Continental’s elevator facilities with a capacity of 634,000 tons are being prepared to receive the 2025 grain harvest. Repair work, comprehensive cleaning, and disinfection of silos are being completed, after which the new harvest will begin to arrive at the elevators, the agricultural holding’s press service reported on Facebook.
Continental specified that the agricultural holding’s six elevators and three drying and grain complexes are located in the Ternopil, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions and process corn, wheat, rapeseed, sunflower, barley, and soybeans.
At the same time, the launch of a new sourcing business has seriously transformed the operating cycle of elevator farms. Since last season, Continental has been implementing a program to purchase grain from third-party depositors, mostly farmers, and providing storage and cleaning services. As a result, the period for accepting products at grain storage facilities has increased from the usual 5-6 months to 11 months per year, from July to May inclusive. Their work is suspended only for the planned shipment of accumulated residues and preparatory measures before the new season.
According to Serhii Zymnyi, head of the finished product storage department at Continental Farmers Group, the additional load on elevator capacities last year amounted to 15% of their own volume. Further increases in purchases are planned for this season, so this figure could reach 30-40%.
“We are forecasting an intense season with high loads, especially at our facilities in Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, which, due to market conditions, are currently seeing the highest level of purchases from third-party depositors. We plan to work continuously on both receiving and shipping products by road and rail, ensuring fast service for our own grain and providing quality services to external customers,” Zimny said.
Continental added that during the year it implemented a large-scale training program for employees — laboratory assistants, engineering and technical workers, power engineers, and electricians, including specialized courses in programming and ergonomic equipment management to reduce energy consumption. This will improve the efficiency of production processes and optimize electricity consumption.
Agroholding Mriya and CFG, united under the name Continental Farmers Group, have been operating as a single business since November 2018, when Mriya signed 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 resumed sowing operations after a forced pause caused by a significant cold snap, the company’s press service reports.
Continental reminded that it started the sowing campaign in the last days of March with sowing sugar beet and planting potatoes, and is currently sowing sunflower.
In total, in the new season, Continental will grow spring crops on an area of almost 96 thou hectares, of which the largest share will be soybeans – 49.5 thou hectares, 26 thou hectares for corn, 15.7 thou hectares for sunflower, 2.5 thou hectares for sugar beet, and 2.1 thou hectares for potatoes.
“Favorable weather conditions and soil preparation, which started as planned in mid-March, helped us to start sowing spring crops early. However, further precipitation slowed down the pace of work, and significant temperature drops in the first half of April even suspended it,” the company said.
Continental expects the peak load of field work in the second half of April, when corn and soybean sowing begins. The company expects to complete the sowing campaign in the second decade of May if the weather does not make any significant adjustments.
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 is an agricultural company that cultivates 195 thousand hectares of land in 5 regions of Western Ukraine: Ternopil, Lviv, Khmelnytsky, Chernivtsi, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. The company specializes in crop production: it grows grains, oilseeds and industrial crops and is one of the largest potato producers in Ukraine.
The agricultural holding Continental Farmers Group has completed sowing winter crops for the 2025 harvest on 85.2 thou hectares, of which 33.1 thou hectares are allocated for winter rape, 12.5 thou hectares for barley, and 39.6 thou hectares for wheat, the press service of the agricultural holding reports.
Continental said that despite the dry conditions at the start of the sowing season, due to timely agrotechnical measures and subsequent rains, it managed to get good quality winter rape seedlings on all sown areas. We are currently caring for the crop and preparing it for wintering.
“As for winter wheat, the sowing dates were slightly delayed due to prolonged periods of precipitation in the first ten days of October. However, this did not prevent us from sowing all the planned areas and successfully moving on to crop protection measures. Given the conditions of the region where we operate, the optimal circumstances for germination, we estimate the completion date as satisfactory and close to the long-term average,” said Konstantin Shityuk, Chief Operating Officer of the agricultural holding.
In addition, the second wave of harvesting is coming to an end on Continental’s fields. Sunflower, soybeans, seed and food potatoes have been fully harvested among the late crops. Corn threshing, digging of chip potatoes and harvesting of sugar beets are nearing completion.
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 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.
