Astarta Agro-Industrial Holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, supplied 1.26 million tons of agricultural products to foreign markets in the 2023-2024 marketing year, the company’s press service reported on Facebook.
According to the report, the agricultural holding exported 512 thousand tons of corn, 375 thousand tons of wheat, 140 thousand tons of sugar, 125 thousand tons of meal, 43 thousand tons of soybean oil, 45 thousand tons of rapeseed and other agricultural products.
The main consumers of corn were Spain, Egypt, Italy, and Ireland. Spain, Indonesia, Romania, Portugal, and Italy were the main consumers of wheat. Sugar was supplied to the markets of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Meal and soybean oil were exported to Hungary, Poland, the UAE, Romania, and Saudi Arabia. The main consumers of organic products are Switzerland, the Czech Republic, France, and Germany.
In total, Astarta’s agricultural products were exported to 46 countries, the agricultural holding summarized.
In 2023, Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR 61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR 145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR 618.93 million.
Astarta CEO Viktor Ivanchik’s family currently owns 40.68% of the company. Fairfax Financial Holdings is also a major shareholder with 29.91%, and another 2.12% of shares belong to the company itself and were previously bought back as part of a buyback.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of October 1, 2023, Credit Agricole Bank ranked 11th in terms of total assets (UAH 100.36 billion) among 63 operating banks in the country, with 141 branches. The bank is fully owned by French Credit Agricole SA.
The Ukrainian Sea Corridor has transported 60 million tons of cargo in 11 months of operation, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA) reported on Facebook.
“60 million tons – the cargo turnover of the ports of Greater Odesa for 11 months of the Ukrainian Corridor,” the USPA said in a statement on Friday.
It is noted that 40.6 million tons of this volume are grain cargoes. They were exported to 46 countries.
“The bulk carrier Manta Hacer with 25.2 thousand tons of Ukrainian humanitarian wheat is moving through the Ukrainian corridor to Yemen. This is another vessel chartered by the UN World Food Program,” the USPA said.
The Administration emphasized that despite the war and the enemy’s insidious shelling of port infrastructure, including hangars for storing agricultural products, Ukraine remains a key player in the issue of global food security. This is especially true for grain exports to Asia and Africa.
Earlier it was reported that during the 10 months of operation of the Ukrainian Sea Corridor, cargo exports reached a record high of 55 million tons. In mid-July, it reached 57.55 million tons.
In the 2023-2024 marketing year (MY), Agrotrade exported more than 390 thsd tonnes of grain, up 10% compared to the previous season, the company’s press service reported on its Facebook page.
According to the report, 51.7% of all exports were the company’s own agricultural products, 48.3% were from third-party producers. The main buyers of grain were the EU, North Africa and the Middle East.
“Summarizing the results of the last season, I would like to note that the opening of the Ukrainian grain corridor and its rhythmic operation made our work much easier. It has added predictability, so we can now plan deliveries for a longer period. This allowed us to export more grain than we had forecast. In the new season, we expect that the company’s trade structure will partially return to the pre-war format – sales on EXW and CPT bases will reappear, and forward contracts will increase, as the market situation stabilizes and competition intensifies,” said Andriy But, Director of Foreign Trade Department of Agrotrade Group.
Among the company’s products, corn, wheat, soybeans, and rapeseed were in the highest demand among buyers. In total, in the 2023/24 season, Agrotrade exported grain to 14 countries.
The Agrotrade Group is a vertically integrated holding company with a full agro-industrial cycle (production, processing, storage and trade of agricultural products). It cultivates over 70 thousand hectares of land in Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv regions. Its main crops are sunflower, corn, winter wheat, soybeans and rapeseed. It has its own network of elevators with a simultaneous storage capacity of 570 thousand tons.
The group also produces hybrid seeds of corn and sunflower, barley, and winter wheat. In 2014, a seed plant with a capacity of 20 thousand tons of seeds per year was built on the basis of Kolos seed farm (Kharkiv region). In 2018, Agrotrade launched its own brand Agroseeds on the market.
Vsevolod Kozhemiako is the founder and CEO of Agrotrade.
According to the Union of Poultry Breeders of Ukraine, in January-June 2024, Ukraine increased egg exports to 36.98 thousand tons. Including eggs in the shell, national producers exported 32.98 thousand tons for 33.711 million dollars.
At the same time, egg exports in the first half of 2023 amounted to 29.7 thousand tons. In particular, 25.737 thousand tons of shell eggs were exported for 34.745 million dollars.
The largest importers of Ukrainian eggs are EU countries, in particular Italy and Poland, as well as Singapore, the UAE and Israel.
According to customs statistics released by the State Customs Service of Ukraine, exports of aluminum and aluminum products in the first six months of 2024 increased by 12.8% year-on-year to $54.175 million ($10.383 million in June).
In 2023, Ukraine increased imports of aluminum and aluminum products by 7.7% to $366.463 million.
Last year, exports of aluminum and aluminum products increased by 0.7% compared to 2022 to $97.616 million. In addition, in 2022, Ukraine reduced imports of aluminum and aluminum products by 33.4% to $340.398 million.
In 2022, exports of aluminum and aluminum products decreased by 42.7% compared to 2021, to $96.972 million.
Aluminum is widely used as a structural material. The main advantages of aluminum in this capacity are its lightness, stamping resistance, corrosion resistance, high thermal conductivity, and non-toxicity of its compounds. In particular, these properties have made aluminum extremely popular in the production of cookware, aluminum foil in the food industry, and packaging. The first three properties have made aluminum the main raw material in the aviation and aerospace industries (recently it has been replaced by composite materials, primarily carbon fiber). After the construction and production of packaging, such as aluminum cans and foil, the energy sector is the largest consumer of the metal.
The Export Credit Agency of Ukraine (ECA) supported exports worth UAH 4.6 billion in the first half of 2024, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko said.
“In the first half of the year, the Export Credit Agency of Ukraine increased the volume of export support by almost 2.5 times compared to the same period last year,” the press service of the Ministry of Economy quoted the Vice Prime Minister as saying.
It is emphasized that the development of non-resource exports is one of the key areas of the “Made in Ukraine” economic policy, and ECA instruments help to achieve these goals, as banks recognize ECA insurance as sufficient collateral for a loan, which simplifies and reduces the cost of obtaining a loan.
In addition, cooperation with the ECA reduces the risks of the exporter and the bank, reduces the cost of financing and increases opportunities for business development, Svyrydenko explained.
The three leading regions are as follows: Kyiv – UAH 2.78 billion, Lviv region – UAH 1.11 billion, Vinnytsia region – UAH 234.2 million.
The top five countries to which Ukrainian producers sold their products in January-June (in terms of the value of concluded and insured contracts) were Poland, the UAE, Azerbaijan, Slovakia and Germany.
The most popular export goods were dairy products, wood and wood products, toys, clothing, and processed vegetables.
The tools of the Export Credit Agency of Ukraine are one of the elements of the “Made in Ukraine” policy, which was presented by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February. Its goal is to support non-resource exports, develop production and attract investment in the real sector, the Ministry of Economy reminded.
