Agro-industrial group of companies Ovostar Union, one of the leading producers of eggs and egg products in Ukraine, in 2022 reduced the production of shell eggs by 9% compared with 2021 – to 1.55 billion units, and sales – by 6%, to 1.08 billion units.
According to a group report posted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange website on Tuesday, Ovostar increased its egg exports by 27% to 290 million eggs last year, which pushed the share of foreign shipments in its sales up 4 p.p. – The company’s share of foreign sales rose four percentage points to 27%, up from 23%.
“Supply chain issues, additional export and import regulations, internal and external migration, temporary occupation of some territories in the first half of the year, and power outages in the second half of the year forced the company to cut investments in new stock and streamline other processes. Although by the end of 2022 the total flock was down 14%, the group was able to mitigate the impact of negative factors, resulting in a decline in production of only 9%,” the holding quotes its general director Boris Belikov in a report.
According to him, last year egg sales dropped only 6% down, which was partly due to a decrease in egg processing. In addition, the holding benefited from the dynamics of world prices of eggs and egg products in the shell.
Ovostar also processed 427 million eggs in 2022, which is 15% less than in 2021. At the same time, at the end of the first nine months of last year the lag was 10% against the nine months of 2021.
Ovostar Union’s bird population as of December 31, 2022 was 7.2 million birds (down 14.3% from the same date a year earlier), including 6 million laying hens (-14.3%).
Last year, Ovostar’s sales of dry egg products decreased by one-third compared to 2021, to 2,13 thousand tons, and their export share in total sales was 68%, while in 2021 it was 64%.
In turn, sales of liquid egg products during this period decreased by 26% to 10.62 thousand tons, their share of exports was 40% compared to 28% in 2021.
According to the report, 2.54 thousand tons of dry egg products were produced in 2022 (-6% compared to 2021), and liquid egg products – 10.79 thousand tons (-24%).
The average selling price of shell eggs last year increased by 34% in UAH terms against 2021 and reached 2.9 UAH/ piece, while in USD the increase was 13% – to $0.09/ piece. The average selling price for dry egg products doubled in UAH equivalent to 277.94 UAH/kg, and rose 71% in USD – to $8.59/kg, liquid egg products – 42% in UAH, to 66.79 UAH/kg, and 20% in USD – to $2.06/kg.
Ovostar Union is a vertically integrated public holding company, one of the leading producers of shell eggs and egg products in Europe. The producer has been a certified exporter to the EU since 2015.
The group’s holding company, Ovostar Union N.V., held a 25% IPO on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in mid-June 2011 and raised $33.2 million. The majority stake in the company is owned by Prime One Capital Limited, which is controlled by its CEO Boris Belikov and Chairman of the Board Vitaliy Veresenko.
“Ovostar reported $1.65 million in net income for 2021, down 38 percent from 2020. Its EBITDA was down 29% to $5.7 million, while revenue increased 35% to $133.3 million.
