The agricultural holding Continental Farmers Group has started planting potatoes as part of the spring 2025 sowing campaign, and planting work is underway in fields in Ternopil and Lviv regions, the company’s press service reports.
According to the report, in 2025, 2130 hectares will be allocated for potatoes, of which 60% are chip varieties, 24% are table varieties, and 16% of the area will be occupied by seed plots. Continental explains the partial 13% increase in potato acreage compared to last year, in particular, by the increased demand for table potatoes and additional demand for chip potatoes, which the company works with under a contractual model with guaranteed purchases.
Continental noted that the early spring warming allowed the company to prepare the soil for potatoes in time and enter the planting season optimally.
“The weather conditions so far give us every reason to be optimistic about potatoes this season. If they continue to favor us, we plan to complete planting the main areas by the end of April. Our main goal is to deliver consistently high yields and quality products that our partners and consumers expect. To be confident in our results, we have all the necessary technical and technological resources,” emphasized Konstantin Shityuk, COO of Continental Farmers Group.
The company’s key innovations in potato growing technology this year include the expanded use of precision farming tools and fertilization based on agrochemical analysis. New cultivation protocols were also introduced based on the results of 2024 research to optimize the disease protection scheme.
In total, in 2025, Continental allocated 96 thousand hectares for spring crops and 84.9 thousand hectares for winter rape, wheat and barley.
Mriya Agro Holding and CFG, united under the name Continental Farmers Group, have been operating as a single business since November 2018, when Mriya entered into an agreement with international investor Salic UK to sell its assets.
Salic was founded in 2012. Its sole shareholder is the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which invests in agricultural and livestock production.
One of the largest grain market operators in Ukraine, JV Nibulon LLC, has started the spring crops sowing campaign, for which it will allocate 36 thou hectares, which corresponds to the area under spring crops last year – 37 thou hectares, the press service of the agricultural holding reported on Facebook.
According to the report, corn will be Nibulon’s flagship crop in the 2025 season, just like last year. In addition, the area under soybeans will be doubled and the area under sunflower will be halved. This is due to the price expectations for this year’s grain crops and the forecast of a better economic result.
“We are using seeds sparingly, with seeding rates of 55-70 thou/ha for corn, 350-500 thou/ha for soybeans, and 45 thou/ha for sunflower (Mykolaiv region). In particular, 800 tons of soybean seeds of our own production have been laid and prepared for sowing,” the agroholding said.
Sunflower sowing, which is starting earlier than planned due to the rapid rise in temperatures and soil moisture deficit, has started in the Mykolaiv cluster. After April 12, the company plans to start sowing corn in Cherkasy, Vinnytsia and Khmelnytsky regions. Given favorable conditions, Nibulon’s farmers expect to complete the sowing campaign by mid-May, as they have the technical capability to sow 2-2.5 thousand hectares per productive day.
Oleg Veselov, Director of Agricultural Production at Nibulon Oleg Veselov noted that there is not enough moisture in the soil in the regions of the agricultural holding’s presence, but there is hope for April and May precipitation, so the company expects the gross harvest of spring crops to be 180 thousand tons of corn, 25 thousand tons of soybeans, and 70 thousand tons of sunflower.
Nibulon added that winter crops in Mykolaiv region are in good and satisfactory condition.
Nibulon JV LLC was established in 1991. Prior to the Russian military invasion, the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and complexes for receiving crops, a one-time storage capacity of 2.25 million tons of agricultural products, a fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugs), and owned the Mykolaiv Shipyard.
“Before the war, Nibulon cultivated 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries. In 2021, the grain trader exported the highest ever 5.64 mln tons of agricultural products and supplied record volumes to foreign markets in August – 0.7 mln tons, in the fourth quarter – 1.88 mln tons, and in the second half of the year – 3.71 mln tons.
Currently, the grain trader is operating at 32% of capacity, has set up a special unit to clear agricultural land of mines and had to move its headquarters from Mykolaiv to Kyiv.
PrJSC Lutsk Foods (Volyn region), one of the largest producers of grocery products in Ukraine, received UAH 32.28 million in net profit in 2024, which is 29.1% less than a year earlier.
According to the agenda of the annual general meeting of shareholders scheduled for April 30 this year in remote mode, shareholders are proposed to leave the company’s net profit for 2024 in the amount of UAH 32.284 million undistributed.
In addition, the shareholders are proposed to approve the report of the company’s supervisory board for 2024 and recognize the work of the supervisory board as satisfactory based on the results of 2024, approve the conclusions and measures based on the results of the review of the audit report of Grant Thornton Legal LLC and extend the work with this auditor for a year.
The shareholders should also approve a number of loan agreements concluded in 2023-2025 with PJSC Bank Vostok and allow the Chairman of the Management Board to enter into significant transactions during the year to attract investments in the modernization of production facilities and production premises, the maximum aggregate value of each of which should not exceed UAH 300 million.
According to the Opendatabot service, in 2024, Lutsk Foods PJSC reduced its revenue by 3.3% to UAH 828.13 million, while its debt obligations increased by 26% to UAH 118.36 million and its assets by 14.8% to UAH 304.96 million. The number of employees decreased by 15 people to 340. The authorized capital is UAH 16 million. The ultimate beneficiary is Oleg Khodachuk through the Closed Non-Diversified Corporate Investment Fund Theseus JSC.
PJSC “Lutsk Foods” was founded in 1997 on the basis of the Lutsk City Food Plant, established in 1945. The company produces a wide range of tomato paste-based sauces, as well as ketchup, adjika, mustard, mayonnaise and various types of vinegar under the Runa, Ridniy Krai and Sribnytsia trademarks. Since 2009, the company has been cooperating with a number of retail chains and produces more than 40 products under their private label. Lutsk Foods exports its products to the markets of more than 20 countries.
In March 2025, Ukraine exported 5.4 million tons of agricultural products, which is 9.8% more than the same indicator of the previous month, according to the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB).
All groups of goods showed growth compared to the previous month, but the largest increase was in oilseed processing products, namely oilcake and oil, whose exports increased by 42% and 29%, respectively, analysts said.
According to their information, in February 2025, the structure of agricultural exports was dominated by cereals, which were supplied to foreign markets in the amount of 3.6 mln tons, which is 5% more than a month earlier. At the same time, corn accounted for 66% of exports, wheat – 31%, and barley – 2%.
At the same time, in March 2025, the export volumes of oilseeds increased by 4% to 433.6 thsd tonnes (soybean – 85%, rapeseed – 7% and sunflower – 6%), and by 29% of vegetable oils – to 495.6 thsd tonnes. tons (sunflower oil – 89% and soybean oil – 11%), by 11% of cake after extraction of vegetable oils – to 493.5 thousand tons (sunflower oil – 70%, soybean oil – 30%), by 11% of other agricultural products – to 363.2 thousand tons.
Supplies of lead and lead products to Ukraine in January-February 2025 increased 8.7 times to $1.228 million. In February alone, lead was imported for $647 thousand. At the same time, lead exports decreased by 23.4% to $1.346 million.
Lead is currently mainly used in the production of lead-acid batteries for the automotive industry. In addition, lead is used to make bullets and some alloys.
