HarvEast intends to increase the irrigated area by 500-800 hectares next year and plant walnuts on an area of about 30-40 hectares.
“We will continue to invest in irrigation, we are pleased with the results on the 1,100 hectares that are now under irrigation. Next year we will add 500 or 800 hectares. In addition, we continue to develop walnut growing: this year we’ve planted 30 hectares, we have a total of 90 hectares, and we plan to plant 30-40 hectares annually,” HarvEast Director General Dmytro Skorniakov told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, the company does not set a goal to increase its land bank, but if there is an interesting offer, it is possible.
“In general, this year it is probably the worst year in the last 20-30 years in southern Ukraine. For us, respectively, it is the worst year in the entire history of the company in terms of harvest. We have already harvested the whole crop, but there are no final data yet,” he said.
HarvEast is an agricultural holding, whose core business is plant growing (growing wheat, sunflower, barley, etc.) and dairy farming. It cultivates about 97,000 hectares of land.
HarvEast agricultural holding has launched a seed treatment line with a production capacity of 8 tonnes per hour in Donetsk region, the company’s press service has reported.
According to the report, investment in the launch of the line amounted to about $2 million. The universal seed line of the Danish company Cimbria was installed by the agricultural holding in the territory of the former oil press plant located in Nikolske district of Donetsk region.
“Together with the line for the processing of seeds, the quality control laboratory for the manufactured products began to work. By the end of 2018, the plant will be reconstructed, a silo with a storage capacity of 9,000 cubic meters will also be put into operation in its territory,” the agricultural holding said.
After increasing the production capacity in 2019, the plant will treat the seeds of wheat, sunflower, legumes and maize for both the needs of HarvEast and external customers.
The company said that in 2017, HarvEast began to develop the seed direction as a separate type of business with a sunflower seeds hybridization project for MAS Seeds. In 2018, the agroholding expanded cooperation with the French partner to three projects, and also started growing seeds for Euralis Semences, DuPont Pioneer and Alta Seeds. HarvEast also introduced irrigation systems on 1,100 hectares of land in Donetsk region.
HarvEast agro-holding on June 1, 2018 put into operation the second stage of irrigation, which provides irrigation on 740 hectares of land in Manhush district of Donetsk region. According to the press service of the company, as of June 1, 2018 about $2.5 million of investments have already been spent. “Seven sprinklers have been purchased and launched this year for hybridization of corn, sunflower, winter and spring rapeseeds and winter wheat: five sectional, one frontal and one circular. In addition, the agro-holding is drilling wells to feed water to the fields, building new and restoring the already existing infrastructure,” the company notes.
HarvEast plans next year to commission nine more sprinkling machines for 900 hectares in Donetsk region. In general, over five years it is planned to provide irrigation on at least 5,000 hectares of cultivated land.
“The implementation of irrigation became one of the most important strategic projects for HarvEast … We need a guaranteed high result, as we are actively developing the seed direction. This year we’ve started cooperation with four large international seed companies, we are building our own seed plant,” HarvEast Director General Dmytro Skorniakov said.
HarvEast is an agricultural holding. Its core business is crop production (growing wheat, sunflower, barley, perennial grasses, corn) and dairy farming.
