In today’s agribusiness, the quality of raw materials is becoming a currency that determines not only the success of processing, but also the profitability of the entire production chain. This is the topic of the new free online course of the AgriAcademy educational platform – “Sugar Beet. Quality of raw materials”, created by experts of Astarta-Kyiv, the leader in sugar production in Ukraine.
Quality is a calculation
The course focuses on the technological quality of sugar beet as a critical factor affecting sugar yield, storage time, logistics and processing efficiency.
The course is aimed at agronomists, technologists, farm managers and everyone working in the sugar beet industry. It describes in detail the key factors that determine the technological quality of sugar beet, in particular
The author of the course, Olena Lupekina, a practitioner with over 20 years of experience and Deputy Head of Raw Materials at Yareskiv Sugar Plant, explains complex topics in simple terms, using real production cases.
The interactive materials were developed by Olga Weiler, and Svitlana Semeniuk provided the methodological basis.
What the listener gets:
Why is it important?
The quality of sugar beet determines the profitability of production – from the field to the factory. That is why the new course will be a useful tool for those who want to improve the quality of raw materials, reduce losses and prepare for the season with the best technological knowledge.
We invite producers to join the training on the AgriAcademy platform now: “Sugar Beet. Quality of raw materials”.
In 2024, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Astarta-Kyiv agro-industrial holding signed a partnership agreement to develop distance education for Ukrainian farmers. The cooperation envisages the creation of 25 online courses on growing, storing, and processing field crops.
In addition to new training materials, the platform also offers courses from Astarta experts that have been published previously:
“Sunflower. Biological features of the crop”
“Sunflower. Growing technology”
“Corn. Biological features of the culture”
“Corn. Technology of cultivation”
“Winter rape. Cultivation technology“
AgriAcademy is a free online learning platform for agricultural workers and students of agricultural education institutions, launched by the EBRD in December 2022 as part of its food security support program in Ukraine. Its goal is to strengthen the competitiveness and sustainable development of agriculture, which has suffered significant losses due to the war.
Today, the platform offers about 30 online courses – more than 300 hours of practical training in agronomy, management, technology, processing, storage, etc. Each course includes a knowledge test and certification of participants.
The creation and management of the platform (including course development, study tours, etc.) is supported and funded by the EBRD, as well as
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding in Ukraine, a public European company that conducts socially responsible business and produces food products with a focus on global markets. Its core business is concentrated in crop production, sugar industry, dairy farming, soybean processing, grain logistics, and bioenergy. More information here Astarta-Kyiv Agricultural Holding
Ukrainian farmers reduced sugar beet acreage in 2025 by 15.4% compared to last year, to 220,000 hectares, according to First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky.
“The Ministry of Agrarian Policy’s estimate (of sugar beet acreage – IF-U) stands at 220,000 hectares, compared to 259,000 hectares last year. We have a guaranteed 15% decline,” he said at a meeting of the Trend&Hedge Club.
When asked whether the European Union’s trade policy had influenced this situation, Vysotsky noted that this was definitely the reason for the decline in production of this crop.
He stressed that Ukrainian processors were very disappointed with the sugar supply volumes to the EU announced in spring 2025, which amounted to 67,000 tons for 2025. Currently, this supply threshold has been raised to 107,000 tons. However, at its peak, supplies to the EU reached 473,000 tons, so when comparing the allocated quota with the peak supply volume, the difference is obvious.
“In fact, the renaissance of the sugar industry in Ukraine was due to duty-free trade with the EU. Then, thanks to the scale and turnover, our producers began to enter other export markets, but the starting point was access to the European market, which has the highest margins. There are no alternatives in terms of margins,” the deputy minister said.
Vysotsky did not rule out that the area under sugar beet cultivation would continue to decline in the coming years. At the same time, he noted that all decisions on this matter would be made by producers taking into account export prospects, particularly to the EU.
Astarta, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, has already sown more than 60% of the planned sugar beet area and started sowing sunflower, the company’s press service reports on Facebook.
“The minimum moisture reserves in the soil due to the lack of precipitation in the autumn-winter period and rapid spring warming forced us to quickly adapt agricultural technologies to make the most of the favorable sowing windows,” the agricultural holding explained.
According to the report, Astarta has allocated the planned sown areas for strategic crops as follows: sugar beet – 34 thousand hectares, soybeans – 55 thousand hectares (including 3 thousand hectares for seeds), winter wheat – 46 thousand hectares (including 3 thousand hectares for seeds), sunflower – 28 thousand hectares, winter rapeseed – 13 thousand hectares, corn – 13 thousand hectares. The area under organic farming is 2 thou hectares. At the same time, the actual total structure of Astarta’s acreage will be clarified based on the results of the sowing campaign.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In 2023, the agricultural holding 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.
Ukrprominvest-Agro Group of Companies (UPI AGRO) has completed the 118-day sugar beet processing season, during which 1.77 million tons of sugar beet were processed, with the Gaisyn and Kryzhopil plants producing 255.57 thousand tons of sugar, the company’s press service reports on Facebook.
The agroholding noted that the Gaisyn and Kryzhopil sugar factories completed the season on January 6, 2025, when they processed the last tons of raw materials from their own and partner fields, the total sown area of which amounted to 45.249 thousand hectares, including their own – 22.029 thousand hectares.
In total, during this production season, the plants of the UPI-AGRO group processed 1 million 777 thousand 767 tons of sugar beet with a sugar yield of 255 thousand 573 tons.
According to the report, Haysynskyi Sugar Plant produced 49.93 thousand tons of syrup for further storage, from which it is planned to produce 26.497 thousand tons of sugar in the spring.
“The production season of 2024 at UPI-AGRO was completed in the optimal timeframe – its duration due to the combination of efficiency, effectiveness and quality of production processes amounted to 118 days,” the group said.
As reported, in the 2023/2024 season, the sugar refining season in the agricultural holding lasted 132 days, with Haisyn and Kryzhopil plants processing 2.105 million tons of sugar beet and producing 337.5 thousand tons of sugar.
“Ukrprominvest-Agro is engaged in growing crops, producing sugar, flour, and meat and dairy farming. The group’s land bank exceeds 116.5 thousand hectares. The agricultural holding is located mainly in regions that have not been invaded by the Russian occupiers.
The group’s sugar business is represented by two sugar factories in Vinnytsia region. The total elevator storage capacity is 120 thousand tons.
Ukrprominvest-Agro comprises Agroprodinvest Group LLC, PJSC Podillya PC, LLC Zorya Podillya PC, LLC Vinnytsia Bakery No. 2, AF Dniproagrolan, AF Ivankivtsi, LLC Mas-Agro, LLC Pravoberezhne, and LLC Progress-NT.
The owner of the agricultural holding since December 2019 is the son of the former President of Ukraine Oleksiy Poroshenko.
Astarta Agro Holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, processed 2.7 million tons of sugar beet grown by itself and its agricultural partners at its five sugar factories in 2023-2024 and produced 377.5 thousand tons of sugar.
“The processing season of 2023, which lasted 130 days, was the best in terms of processed raw materials and produced sugar over the past five years,” the agroholding’s press service reported on Facebook.
Summing up the results of the harvesting campaign, Astarta reported that its structural units harvested 200 thousand tons of corn with a yield of 10.35 tons/ha, up 16.2% year-on-year, and 2.2 million tons of sugar beet with a yield of 57.61 tons/ha (+2.6%).
“Longer harvesting periods were caused by several factors: difficult weather conditions: heavy and prolonged precipitation in October-November 2023 caused a delay in harvesting and logistical difficulties in delivering raw materials to processing plants, and thus disrupted the rhythm of some sugar factories. Another important factor was the increase in the yield of late crops: the yields of corn and sugar beet were the highest in the history of the holding’s crops,” Astarta said, adding that it continues to prepare for the spring sowing season.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In the third quarter of 2023, the agricultural holding earned EUR1.24 million in net profit, down 27.7 times compared to the same period in 2022. Astarta’s revenue decreased by 14.4% to EUR104.75 million, gross profit by 2.7 times to EUR26.96 million, operating profit by 7.6 times to EUR6.79 million, and EBITDA by 42.7% to EUR97.25 million.
Due to significantly better performance in the first half of this year compared to the first half of last year, in the first nine months of 2023, net profit decreased by 9.8% to EUR 55.97 million, while revenue increased by 14.8% to EUR 392.00 million. The company’s gross profit increased by 3.0% to EUR 151.91 million, while operating profit decreased by 15.9% to EUR 79.91 million and EBITDA by 10.8% to EUR 116.63 million.
Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, has started harvesting sugar beet, for which it has allocated 39 thousand hectares in the 2023 season, the group’s website reports.
According to the report, on September 8, farmers in Vinnytsia region started digging, and agricultural producers in Poltava region will join the harvesting campaign on September 14.
According to preliminary estimates of the agricultural holding’s experts, this year’s yield and quality of sugar beet will be higher and better than last year’s figures.
In preparing for this year’s harvesting campaign and taking into account the experience of previous seasons, Astarta’s team paid special attention to logistics.
“The company has invested in the construction of almost 90 km of field roads. Also, on Astarta’s initiative and in close cooperation with the Poltava Regional Military Administration and the Globyno community, the company is completing the repair of a 25 km section of the Manzhelia-Globyno public road,” the statement said.
To optimize the delivery of raw materials from the field to the warehouses, the agricultural holding has purchased 22 self-propelled loaders.
In addition, Astarta continues to actively implement digital AgriChain products, including the new AgriChainLogistics module to optimize the processes of collection, delivery, storage and processing of raw materials.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It includes six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
As reported, Astarta earned EUR65.16 million in net profit in 2022, down 46.8% compared to 2021. Last year, the holding’s EBITDA decreased by 23.2% to EUR154.77 million, while revenue increased by 3.8% to EUR510.07 million.
In the first quarter of 2023, the agricultural holding earned EUR16.13 million in net profit, up 6.2 times compared to the first quarter of 2022, its revenue increased by 37.1% to EUR163.55 million, and EBITDA by 63.5% to EUR37.91 million.
The major shareholders of Astarta at the end of the first half of the year were the family of its founder and CEO Viktor Ivanchyk – 40.11% and Fairfax Financial Holdings LTD with subsidiaries – 29.91%.
