The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has fined a number of companies, including enterprises belonging to the Kernel and Continental Farmers Group agricultural holdings, for purchasing assets without obtaining the appropriate permit from the agency, the agency’s press service reports.
According to the report, Poltava-Zerno LLC, a part of Kernel, was fined UAH 170 thousand for violating the legislation on protection of economic competition under clause 12 of Article 50 of the Law “On Protection of Economic Competition” by acquiring assets consisting of movable and immovable property and forming a single property complex without obtaining the necessary permit from the AMCU.
For the same reason, a fine of UAH 3.3 million was imposed on Mriya Farming Karpaty LLC, which is founded by Continental Farmers Group.
In addition, JSC ProCredit Bank was fined UAH 3 million for acquiring assets in the form of a single property complex – movable and immovable property that can support activities in the field of agriculture, which were owned by IDEK-2006 LLC without obtaining the appropriate permit from the AMCU.
Continental Farmers Group is expanding its logistics capacities by forming its own fleet of grain carriers, which has already received the first 50 of 250 planned 116 cubic meter hopper cars, the company’s press service reports.
According to the report, the large-cube cars will allow the agricultural holding to maximize their carrying capacity (up to 70.5 tons) when transporting all major crops grown on Continental’s fields. According to the contract, the agricultural holding plans to receive the remaining railcars in several batches over the coming months.
According to Georg von Nolken, CEO of Continental Farmers Group, the decision to purchase its own grain wagons is the next logical step for the agricultural holding after the acquisition of two new elevators. Continental acquired the storage facilities in Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions in 2021 and 2024, respectively, he reminded.
“We continue to confidently implement our strategy to develop our own supply chain despite all the difficulties caused by the current situation in the country. After Continental solved the problem of elevator capacity shortage and even created the opportunity to provide services for third parties, the acquisition of the railcar fleet allows us to continue to provide logistics for our own trading and develop this area of work properly,” explained Georg von Nolken.
Continental expects that after delivery of all 250 ordered grain wagons, it will be able to cover a significant part of its annual demand for rail freight transportation with its own rolling stock. The rest, as before, will be met by outsourcing freight forwarding services.
The decision to further expand the Continental railcar fleet will depend on the level of efficiency of the chosen management model and market conditions in the coming seasons, the agricultural holding said.
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.
Continental Farmers Group has acquired a linear-type elevator complex in Lviv region to handle grains and oilseeds with a one-time storage capacity of 120 thousand tons, the company’s press service reported on Facebook on Tuesday.
According to the report, the acquired capacities consist of 77 thousand tons for storage in metal silos, and 43 thousand tons in prefabricated reinforced concrete silos and warehouses. This brings the total storage capacity of Continental to 634 thousand tons.
“Continental continues to implement its development strategy and invest in additional storage capacity, despite the difficult economic situation in the country (…) With the acquisition of this facility, we also have the opportunity to significantly optimize our logistics: the new elevator is located near a major railway junction and has the capacity to ship up to 45 rail cars of grain per day,” said Georg von Nolken, CEO of Continental Farmers Group, as quoted in the statement.
He also emphasized that the elevator complex is modern, multifunctional and fully automated, so the group did not incur extra costs for modernization or additional equipment, which is also important nowadays.
The agroholding noted that the expansion took place in a region that, given its large land bank, was not sufficiently covered by its own grain storage facilities: until now, only three small Continental drying and grain complexes with a total capacity of 31 thousand tons were operating in Lviv region.
“Continental Farmers Group owns elevator facilities in Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. With the acquisition of the elevator in Lviv region, the agricultural holding will be able to provide third-party consignors with a range of services for grain acceptance, determine its quantity and quality, bring it to the condition and contractual indicators, store and ship it to road and rail transport.
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.
The agricultural holding Continental Farmers Group has started the first wave of harvesting winter crops, which are grown on 89.5 thou hectares, the press service of the agricultural holding reports.
According to the report, in the season-2024, the agroholding’s winter wheat area is 43.2 thou hectares, winter rapeseed – 33.4 thou hectares, winter barley – 12.9 thou hectares.
Continental started the harvest with threshing of winter barley in the Lviv cluster, followed by the harvest in the Galych, Bukovyna and Tsentr clusters. Once barley harvesting is complete, winter rapeseed threshing will begin in the first ten days of July. Winter wheat harvesting is expected to start in mid-July, the agricultural holding said.
According to Konstantin Shityuk, COO of Continental Farmers Group, due to the peculiarities of this spring and the extended vegetation of winter crops, the agricultural holding expected a very early start of the harvest. However, the situation was changed by a prolonged drought in May, and only in early June did farmers across the western region receive sufficient rainfall to normalize the duration of crop development.
“We still started barley harvesting much earlier than average: the June rainfall had little impact on its development. However, winter rape and winter wheat harvesting will start as usual in July. We were preparing for this year’s harvesting campaign with great seriousness given the significant uncertainties associated with the possibility of truck traffic, movement of equipment, changes in mobilization legislation, etc. There were difficulties in the supply of spare parts and disruptions in logistics, but in general, we managed to prepare the equipment, secure resources and get 100% ready for the start in the spring,” explained Shityuk.
The agricultural holding noted that Continental’s elevator facilities are equipped with generators to ensure uninterrupted operation during power outages and are fully prepared to receive early crops. The agricultural holding is also fully provided with the necessary machinery for harvesting: the share of leased units has not increased compared to previous years and is about 15%.
“The only issue that could negatively affect the harvesting campaign is the provision of trucks for harvesting, as most carriers do not belong to the critical infrastructure sector,” Continental summarized.
Mriya Agroholding 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.
As part of its capital investment plan for 2024, Continental Farmers Group has started to upgrade its fleet of agricultural and special machinery, which it intends to replenish with 35 new tractors, combines, sprayers and seeders, as well as various equipment, the company’s press service reports.
“The condition and quality of our technical facilities are among the main factors that determine how successful the upcoming production seasons will be for us. We do not deviate from the approved investment plan. The company is already receiving the first deliveries of machinery this year, which will be actively used in the spring field work. The next deliveries, which will include machinery for the autumn fieldwork and storage equipment for potatoes, are planned closer to the harvest,” said Georg von Nolken, CEO of Continental Farmers Group.
According to the report, Continental has purchased 21 new tractors of various capacities, five combine harvesters, four self-propelled sprayers, five seeders, tillage machines, fertilizer spreaders, special and other auxiliary equipment, and precision farming equipment.
The agricultural holding noted that Continental purchases all new equipment in line with its strategy of developing and unifying its machinery fleet. All equipment is equipped to comply with precision farming technology. It ensures compliance with the following requirements: high-quality and stable autopilot operation, the ability to control the application rate by the task map, automatic control of machine sections, remote service access to monitoring, synchronization of field work, navigation between rows, etc.
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.
AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY, CONTINENTAL, FLEET, SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
In 2023, the agricultural holding Continental Farmers Group paid UAH 1.4 billion to the budgets of all levels and allocated UAH 37.7 million for social projects, the holding’s press service said on Tuesday.
“As an honest and responsible business, we constantly report annually on taxes paid and financial support to the communities we cooperate with. I would like to emphasize that Continental Farmers Group is and will remain a reliable long-term partner for both its shareholders and the state, especially in this difficult period,” the press service quoted Georg von Nolken, CEO of the agricultural holding, as saying.
According to the report, support for Ukrainian defenders remains an integral part of Continental’s social responsibility policy. Since February 2022, the agricultural holding has allocated UAH 55.1 million to help the military.
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.
