Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

Agroholding Agrotrade exported over 333,000 tons of grains and oilseeds in 2025

Agroholding Agrotrade exported over 333,000 tons of grains and oilseeds in 2025, according to the company’s press service on Facebook.

According to the report, 187,000 tons were produced in-house, while another 146,000 tons were supplied by third-party producers. The main export destinations remained Turkey, Egypt, Italy, and other countries in the Mediterranean region.

“The 2025 season has once again confirmed that flexibility and reputation are crucial in conditions of increased risk. Despite the difficult security situation, logistical constraints, and downtime, the Agrotrade Group’s export program was carried out without disruption throughout the year. Even when infrastructure comes to a standstill and risks for shipowners increase, our task is to fulfill our commitments. This is what allows us to maintain the trust of our international partners and continue our work,” said Andriy But, director of the agroholding’s foreign economic activity department.

Corn and wheat accounted for the bulk of exports. At the same time, there was a decline in soybean exports due to changes in the regulatory environment and the reorientation of part of the market toward domestic processing.

The agricultural holding also predicts that low export rates from Ukraine in the current season may lead to the formation of significant transitional stocks, which will affect the prices of the future harvest.

The Agrotrade Group of Companies is a vertically integrated holding company covering the entire agro-industrial cycle (production, processing, storage, and trade in agricultural products). It cultivates over 70,000 hectares of land. Its core crops are sunflower, corn, winter wheat, soybeans, and rapeseed. It has its own network of elevators with a one-time storage capacity of 570,000 tons.

The group also produces hybrid seeds of corn, sunflower, barley, and winter wheat. In 2014, a seed plant with a capacity of 20,000 tons of seeds per year was built on the basis of the Kolos seed farm (Kharkiv region).

The founder of Agrotrade is Vsevolod Kozhemyako.

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Logistical constraints shift EU corn imports away from Ukraine

Logistical constraints related to the war are leading to a redistribution of corn imports to the European Union in favor of alternative suppliers, with Ukraine’s share in the 2025/26 season declining significantly, according to a review by S&P Global Commodity Insights (Platts).
According to S&P Global Market Intelligence Global Trade Analytics Suite (GTAS), corn imports to the EU in the 2024/25 marketing year amounted to 18.79 million tons, compared to 19.83 million tons in 2023/24, and GTAS forecasts an increase in imports to 21 million tons in 2025/26.
S&P notes that, on average over five years, Ukraine remained the dominant supplier of corn to the EU, supplying about 9.7 million tons per year (53.5% of imports), but in the 2025/26 marketing year (July-June), the structure of supplies changed: Brazil’s share grew to 40%, the US’s share rose to 28.3%, while Ukraine’s share fell to 22.4%.
Market participants reported delays in receiving contracted Ukrainian corn, which led buyers to switch more actively to Brazil and the US. Market participants cited the EU-Mercosur trade agenda as an additional factor in choosing the origin of products.
Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy remain among the largest corn importers in the EU. According to the European Commission, Spain imported 7.2 million tons in 2024/25 MY (7.6 million tons in 2023/24), the Netherlands imported 3.3 million tons (2.6 million tons), and Italy imported 2.8 million tons (2.1 million tons).
At the same time, Spain, as a price-sensitive market, has recently switched to more competitively priced American corn, while Ukrainian corn was relatively expensive amid high demand from Turkey, the review says.
Platts price benchmarks for February 3: feed corn ex-works Tarragona (Spain) – €213/t with loading between February 3 and March 5, Ukrainian corn – $223/t FOB POC (Odessa-Pivdenny-Chernomorsk ports) with loading between March 3 and 17, Brazilian corn – $210.81/t FOB Santos with loading in August.

 

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Agro-Region agricultural holding set record corn yield of 9.64 tons per hectare

Agro-Region agricultural holding has completed its 2025 harvest campaign with a record corn yield of 9.64 tons per hectare, according to a Facebook post by the holding’s press service.

Agro-Region stated that the yield indicators for the 2025 season exceeded the planned forecasts. One of the production units, AR Bozna, broke its own yield record and the record of other units, achieving a yield of 11.87 tons/ha.

Yuriy Lysak, chief agronomist of Agro-Region, recalled that 2025 was marked by cool weather conditions: spring started late, and all crops, especially corn, did not receive the necessary amount of heat. That is why the harvest started with a delay of almost two weeks. Despite the increased moisture content of corn, which affected the productivity of elevators, the harvest results, according to the expert, were “truly impressive.”

“Thanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as the coordinated work of the agronomic, engineering, and elevator teams, we were able to achieve high results,” Lysak summed up.

Agro-Region agricultural holding owns a land bank of 39,000 hectares in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, and Khmelnytskyi regions. It specializes in crop production. It consists of 11 companies, which are united into four crop clusters. It has two elevators: Boryspil with a capacity of 73,000 tons and Myropil with a capacity of 52,000 tons.

Agro-Region’s annual harvest of grain and oilseeds is 200,000 tons.

In April 2021, the Swedish company Lobiu Sala AB, owned by former Ukrainian Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavičius, received permission from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to purchase the Swedish company Agro Region Stockholm Holding, which manages the Agro-Region group of companies in Ukraine.

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Ukraine harvested 27.5 mln tons of corn, but 4 mln tons remain in fields

The gross corn harvest in Ukraine in the 2025 season was collected on an area of 87% of the sown area and amounted to 27.5 million tons with an average yield of 7.13 tons/ha, analysts at brokerage company Spike Brokers reported on Telegram.

According to their estimates, as of December 25, 2025, an average of about 551,000 hectares of unharvested corn remained in Ukraine.

“With the current average yield in the country at around 7.1 t/ha, this forms a basic potential for an additional harvest of about 4.0 million tons,” the brokers emphasized.

They noted that the key unharvested areas are concentrated in regions with significantly higher than average yields. The largest residues are recorded in the Sumy region (93 thousand hectares with a yield of 8.0 tons/ha), Zhytomyr (56 thousand hectares and 7.7 tons/ha), Chernihiv (49 thousand hectares and 8.8 tons/ha), Kyiv (29 thousand hectares and 9.2 t/ha) and Cherkasy (29 thousand hectares and 7.0 t/ha) regions.

“According to estimates of the harvesting potential, taking into account the actual yields of these regions, the total additional harvest in key regions alone may exceed 2.3 million tons. Taking into account the rest of the regions, the final harvest potential may exceed the baseline estimate and approach 4.3-4.5 million tons,” experts say.

They noted that corn exports through seaports have slowed down, leading to a further decline in prices. Increased risks and additional costs of exports through seaports continue to put pressure on prices in this direction. The spot corn index with CPT port delivery (30 days) fell to $204 per ton.

“If prices continue to fall by at least $5 in the direction of seaports, the western border will begin to form a competitive alternative for a number of regions in central Ukraine. At the same time, supply continues to grow in the direction of the western border: FCA Chop deals with delivery in March-May were concluded at EUR180,” Spike Brokers summarized.

Prices for export corn from Ukraine continue to fall due to attacks on port infrastructure

This week, the Ukrainian market continued to see a gradual decline in feed corn prices on a FOB Black Sea basis, according to the information and analytical agency APK-Inform.

“Prices remained under pressure throughout the week due to slow sea export rates as a result of systematic attacks by the Russian Federation on Ukraine’s port and energy infrastructure, which led to shipment disruptions, which, in turn, restrained importers’ demand,” analysts said.

At the same time, they noted that corn remains the most active export crop for Ukraine, but this has not been able to offset the factors putting pressure on prices.

Indicative bid/ask prices for feed corn with delivery in December-January from Black Sea ports fell by 1-3 USD/ton in less than a week under the influence of these factors to 210-218 and 214-222 USD/ton, respectively, according to APK-Inform.

 

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Corn is most active export commodity among grains in December

The corn market is currently the most active segment of Ukrainian grain exports, ensuring stable port loading and constant demand from importers, according to the analytical cooperative “Pusk,” created within the framework of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council (VAR).

“Corn currently remains the only relatively active market segment. As of December 22, exports amounted to almost 1.5 million tons. Although these volumes are not record-breaking, shipments are stable, and it is corn that keeps most ports operating today,” analysts said.

According to their information, demand for corn on the world market remains high. Ukrainian corn remains in demand in EU countries, particularly in Spain and Italy, which are among the key buyers, as well as in Turkey.

At the same time, importers are closely monitoring the security situation in Ukraine.

“Importers are aware that the war is not expected to end quickly in the coming months and that risks to port infrastructure will remain. If exports from Ukraine are halted or significantly reduced, it will be difficult for the global market to quickly cover the possible deficit. American corn has already been contracted for January and almost entirely for February, so there are virtually no alternatives to Ukraine for supplies during this period,” experts said.

At the end of the week, spot corn prices rose to $207–208 per ton, while domestic contract prices rose to 9,800–9,850 UAH/ton.

“Further price dynamics will largely depend on the growth rate of logistics costs and security risks,” Pusk said.

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