Kernel Agro-Industrial Group, as of mid-May, has fulfilled 95% of its plans to sow spring crops, allocating 35% of the area for sunflower and 18% for soybeans, the company said on Facebook.
“Agroclimatic features of the current season: a large amount of precipitation in March and April, a high level of subsurface water in some regions and, accordingly, the waterlogging of much of the fields – have significantly adjusted the production program of agricultural enterprises “Kernel”,” the company said in its information.
As reported, the sunflower accounts for 35% of sown area, or 120 thousand hectares, the corn – 24%, or 85 thousand hectares, the soybean – 18%, or 65 thousand hectares.
Moreover, winter wheat accounts for 17%, or 60.4 thousand hectares in the structure of areas under crops. Areas under rape and perennial grasses are traditionally insignificant, the holding said.
It is stated that Kharkiv cluster was able to carry out seeding on 28 thousand hectares, and another 1 thousand hectares were left without treatment because of security reasons, as these lands are located 40 km from the front line – in Kupiansky area. As of May 16, 100% of the planned areas for the season were sown in the cluster.
According to Alexander Zvyagintsev, deputy head of production of the Kharkiv cluster, 35% of the area is planted to winter wheat, 30% to sunflower, 15% to winter rape, 10% to corn, and 10% to soybeans.
Druzhba Nova” cluster team in Sumy region took 177 thousand hectares of arable land for the future harvest, while 7 thousand hectares near the Russian border were left uncultivated.
Druzhba Nova” cluster head for production, Igor Tihonchuk, said that corn and sunflower are already being sown; 20% and 35% of the crop is under crop cultivation correspondingly. Sowing of soybeans, which will take 24% of the area, will be completed by May 25. Sowing of winter wheat will occupy 17% of the area.
According to the holding, because of the oversaturated fields, some early spring technological operations have been canceled, replaced or shifted in time. The shift in timing affected the beginning of the sowing season, which in all regions began in late April, which is two weeks later than the traditional dates.
Kernel Agronomic reported favorable sowing conditions for sunflower and corn, which were sown in parallel to accelerate the pace of the sowing season.
“Most agroclusters have completed corn and sunflower seeding and are completing soybean seeding. This is a heat-loving crop, the conditions for sowing which were not favorable until May 5-6. Despite the vagaries of weather, 80% of areas for the next soybean crop we plan to sow at the optimum time for the crop, “- summed up the agricultural holding.
“Kernel” before the war was the world’s number one producer of sunflower oil (about 7% of world production) and its export (about 12%), as well as the biggest producer and seller of bottled sunflower oil in Ukraine. The company was also engaged in cultivation of other agricultural products and their sale.
In FY2022 (July-2021 – June-2022), the holding posted a net loss of $41 mln versus $506 mln net profit in the previous FY, while its revenue decreased by 5% to $5.332 bln and EBITDA decreased by 3.7 times to $220 mln.
Since the beginning of 2022/2023 marketing year (MY, September-2022 – August-2023) Ukraine exported 465 thousand tons of soybeans, which is 2.5 times more than the export figures for the same period last season and was the highest for the last three MYs.
Soybean exports in October 2022 amounted to 215 thousand tons, having decreased by 14% compared to the last month, but soybean volumes shipped to foreign markets in October exceeded last year’s October volumes by 24%.
It is specified that one of the reasons of export reduction in October was slowdown of trade in Ukrainian seaports due to uncertainty of “grain” deal prospects.
The main importers of soy from Ukraine were the EU countries (the share of 46%) and Turkey (37%), which increased the purchase of Ukrainian soybeans in September-October 2022, respectively, six times and two times compared to the same period of 2021/22 MY.
As it was reported, by November 25 in Ukraine 3.6 million tons of soybeans were harvested from 1.5 million hectares, which is 97% of the area sown with it. The average yield of soybeans was 24 cwt/ha
Two ships carrying more than 33,000 tons of soybeans left Ukrainian ports on Friday, the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) reported.
“Two ships left Ukrainian ports on Nov. 25, carrying a total of 33,165 tons of soybeans as part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative,” the report said.
The dry cargo ship Port Alberni will carry 26,765 tons of soybeans to Spain, the ship CS Cihan will carry 6.4 thousand tons to Turkey.
SKC notes that 28 loaded dry cargo vessels are preparing to be inspected in Turkish territorial waters to proceed further to their destinations.
“As of November 25, the total tonnage of grain and other agricultural products exported from three Ukrainian ports is 11,940,672 tons. A total of 983 vessels were allowed to move so far: 489 to arrive at Ukrainian ports and 494 to leave them,” the JCC stressed.
The Agrotrade agricultural holding has received a certificate allowing it to export soybeans to the EU countries. Initially, it is planned to sell 4,000 tons of soybeans from the last year’s crop residues.
As reported on the Facebook page of the agricultural holding on Thursday, the document guarantees the cultivation of non-GMO soybeans using fertilizers and chemicals permitted in Europe.
It is specified that the certification of exports to the EU was carried out by the Ukrainian certification body Organic Standard.
The Agrotrade group sowed 3.1 thousand hectares of soybeans this year, the harvest from which is also planned to be exported to the EU.
Previously, the company certified rapeseed for supplies to Europe.
The Agrotrade group of companies is a vertically integrated holding of a full agro-industrial cycle (production, processing, storage and trade in agricultural products). Processes more than 70 thousand hectares of land in Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkov regions. Profile crops are sunflower, corn, winter wheat, soybeans and rapeseed. It has its own network of elevators with a one-time storage capacity of 570 thousand tons.
The group also produces hybrids of corn and sunflower seeds, barley, and winter wheat. On the basis of the seed farm “Kolos” (Kharkiv region) in 2014, a seed plant with a capacity of 20 thousand tons of seeds per year was built. In 2018, Agrotrade launched its own brand Agroseeds on the market.
The founder and CEO of Agrotrade is Vsevolod Kozhemyako.
Lyst-Ruchky LLC (Ruchky village, Poltava region), part of Astarta agro-industrial holding, exported the first batch of organic soybeans under a contract with the German processing company Agriprotein GmbH, the agricultural holding’s press service reported.
“A supply contract of organic soybeans was concluded with the German processing company Agriprotein GmbH. As per contract, the quality of delivered products has to be confirmed in two stages. The first samples of soybeans were selected and tested by the European laboratory Galab (Germany) prior to signing a contract. The organic origin of the product and its high quality was confirmed. The second stage of the inspection took place upon delivery and organic status of soybeans was reaffirmed,” the company said on its website.
“As reported, last year Astarta completed a three-year journey to the first harvest of organic grain and oilseeds crops in sync with the European trend of expanding organic farming methods. In the 2021 season, the total area of the company’s land bank under organic products is 1,800 ha with the following crops: soybeans, millet, mustard, sunflower, corn and winter wheat,” the report says.
“The company also plans to certify this crops according to Bio Suisse (Switzerland) and USDA NOP (USA) standards,” it said.
As reported, Lyst-Ruchky in July 2020 received a certificate of a manufacturer of organic products. To confirm this status, it took three years of work in a transitional period, the corresponding intermediate inspections and certifications.
China is interested in increasing the supply of Ukrainian soybeans, peas, barley, wheat, as well as poultry and other products, the Ministry of Economy said, following a meeting between First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy Oleksiy Liubchenko and Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Fan Xianrong on June 10. “Today we’ve heard from our Chinese partners confirmation of interest in deepening economic cooperation, increasing exports of Ukrainian agricultural products, building infrastructure and implementing joint investment projects in transport, construction, energy, IT and other areas,” the press service of the ministry said citing Oleksiy Liubchenko.
According to the report, the meeting was also attended by Deputy Minister Volodymyr Hryniuk and Deputy Minister-Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka, as well as representatives of the leadership of the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine.
The parties also noted the importance of signing an intergovernmental agreement on deepening cooperation in the construction of infrastructure in the near future, the ministry said.
“This step will allow starting preparatory work for the launch of investment projects, including the construction of the M-22 Poltava-Oleksandriya road and the first part of the Kyiv circular road – sections M05-M06, which will cost about $ 1.1 billion,” the ministry said.
It is also important to continue work on the development of freight traffic in the direction of China-Western Europe through the territory of Ukraine, the report notes.
In addition, the Chinese side stressed the importance of the implementation of the intergovernmental initiative of Ukraine and China “One Belt-One Road.” The matter concerns preparing a roadmap for the implementation of a program of cooperation between the two countries within the framework of the joint construction of the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “21st Century Maritime Silk Road,” the ministry added.
