currently, more than 170 specialists from Ukraine and Lithuania work at the wet feed production facility with a capacity of more than 20 thousand tons per year.
“Our successful experience of building and operating in Lithuania, favorable conditions in the free economic zone, support from Invest Lithuania and our well-established network of partners and suppliers led us to the decision to expand the enterprise,” emphasized Vovk.
Kormotech plans to launch the first new production line by 2025, adding a line each year until the four production lines are fully operational in 2028. As the expansion project progresses, the company will be interested in finding qualified engineers, technologists, and other highly specialized professionals in both Ukraine and Lithuania. With the new expansion project, Kormotech will double its current workforce in Lithuania, adding 200 new jobs in five years.
According to Elius Civilis, Director General of Invest Lithuania, the Lithuanian state agency, Kormotech’s expansion shows that Lithuania is open to foreign investors and creates truly favorable conditions for them.
“In Kėdainiai, Kormotech has built a modern, highly automated plant employing local specialists of various competencies. The company’s decision to expand its facilities and double the team size demonstrates the quality of both the local business infrastructure and talent,” emphasized Chivilis.
In Ukraine, Kormotech is constantly expanding its production capacity. During 2022-2023, the company invested about $14 million to modernize dry feed production and expand wet feed production by almost 70%.
“We plan to build new production facilities in Ukraine immediately after the war ends,” said Vovk.
Kormotech is a global family-owned company with Ukrainian roots that has been producing high-quality cat and dog food under the Optimeal, CLUB 4 PAWS, Woof, Meow! The company has production facilities in Ukraine and the EU. The product range includes more than 650 items.
The company is among the TOP-60 global pet food manufacturers and TOP-20 most dynamic pet food brands. Kormotech sells products of its own brands and those of its partners in 40 countries.
Currently, the company employs about 1300 people in five countries – Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and the United States.
Invest Lithuania is a non-profit agency under the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Lithuania. Its mission is to attract foreign investment. It serves as a point of contact for foreign companies and accompanies international business at every stage of the process of starting a business in Lithuania, providing information on recruitment, tax benefits and financing options.
Astarta Agro-Industrial Holding, the country’s largest sugar producer, increased its revenue from sugar sales by 32% year-on-year to EUR142 million in 9M2023, according to the company’s report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Thursday.
According to the report, Astarta’s sugar sales amounted to 203 thousand tons. At the same time, its selling price increased by 8% year-on-year to EUR684 per ton, which allowed the gross profit of the sugar business of the agricultural holding to increase by 36% year-on-year to EUR41 against a slight increase in margin to 29%.
EBITDA of Astarta’s sugar business increased by 35% year-on-year to EUR35 million, while its margin remained stable at 24%.
The agricultural holding noted that in 9 months of 2023, exports of sugar and sugar-containing products accounted for 17% of Astarta’s total revenue, while a year earlier it accounted for only 7% of revenue.
According to the report, the sugar refining season in the 2023/24 marketing year (MY) at Astarta started on September 12. It involves five sugar factories of the agricultural holding.
As of November 8, Astarta’s sugar factories processed 1.1 million tons of sugar beet and produced 171 thousand tons of sugar, compared to 146 thousand tons on the same date in 2022.
“Astarta reported that Ukraine has already harvested 10 million tons of sugar beet with an average yield of 48 tons per hectare. Sugar production in 2023-2024 MY started at 30 factories. As of November 8, the country produced a total of 0.8 million tons of sugar.
Ukraine resumed sugar exports on September 15, and there are currently no export restrictions. For 9 months of 2023, Ukrainian sugar exports amounted to 295 thousand tons, which is 7 times more than a year earlier. The main buyer of Ukrainian sugar was the European Union, while Romania became the main importer, accounting for 31% of the total volume.
Astarta estimates that its share in the country’s exports was 11%. Its key European customers were in Romania, Spain and Hungary. 99% of the sugar exported was transported by land, and 85% of it was by road.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company 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 cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In the third quarter of 2023, the agricultural holding earned EUR1.24 million in net profit, down 27.7 times compared to the same period in 2022. Astarta’s revenue decreased by 14.4% to EUR104.75 million, gross profit by 2.7 times to EUR26.96 million, operating profit by 7.6 times to EUR6.79 million, and EBITDA by 42.7% to EUR97.25 million.
Due to significantly better performance in the first half of this year compared to the first half of last year, in the first 9 months of 2023, net profit decreased by 9.8% to EUR 55.97 million, while revenue increased by 14.8% to EUR 392.00 million. The company’s gross profit increased by 3.0% to EUR 151.91 million, while operating profit decreased by 15.9% to EUR 79.91 million and EBITDA by 10.8% to EUR 116.63 million.
IMC Agricultural Holding posted a net loss of $2.25 million in the first nine months of this year, compared to a net profit of $4.67 million in the same period last year, according to the company’s report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Thursday.
According to the report, the holding’s revenue grew by 59.8% to $98.78 million, with exports increasing by 24.4% to $70.23 million.
At the same time, the revaluation of biological assets and agricultural products in January-September this year brought in 44.5% less than in January-September last year – $23.51 million.
In addition, a significant increase in the cost of production – by 55.6% to $92.4 million – led to a decrease in gross profit by 33.3% to $29.89 million.
Although IMC managed to more than halve administrative expenses (to $7.12 million), a more than twofold increase in logistics and distribution costs (to $16.50 million), given the decline in gross profit, led to a drop in operating profit by almost 15.3 times to $1.41 million compared to the same period last year.
At the same time, the situation was partially offset by positive exchange rate differences of $0.79 million in January-September this year, compared to exchange rate losses of $11.07 million in the same period last year.
Normalized EBITDA for the first 9 months amounted to $13.85 million, which is 2.7 times less than in the first 9 months of last year. The report notes that the reason for the decline was the decline in harvest prices this year.
It is specified that the main revenue of IMC in the reporting period was generated by the sale of 472.98 thousand tons of corn – $82.42 million and 56.12 thousand tons of wheat – $10.78 million, but their price fell compared to the previous year, respectively, from $208 per ton to $174 per ton and from $268 per ton to $192 per ton.
Net cash flow from operating activities for 9M2023 amounted to $10.06 million, while for 9M2022 it was negative – $9.37 million.
The volume of investments increased by 79% to $5.80 million, and taking into account less than $2 million of outflows on financial transactions, net cash flow was positive – $2.30 million against a negative result of $11.63 million for 9M2023.
IM’s current liabilities at the end of September amounted to $55.81 million ($55.51 million a year earlier), non-current liabilities – $13294 million ($126.70 million).
The company’s free cash flows at the beginning of October amounted to $27.16 million compared to $24.86 million at the beginning of this year and $13.28 million a year ago.
IMC is an integrated group of companies operating in Sumy, Poltava and Chernihiv regions (north and center of Ukraine). It controls 120.3 thousand hectares (120.0 thousand hectares under cultivation). As of September 30, 2023, the group operated in two segments: crop production and elevators and warehouses.
The agroholding’s net loss in 2022 amounted to $1.1 million against a net profit of $78.7 million a year earlier, with a 37.3% decrease in revenue to $114 million. EBITDA decreased threefold to $36.2 million.
In the first half of 2023, IMC earned $6.28 million in net profit, down 44.6% year-on-year, while its revenue increased by 61.6% to $71.95 million, with exports up 41.2% to $58.9 million. Normalized EBITDA for the first half of the year amounted to $17.06 million, down 41% year-on-year, due to higher sales costs and lower harvest prices.
Astarta Agro-Industrial Holding, the country’s largest sugar producer, has allocated 29% of its production area to winter crops, according to a report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Thursday.
According to the report, winter wheat was sown on 49 thousand hectares, up 14% from a year earlier, and winter rapeseed on 12 thousand hectares, down 12% from last year.
“During the sowing campaign, the area under winter wheat was adjusted from 54 thou hectares to 49 thou hectares due to dry weather conditions to complete the sowing campaign in the optimal time,” the agroholding explained.
At the same time, oilseed harvesting is nearing completion. The gross harvest of sunflower amounted to 83 thsd tonnes with a yield of 3.0 t/ha, which is the same as last year, and soybeans – 169 thsd tonnes with a yield of 3.1 t/ha, which is 6% more than in 2022. Corn and sugar beet harvesting is 2/3 complete.
“Astarta also estimated its share in Ukraine’s exports of grains and oilseeds at 1% based on the results of 9M2023.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In the third quarter of 2023, the agricultural holding earned EUR1.24 million in net profit, down 27.7 times compared to the same period in 2022. Astarta’s revenue decreased by 14.4% to EUR104.75 million, gross profit by 2.7 times to EUR26.96 million, operating profit by 7.6 times to EUR6.79 million, and EBITDA by 42.7% to EUR97.25 million.
Due to significantly better performance in the first half of this year compared to the first half of last year, in the first 9 months of 2023, net profit decreased by 9.8% to EUR 55.97 million, while revenue increased by 14.8% to EUR 392.00 million. The company’s gross profit increased by 3.0% to EUR 151.91 million, while operating profit decreased by 15.9% to EUR 79.91 million and EBITDA by 10.8% to EUR 116.63 million.
In October 2023, Ukraine imported 6.08 thousand tons of dairy products, which is 27.8% more than in September and 35% more than in October 2022, which is the highest figure since March 2022.
According to the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB), growth is recorded in all categories of dairy products, but the largest imports are cheese – 3.2 thousand tons. In addition, in October, the volume of butter imports doubled, reaching 619 tons, which is the highest figure since November 2021.
“In total, 48.89 thousand tons of dairy products were imported in 10 months of 2023, which is 6.1% less than in the same period last year, but at the same time, the value is 11.3% higher ($210.2 million),” the UCAB emphasized.
According to the association’s analysts, the volume of dairy exports remained stable for the second month in a row – 8.25 thousand tons, which corresponds to the same period last year. However, in monetary terms, the revenue decreased by 19% to $226.94.
At the same time, UCAB experts noted the intensification of demand in the global dairy market after a nine-month decline in prices. This is confirmed by the FAO index for October and the increase in trading on the Global Dairy Trade: the average value of the FAO Dairy Price Index in October was 111.3 points, which is 2.4 points (2.2%) higher than in September, but still 28 points (20.1%) lower than in the same period last year.
“In October, world prices for milk powder increased the most, mainly due to a sharp increase in import demand under both short- and long-term contracts. An additional factor in the growth of prices for dairy products was the limited supply of milk in Western Europe and some uncertainty about the impact of weather conditions on production in Oceania,” explained UCAB analyst Maxim Hopka.
World butter prices rose under the influence of stronger retail prices before the start of the winter holidays in Western Europe and increased import demand from Northeast Asia. At the same time, cheese prices, on the contrary, slightly decreased due to the weakening of the euro against the US dollar and the growth of export supply from Oceania, UCAB summarized.
On November 7, 2023, the 23rd (and the first since the beginning of the full-scale invasion) award ceremony of the annual competition of pharmaceutical industry professionals “Panacea” was held at the Ukrainian House, hosted by the famous TV presenter Timur Miroshnichenko.
February 24, 2022, undoubtedly marked a new countdown, a new chapter in the history of the competition and the pharmaceutical industry of Ukraine, so this year’s ceremony was different from the previous ones, meeting the new conditions and challenges of today. This year, the organizers of the competition recognized companies and individuals who have become a model of courage and resilience that surprised people around the world, making them look at charity, resilience and Ukrainians themselves from a different angle.
The PharmFront honorary commemorative award, made of the wreckage of the “analog” ballistic missile “Kinzhal”, which was shot down over Kyiv, was presented to Darnitsa, Acino, Kusum, Interchem, Farmak, and BaDM, “Delta Medical, Novo-Nordisk, as well as the National University of Pharmacy, the Polish Medical Solidarity Foundation, and Yulia Klymenyuk, a volunteer, founder of the PharmRukh Foundation, Marketing Director of the 9-1-1 pharmacy chain.
In order to preserve the memory of the tragic chapter in the modern history of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical industry, examples of heroism, resilience and indomitability, the organizers of the Panacea contest announced the release of a special photo album “FarmFront. Unbreakable”, which will be published in December.
In addition to summarizing the results of the year, celebrating and awarding the winners, the organizers of the contest together with the Ducat auction house held a charity auction, where the lots included paintings by contemporary Ukrainian artists (22 works) and a Superhumans T-shirt signed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny. The proceeds will be used to restore the victims of Russian aggression at the Superhumans center, which provides free medical services for prosthetics and rehabilitation to military and civilians who lost limbs during the war.
That evening, 25 Panacea-2023 statuettes were awarded to the best among the best in the pharmaceutical industry. Ukraine. The winners were determined based on the data of the competition’s analytical partners – Business Credit, SMD and IQVIA.
Farmak was recognized as the Company of the Year among domestic manufacturers. The award among foreign manufacturers went to Acino. And MSD was recognized as the best manufacturer of innovative medicines.
Chemoteka Personalized Pharmacy Center was recognized for a unique project for Ukraine, a compounding center that provides a full range of oncopharmaceutical products and services (personalized selection, individual manufacturing and, if necessary, delivery of anticancer drugs from a wide range of active substances).
During the ceremony, drugs in the prescription and OTC groups were also recognized.
The winners in the nomination “Drug of the Year. Among OTC Drugs” nomination were:
– AMIXIN, Interchem;
– ACC, Sandoz;
– BEPANTEN, Bayer;
– Exoderil, Sandoz;
– REGIDRON, Orion;
– RELIF, Bayer;
– Tantum Verde, Dileo Pharma;
The winners in the nomination “Drug of the Year. Among Prescription Drugs” nomination are:
– DIFORS, Acino;
– ZOLOFT, Viatris;
– LEVANA, Interchem;
– MOVEX, MoviHealth;
– NEUROCOBAL, Kusum Company;
– CERMION, Viatris Company;
– SERRATA, Kusum;
– TRITTICO, Deleo Pharma.
In the nomination “Drug of the Year. Dynamic Leader” category, the Panacea statuette was awarded to VITAPROST by Stada.
Among the dietary supplements, the following products were recognized: PROBAM by Baum Pharm, Sakhnil by Kusum, SUPRADIN by Bayer, and FOLIO by Novalik Pharm.
The international company Berlin-Chemi-Menarini was awarded the Panacea for 30 years of conscientious work of the Ukrainian representative office.
The special atmosphere of the ceremony was created by the artists of the National Academic Orchestra of Folk Instruments of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Marta Adamchuk and the Probass & Hardi band.
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