Astarta Agro-Industrial Holding, the country’s largest sugar producer, will expand its support for the development of agricultural microbusinesses by raising EUR1.5 million from a partner bank in Germany in 2023, said Viktor Ivanchyk, CEO of the agricultural holding.
“We only help small businesses. We don’t give money, we give equipment. The equipment that is necessary for their specific business. This is a good synergy between large companies like ours and small businesses that exist in the regions of our presence,” he said on Wednesday at the Business Breakfast with Forbes Ukraine.
Ivanczyk said that since the beginning of the war, he has personally supported a number of social projects implemented by the agricultural holding, including those aimed at supporting micro and small agricultural businesses.
“I was amazed when 220 applications were submitted for the 60 projects we announced a year ago. We processed them all, looked at them, and decided that 60 projects was not enough. Therefore, we asked the bank to extend the project,” said the CEO of the agricultural holding.
According to him, in 2022, partner banking institutions in Germany provided EUR 1.2 million for the implementation of this social project, and in 2023 they will provide Astarta with another EUR 1.5 million. “We are increasing the amount of assistance and the number of projects,” the CEO of the agricultural holding emphasized and added that there are currently about 100 of them.
Ivanchyk noted that the assistance is provided to agricultural microbusinesses mainly in the regions where the agricultural holding operates. The agricultural holding has one requirement for the project participants – to work on the basis of an honest, responsible attitude towards partners and the community based on the goals and principles of sustainable development.
“I see this as a great opportunity to build an ecosystem. This system is built not only on mutual economic benefits. It is built on a common philosophy. This makes us believe that the project will last as long as possible,” Ivanchyk summarized.
“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 first half of 2023, Astarta’s revenue from sales of key products increased by 64.8% to UAH 10.72 billion year-on-year. The main contribution was made by sales of sugar – UAH 3.27 billion, up 75.5%, corn – UAH 2.66 billion (+53.2%) and soybean meal – UAH 1.96 billion (+84.5%).
Agro-industrial holding Astarta, the largest sugar producer in the country, has completed harvesting of early grain crops on the area of 57 thousand hectares and harvested 330 thousand tons of total winter and spring crops, including 271 thousand tons of winter wheat and 56 thousand tons of rape, the press service of the agricultural holding reported.
According to the report, the average yield of winter wheat amounted to 6.3 tons/ha, which is 33% higher than last year’s figures. The maximum average yield was obtained by agrofirm “Khmelnytske” of Vinnitsa region – 7.4 t/ha on the area of 6000 hectares, and on the area of 1350 hectares the yield reached 8.4 t/ha.
In addition, the enterprises of the agricultural holding threshed 56 thousand tons of winter rape, with a record average yield for the last five years – 4.1 t/ha. The maximum indicator of over 5 tons per hectare on the area of 1310 hectares was obtained on the fields of agrofirm “Poltavazernoprodukt” in Poltava region.
Agroholding also in early August began sowing campaign of winter crops for the harvest of 2024. 12 thousand hectares are allocated for rape, the sowing of which is already being completed, and 54 thousand hectares for winter wheat.
Preparations for harvesting soybeans, sunflower, corn, and sugar beets continue.
“Astarta” is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar factories, agricultural farms with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In the first half of 2023, Astarta’s revenue from sales of key products increased by 64.8% year-on-year to UAH 10.72 bln. The main contribution was made by sales of sugar – UAH 3.27 bln, which increased by 75.5%, corn – UAH 2.66 bln (+53.2%) and soybean meal – UAH 1.96 bln (+84.5%).
Agrofirm Dobrobut from the group of companies of Astarta agro-industrial holding Astarta, the largest sugar producer in the country, has started sowing winter rape for the season-2024.
According to information on the website of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), the agroholding will reduce the area under rape by 12% in the new season and will allocate 12,000 hectares to it.
“Compared to last year, we reduced the sown area under rapeseed by 12%, but only at the expense of crop rotation,” the press service quoted Astarta’s director of agricultural production Vadim Skrypnyk as saying.
He noted that for the Poltava region, which is always subject to unfavorable weather conditions in summer, sowing winter crops is the least risky and allows you to get good yields. “In addition, we have noticed that early sowing brings a positive effect. Therefore, this year we start sowing earlier where possible,” he added.
According to the agricultural holding, Astarta will start sowing somewhat later in the western regions of the country due to a delay in winter wheat harvest due to weather conditions.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar mills, agricultural farms with a land bank of 220,000 hectares and dairy farms with 22,000 cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In the first half of 2023, Astarta’s revenue from sales of key products increased by 64.8% year-on-year to UAH 10.72 bln. The main contribution was made by sales of sugar – UAH 3.27 bln, which increased by 75.5%, corn – UAH 2.66 bln (+53.2%) and soybean meal – UAH 1.96 bln (+84.5%).
Agro-industrial holding Astarta, the largest sugar producer in the country, exported 833 thousand tons of products to 40 countries during the 2022-2023 marketing year (MY, September-August) under conditions of limited logistical opportunities.
“Despite the constant blocking of Russian maritime trade routes and other export restrictions, we managed to deliver to foreign markets and 563 thousand tons of grains and oilseeds, including 177 thousand tons of wheat and 386 thousand tons of corn. Italy, Spain, Indonesia and Kenya became the main importers of wheat, and China, Portugal and Spain – corn,” – reported the press service of the holding in Facebook.
According to the company’s data, the main consumers of soybean products during this period were EU countries, where Astarta supplied 48 thousand tons of soybean oil and 133 thousand tons of soybean meal, taking the second and first place among exporters of these products to the EU, respectively.
In addition, the holding also supplied 52 thousand tons of sugar to European markets, which also allowed Astarta to maintain its leading position among Ukrainian exporters.
“Due to our properly built reputation, transparency and consistency of business, we were ready for integration into European markets with both our main products and niche products. Incidentally, the niche ones, including organic flax and mustard, were one of the discoveries last season. It was their presence in our product portfolio that allowed us to work with both major and regional players in the European Union,” said Astarta’s commercial director Vyacheslav Chuk, whose words are quoted in the report.
He added that Astarta plans to deepen trade relations with key European partners and develop a product line under its own brand.
“Astarta” is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar factories, agricultural farms with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In the first half of 2023, Astarta’s revenue from sales of key products increased by 64.8% year-on-year to UAH 10.72 bln. The main contribution was made by sales of sugar – UAH 3.27 bln, which increased by 75.5%, corn – UAH 2.66 bln (+53.2%) and soybean meal – UAH 1.96 bln (+84.5%).
Agro-industrial holding Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, in April-June 2023 increased revenue from sales of key products by 68.3% compared to the same period last year – up to UAH 4.7 billion, according to the data published by it on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
According to them, sugar sales increased by 9.2% year-on-year in the second quarter of this year to 68.9 thousand tons, while its average selling price increased by 40.6% to UAH 28.16 thousand per ton.
Milk sales in the second quarter of 2023 increased by 20.9% to 28.4 thousand tons, soybean oil – by 50.7% to 12.3 thousand tons, soybean meal – by 92% to 58.9 thousand tons.
Corn sales jumped 80.5% to 58.8 thousand tons, wheat sales jumped 95.6% to 5.9 thousand tons, and sunflower seed sales jumped 2.9 times to 28.6 thousand tons.
Agroholding specified that such an increase in sales in physical terms allowed to compensate for lower prices for most types of products. In particular, soybean oil fell in price by 28.8% to UAH 33.06 thousand/ton, wheat – by 26.8% to UAH 4.20 thousand/ton, sunflower seeds – by 21.5% to UAH 13.26 thousand/ton, corn – by 4.6% to UAH 6.85 thousand/ton.
Only soybean meal – by 33.6%, up to UAH 19.98 thousand/ton and milk – by 6.0%, up to UAH 13.09 thousand/ton.
Thus, sales of sugar in the second quarter increased by 53.6% to UAH 1 billion 938.8 million, wheat – by 24.8% to UAH 43.1 million, corn – by 72.2% to UAH 402.8 million, and sunflower seeds – by 72.2% to UAH 1 billion 938.8 million, sunflower seeds – by almost 2.3 times, to UAH 379.4 mln, soybean oil – by 11.8%, to UAH 405.1 mln, soybean meal – by almost 2.6 times, to UAH 1 billion 176.8 mln and milk – by 28.1%, to UAH 371.6 mln.
Overall, in the first half of the year, Astarta’s revenue from the sale of key products increased by 64.8% to UAH 10.72 billion compared to the same period last year, according to data published by the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
The main contribution was made by sales of sugar – UAH 3.27 billion, up 75.5%, corn – UAH 2.66 billion (+53.2%) and soybean meal – UAH 1.96 billion (+84.5%).
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar factories, agro-farms with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex. In this marketing year, the company sowed 201 thousand hectares, which is 40% more than last year.
Agropromholding earned EUR16.13 mln of net profit in the first quarter of 2023, which is 6.2 times more than in the first quarter of 2022. Its revenue grew by 37.1% to EUR163.55m, while EBITDA increased by 63.5% to EUR37.91m.
In hryvnia terms, Astarta increased its net profit 7.5 times to UAH 632.59m in the first quarter of this year, while revenue grew 66.6% to UAH 6bn 415.09m.
Astarta” agricultural holding, the largest sugar producer in the country, has started harvesting wheat and rapeseed in Poltava region. The harvesting process in the Western region will start in the middle of July, the press service of the holding announced on Facebook on Friday.
According to the message, Astarta plans to harvest early grains from an area of almost 57,000 hectares in 2023, including winter wheat from 43,000 hectares.
“Despite the existing challenges – more than 400 mobilized workers, a serious increase in the cost of production resources, the work in the mode of constant air rapture, the possibility of overlapping reaping of winter rape and wheat – we have qualitatively and timely prepared for harvesting. We carried out repairs, the necessary amount of agricultural equipment is ready, we have good condition of crops and good yield potential. And most importantly, the people – there are preserved and well prepared teams “- said the director of agricultural production Vadim Skrypnyk.
Astarta” said that they managed to sell almost the entire harvest last year, so grain elevators of the holding are ready to receive the new harvest. During the season of 2023, the harvesting will be accompanied by the implementation of digital products AgriChain, in particular the new module of AgriChain Logistics, aimed at the automation and efficient management of all processes.
“Together with agronomics, logistics, elevator and commercial services of “Astarta” we developed a mathematical model that comprehensively solves the transport task and allows making the most optimal plan of product placement on the company’s own and third-party elevators or, if necessary, involve reserve storage options,” – explained AgriChain Director Natalia Bogacheva, emphasizing the importance of this issue during the harvesting campaign.
According to her information, the IT-division reinforced the control system of collection, transportation and delivery to the place of harvest unloading, and it also brought the transportation routing to a new level, the system of access to loading trucks via NFC technology, the digital control system “friend-or-foe”, the notification system and rapid response to abnormal situations on the routes.
During the current harvesting campaign it is also planned to implement hourly dispatching of product delivery from the field to the storage locations through the work orders system, which will help to avoid queues, idle time, increase vehicle turnover and choose the best route.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It consists of six sugar factories, farms with land bank of 220 thousand hectares, dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators and biogas complex.
Agroholding increased its net profit in 2021 14 times compared to 2020 – up to EUR 122.5 mln, EBITDA – 1.8 times, up to EUR 201.5 mln. Its revenue increased by 18.2% up to EUR 491.35 mln, one third of which (EUR 170 mln) was generated by sugar production and sales.
