Agro-industrial group Ovostar Union, one of the leading producers of eggs and egg products in Ukraine, in the first half of 2023, despite a decrease in egg processing by 8%, increased sales of its main products by about 56.1% due to higher prices and increased sales of egg products.
According to the company’s report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the average price of eggs in January-June 2023 increased 67% year-on-year to $0.127/egg.
Egg sales fell 11.6% to 478 million eggs, while export egg sales jumped 62.5% to 208 million eggs and the share of exports in this segment rose from 24% to 43%, the document said.
According to it, the volume of egg processing in the first half of 2023 decreased by 1% to 213 million pieces: the company reduced production of dry egg products by 26.1% to 1,050 tons, but increased production of liquid ones by 31.3% to 6,232 tons.
At the same time, sales of dry egg products increased by 57.7% to 1,219 tons, while sales of liquid products increased by 33.8% to 6,083 tons.
Exports of dried egg products jumped 106.6% to 878 tons, while exports of liquid products jumped 50.8% to 2,801 tons, bringing their share of sales in these segments to 72% from 55% and 46% from 41%, respectively.
The average price of dry egg products increased by 10% to $8.78/kg, while the average price of liquid egg products increased by 39% to $2.55/kg.
It is noted that overall, Ovostar reduced egg production in the first half of 2023 by 8% against the first half of 2022 to 732 million eggs, but the number of hens increased by 16.6% to 7.3 million in the year to June 30, including laying hens up 5.8% to 6.54 million.
“Production and sales plans have been aligned with current market conditions both in Ukraine and abroad, resulting in a reasonable balance between local and export revenues. Overall, the administration is pleased with the group’s operating performance for the first six months of the year,” the release quotes a comment from the company’s CEO Boris Belikov.
He noted that in the first half of 2023, the group continued to operate in a business environment affected by the ongoing Russian armed aggression, but the management took all possible steps to mitigate war-related risks, with a focus on creating a safe working environment for staff.
As reported, in 2022, Ovostar reduced egg production by 9% to 1.55 billion eggs and sales by 6% to 1.08 billion eggs. At the same time, sales of dry egg products decreased by a third to 2.13 thousand tons, liquid – by 26% to 10.62 thousand tons.
The company earned $6.09 million in net income in 2022, 3.7 times more than in 2021. Its revenue for last year increased 1.7% to $135.63 million.
“In the first quarter of 2023, Ovostar decreased egg production by 2% to 362 million eggs, but increased its sales by 4% to 241 million eggs,” the company said. At the same time, sales of dry egg products increased by 23.8% to 531 tons, while sales of liquid egg products increased by 40.3% to 3,063 tons.
Given these sales and pricing metrics, total revenue for the three product categories was estimated at $46.3 million, up 68.1% from $27.6 million in the first quarter of last year.
As a result, the company reported a 70.7% increase in revenue to $47.30 million and a net income of $8.98 million instead of a net loss of $16.44 million in the first quarter of 2022.
