Sales of agricultural machinery Amazone in Ukraine last year in units increased 19% compared to 2019, despite the general drop in the market of agricultural machinery by almost 15%, Amazone-Ukraine subsidiary has told Interfax-Ukraine.
In particular, in 2020, the sales of pneumatic seed drills Primera DMC and Condor increased significantly, which allowed Amazone in terms of the number of sold seed drills among importers to climb from the fourth place in 2019 to second place in 2020, having sold 58 units.
“Despite a significant overall drop in the seed drills market by about 40%, we managed to increase sales of Amazone seed drills by almost 30% compared to 2019. One of the positive factors was the growth in demand for no-till, strip-till technologies in Ukraine, which is associated with climatic challenges that agricultural producers faced last year,” General Director of Amazone-Ukraine Dmytro Davydenko said.
According to the company, the segment of disc harrows in Ukraine in 2020, compared to other segments, decreased slightly – by 5-6%, which, according to Amazone-Ukraine, confirms the general trend of transition to minimum tillage technologies. “At the same time, sales of Amazone disc harrows grew by 64%, which allowed the brand to increase its market share to 12%. In the segment of fertilizer spreaders and high-tech sprayers, Amazone maintains a stable leadership in Ukraine,” the press service said.
As Davydenko said, this year, taking into account climate changes and a revision of the approach to organizing agricultural production processes, the company intends to continue to offer farmers Amazone technologies, which can significantly improve soil performance and reduce the costs of enterprises for fertilizers and plant protection products.
The press service of the company also reported that in 2020, the turnover of the Amazone group in the world increased 15% compared with 2019, to EUR 537 million, which made it possible to achieve the highest profit in the entire 138-year history of the enterprise, despite the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 80% of products are exported, Amazone is the leader in the markets of Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Russia and Austria, and a high level of turnover was again recorded in France, Ukraine, Poland and the UK in 2020.
Family company AMAZONEN-WERKE H. DREYER SE & Co. KG, headquartered in Hasbergen-Gast, specializes in the manufacture of agricultural and municipal machinery. The company has nine production sites in Germany, France, Russia and Hungary with a total of about 1,900 employees.
It manufactures tillage implements, seeders, fertilizer spreaders and crop protection implements.
This year it expects at least to keep sales at the level of the previous year.
The company has been operating in Ukraine since 1998. Amazone-Ukraine does not disclose the figures of turnover in monetary terms.
Myronivsky Hliboproduct agricultural holding (MHP) received a net loss of $133 million in 2020 versus a net profit of $215 million in 2019, mainly due to exchange rate losses of $204 million due to the annual depreciation of hryvnia by 16%, and the company’s revenue decreased by 7%, to $1.91 billion.
According to the quarterly financial statements of the holding, released on London Stock Exchange on Wednesday, its adjusted EBITDA and operating income decreased by 7%, respectively, to $395 million and $201 million, while the profitability of sales (EBITDA margin) remained at the 2019 level of 21%.
MHP said that in 2020, export revenue decreased by 9.1%, to $1.015 billion, which is 53% of total revenue (56% of total revenue in 2019).
In the fourth quarter of 2020, MHP reduced its net loss by 60%, year-over-year, to $24 million, its total revenue decreased by 10%, to $497 million, and export revenue decreased by 19.3%, to $255 million (51% of total revenue).
MHP is the largest chicken producer in Ukraine. It is also engaged in the production of cereals, sunflower oil, meat products. MHP supplies the European market with chilled half-carcasses of chickens, which are processed, including at its factories in the Netherlands and Slovakia.
KSG Agro agricultural holding increased its land bank by 6.7%, to 23,900 hectares, the company’s press service said on Wednesday.
According to the report, the agricultural holding has increased its land bank due to 1,500 hectares of land shares in village Strilkove (Henichesk district, Kherson region), where it plans to grow crops.
The exact names of the products are not indicated.
The vertically integrated holding KSG Agro is engaged in pig breeding and production, storage, processing and sale of grain and oilseeds.
Over the nine months of 2020, the agricultural holding posted $4.77 million in net profit, which is 52% less than in the same period in 2019, revenue decreased by 17%, to $14.67 million.
Exports of agricultural food from Ukraine in January-November 2020 decreased 0.3% compared to the same period in 2019, to $20 billion, the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture said on Tuesday, citing data of the State Statistics Service.
“During the reporting period, Ukraine supplied agricultural food to the EU for the amount of $5.8 billion, or 28.9% of the total export of such products,” Economy Minister Ihor Petrashko said in a statement.
According to the State Statistics Service, in addition to the EU, the largest importers of Ukrainian agri-food products in January-November 2020 were China with $3.1 billion, India with $1.3 billion, Egypt with $1.3 billion and Turkey with $0.9 billion.
Over the period, cereals, oil and meat products were exported most of all. In addition, the supply of sunflower oil, barley, wheat, honey, fruits and nuts, bakery and confectionery products increased, the ministry said.
As previously reported by the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB), the export of agricultural food products from Ukraine in 2019 amounted to $22.2 billion, which is 19% more than in 2018. According to its data, over the year the share of agri-food products of total exports from the country amounted to 44%.
KSG Agro agricultural holding increased the multicurrency credit line at TAScombank (Kyiv) from $12 million to $18.5 million, the company said in a report published on the website of the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Monday.
“We can use these lines for sowing and harvesting […] In addition, one of the goals of increasing the credit line is to refinance foreign exchange obligations and hedge currency risks,” Chairman of the Board of Directors of KSG Agro Serhiy Kasianov said.
He said that part of the funds is also planned to be used for further reconstruction and modernization of the pig breeding farm in the village of Nyva Trudova (Dnipropetrovsk region).
According to the report, hryvnia equivalent for the volume of the credit line is UAH 522 million, the term is three years. The interest rate was not disclosed.
As reported, in April 2020, KSG Agro increased the existing credit line at TAScombank by almost $4 million, to $12 million.
The vertically integrated holding KSG Agro is engaged in pig breeding and production, storage, processing and sale of grain and oilseeds.
The international agricultural research company Corteva Agriscience has implemented a pilot project in Ukraine to pollinate parental lines of sunflower seeds using bumblebees on 29 hectares in Kyiv region, the company said in a press release on Tuesday.
“Pollination of the field with the help of bumblebees, compared to fields that were not additionally pollinated, contributed to an increase in yield by 70%. Compared to fields that were pollinated by bees, the yield of seeds ready for sale increases by 30%,” Field Operation Manager Andriy Kuzmenko said.
The company added that the use of bumblebees ensures the genetic purity of the seeds, since they work within a radius of 1 km, and bees of 3-4 km.
Corteva Agriscience is considering continuation of the project to treat 10-15% of fields where there is a high risk of cross-pollination, the press release said.
It is noted that the Dutch Koppert became the supplier of bumblebees to the fields of Corteva Agriscience, and supplied 150 hives with bumblebees to the company in 2020.
Corteva Agriscience was formerly the agricultural division of DowDuPont and became an independent, publicly traded company on June 1, 2019. The company provides growers around the world with the most complete portfolio in the industry, including a balanced and varied selection of seeds, crop protection products and digital solutions to maximize productivity and profitability.
