IMK Agro Holding is preparing for the spring sowing campaign of 2023, during which it plans to sow all 100% of its land bank (120 thousand hectares), for which it is now buying all the necessary materials and repairing agricultural equipment.
As the group reported at the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Thursday, it sowed winter wheat in the fall of 2022 on about 33,000 hectares, an increase of 80% over previous years, with all crops coming up and in good condition.
IMC specified that in 2022 it harvested 121.9 thousand tons of wheat with a yield of 6.7 tons/ha, and 64.2 thousand tons of sunflower with a yield of 3.4 tons/ha.
“Maize, IMC’s main crop, continues to be harvested, with 42% of the company’s land bank in 2022. As of February 1, 2023, 70% of the area under corn has already been harvested. Corn yield is 10.7 tons/ha (10.6 tons/ha in 2021),” stressed the holding in its report.
At the same time, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the blockade of sea export routes led to a 35% reduction of IMC crop sales in 2022 to 483 thousand tons from 743 thousand tons in 2021.
IMC specified that in the first half of 2022 it was forced to develop alternative export routes through the western borders of Ukraine, but they could not fully compensate the volume of exports through the Ukrainian Black Sea ports. As a consequence, in May-July 2022, the holding exported an average of 14 thousand tons of crops per month compared to 70 thousand tons in the prewar period.
After signing Istanbul Grain Agreement in August, 2022 and partial unblocking of the Black Sea export, the holding increased its crops export almost to pre-war level – in December, 2022 IMC shipped to foreign markets about 66 thousand tons of crops.
IMC specializes in the cultivation of grain and oilseeds and the production of milk in Ukraine. It cultivates about 123,300 hectares of land in Poltava, Chernigov and Sumy regions. It has a storage capacity of 554 thsd. tons of grains and oilseeds.
By the end of 2021, IMC increased its net profit by 2.5 times compared to 2020 – up to $78.71 million, EBITDA – by 53%, to $110.35 million, revenues – by 12.6%, to $181.69 million.
KSG Agro agricultural holding increased its land bank by 6.7%, to 23,900 hectares, the company’s press service said on Wednesday.
According to the report, the agricultural holding has increased its land bank due to 1,500 hectares of land shares in village Strilkove (Henichesk district, Kherson region), where it plans to grow crops.
The exact names of the products are not indicated.
The vertically integrated holding KSG Agro is engaged in pig breeding and production, storage, processing and sale of grain and oilseeds.
Over the nine months of 2020, the agricultural holding posted $4.77 million in net profit, which is 52% less than in the same period in 2019, revenue decreased by 17%, to $14.67 million.
Dnipro Agro Group in 2018 increased its land bank to 50,300 hectares (16% or 7,000 hectares more), according to the company’s website.
According to the company, Dnipro Agro Group also almost doubled the capacity of elevators, to 124,000 tonnes. In addition, the company launched a pig breeding project for 1,300 animals.
According to the report, in the 2018 marketing year Dnipro Agro Group collected 69.8 tonnes of grain and 76.1 tonnes of oilseeds.
Dnipro Agro Group is a vertically integrated group of companies whose core business is production, storage and sale of grains and oilseeds.
Turkey’s Onur, engaged in construction and repair of roads and buildings and developing agriculture, plans to double land bank in Ukraine, to 10,000 ha.
“We have been investing in it for two years now. So far, we have about 5,000 hectares of agricultural land… We mostly concentrate on grain, but if we can increase our land to 10,000-15,000 hectares, we will look into other areas,” Head of Delegation, General Coordinator of Onur Group Emre Karaahmetoglu said in an interview with Global FDI Reports.
According to the public register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, the owners of Onur own Agroseton LLC (the village of Ozhydiv, Lviv region). The company was registered in May 2016. Its owners are Karaahmetoglu (20%), Onur Cetinceviz (40%) and Ihsan Cetinceviz (40%). The charter capital is UAH 2 million.
TAS Agro agricultural holding in 2018 increased its land bank by 11.4%, to 83,000 hectares, businessman Sergiy Tigipko has said.
“In 2018, we bought the lease rights for 8,500 hectares of land: 3,500 hectares in Kherson region for irrigation and 5,000 hectares in Chernihiv region. Now we have about 83,000 hectares. And we are also considering two more transactions: for 3,000 and 12,000 hectares. If we agree on conditions, then we will buy them,” he said in an interview with the New Time (Novoye Vremia) magazine.
According to Tigipko, TAS Agro is not actively involved in processing now.
“Working in the bank, we see the profitability of many businesses: how they earn on eggs, poultry, or milk. And nowhere do we see more profitability than just in production of grain,” the businessman said.
TAS Agro cultivates land in Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kherson, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. It is engaged in dairy cattle breeding (up to 5,500 animals), owns six elevators with a capacity of 250,000 tonnes.
France’s AgroGeneration with assets in Ukraine has signed agreements for the sale of 28,500 ha of agricultural lands (27% of the group’s land bank) in Zhytomyr and Ternopil regions for EUR 19 million.
According to a company report on its website, this price includes land lease rights and biological assets whereas machinery and inventory will be part of a separate sale.
According to the company, after the completion of these transactions, AgroGeneration will operate approximately 80,000 hectares of land in Ukraine with close to 10,000 hectares in the West (Lviv) and 70,000 hectares in the East (Sumy and Kharkiv).
The company said that due diligence, which could lead to a price adjustment, should be finalized by the end of February 2019. A prepayment has already been made to AgroGeneration for approximately 15% of the total price and an equivalent amount will be placed into an escrow account for a maximum period of nine months after completion of the due diligence.
In addition, AgroGeneration has secured its 2019 crop financing from its historical banking partner Alfa-Bank Ukraine for a total amount of $23 million, and will top-up its financing with pre-payment agreements with its usual key trading partners.
The company has already sown, under favorable weather conditions, 34,000 hectares of winter crops, out of a total of 77,000 hectares planned.
As reported, Kusto Agro Pte.Ltd (Singapore), which owns Kusto Agro in Ukraine, was permitted by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to acquire two agricultural enterprises in Zhytomyr region from AgroGeneration – Lischynske LLC and Tereschenko Agrarian Fund LLC.
The French group AgroGeneration was founded in 2007. It grows grains and oilseeds. In Ukraine it currently processes about 120,000 hectares.
In October 2013, AgroGeneration completed its merger with Ukrainian agricultural company Harmelia.
