Ukraine produced about 1.8 million tons of sugar in 2023 and early 2024, with the average wholesale price at 23-24 UAH/kg in early 2024, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky said at a meeting on the development of the sugar industry.
“In general, the situation on the domestic sugar market is stable. The product is sufficient for the domestic needs of Ukrainians and to ensure the necessary export volumes,” the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food quoted him as saying on Facebook.
Vysotsky reminded that Ukraine needs up to 1 million tons of sugar annually for domestic needs. According to the memorandum of understanding, the maximum volume of sugar exports in the 2023/2024 marketing year should be up to 650 thousand tons.
The meeting, which was attended by representatives of the industry association and leading sugar producers, also discussed the planning of sown areas for 2024 and the expansion of the geography of sugar exports.
As reported, in November 2023, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and the National Association of Sugar Producers of Ukraine (Ukrtsukor) signed a memorandum of understanding in which they agreed to regulate sugar exports based on the preliminary balance of supply and demand in the 2023/2024 marketing year.
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.
In 2023, the sugar plant of Cygnet Group in the village of Andrushky, Zhytomyr region, operated until December 22, a record period for the 160-year-old plant, and produced more than 32 thousand tons of sugar, the company reported in a video on Youtube.
According to the report, in 2023, the Cygnet group of companies sowed more than 4 thousand hectares of sugar beet. During the sugar production season, Cygnet processed more than 22 thousand tons of sugar beet. In addition, the company has changed the packaging for its products – now sugar is packed not only in 50 kg bags, but also in 1-ton big bags.
Cygnet cultivates about 29 thousand hectares in Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia regions, where it grows corn, soybeans, winter wheat, and sugar beets. The company’s assets include an elevator with a one-time storage capacity of 60 thousand tons and a sugar plant with a processing capacity of up to 2.8 thousand tons of beets per day (both in Zhytomyr region).
The company also has a dairy business (605 cows), which sells its products to local processors.
In the 2022-2023 marketing year (MY), Ukrprominvest-Agro Group exported more than 120 thousand tons of sugar to the European Union, the group’s press service reported on Facebook.
“The quality of our products, excellent transaction support services, speed in decision-making, a variety of options for packaging and shipment of products, a responsible approach to work at every stage are the factors that have become the key to the success of Ukrprominvest-Agro in the export market in 2022/23 marketing year. We plan to further develop this area and maintain our leadership among sugar exporters in Ukraine in the current marketing year,” the press service quoted Artem Semenenko, Director of the company’s Commercial Department, as saying.
“Ukrprominvest-Agro is engaged in the cultivation of crops, production of sugar, flour, meat and dairy farming. The group’s land bank exceeds 116.5 thousand hectares and is located mainly in regions that have not been invaded by the Russian occupiers.
The total number of cattle of the agricultural holding is 6.3 thousand, pigs – 12 thousand. The total elevator storage capacity of the group is 120 thousand tons. The group’s sugar business is represented by two sugar factories in Vinnytsia region. It supplies grain processing products to Moldova, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Israel, Palestine, Angola, Lebanon, Syria, and Vietnam.
Ukrprominvest-Agro comprises Agroprodinvest Group LLC, PJSC Podillya Production Complex, LLC Zorya Podillya Production Complex, 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-Industrial Holding, the country’s largest sugar producer, increased its revenue from sugar sales by 32% year-on-year to EUR142 million in 9M2023, according to the company’s report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Thursday.
According to the report, Astarta’s sugar sales amounted to 203 thousand tons. At the same time, its selling price increased by 8% year-on-year to EUR684 per ton, which allowed the gross profit of the sugar business of the agricultural holding to increase by 36% year-on-year to EUR41 against a slight increase in margin to 29%.
EBITDA of Astarta’s sugar business increased by 35% year-on-year to EUR35 million, while its margin remained stable at 24%.
The agricultural holding noted that in 9 months of 2023, exports of sugar and sugar-containing products accounted for 17% of Astarta’s total revenue, while a year earlier it accounted for only 7% of revenue.
According to the report, the sugar refining season in the 2023/24 marketing year (MY) at Astarta started on September 12. It involves five sugar factories of the agricultural holding.
As of November 8, Astarta’s sugar factories processed 1.1 million tons of sugar beet and produced 171 thousand tons of sugar, compared to 146 thousand tons on the same date in 2022.
“Astarta reported that Ukraine has already harvested 10 million tons of sugar beet with an average yield of 48 tons per hectare. Sugar production in 2023-2024 MY started at 30 factories. As of November 8, the country produced a total of 0.8 million tons of sugar.
Ukraine resumed sugar exports on September 15, and there are currently no export restrictions. For 9 months of 2023, Ukrainian sugar exports amounted to 295 thousand tons, which is 7 times more than a year earlier. The main buyer of Ukrainian sugar was the European Union, while Romania became the main importer, accounting for 31% of the total volume.
Astarta estimates that its share in the country’s exports was 11%. Its key European customers were in Romania, Spain and Hungary. 99% of the sugar exported was transported by land, and 85% of it was by road.
“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 220,000 hectares and dairy farms with 22,000 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 9 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.
The Hungarian government has removed cane and beet sugar from the list of banned Ukrainian products for import after September 15, 2023, Agroinform.hu reported.
According to the report, the Hungarian government’s resolution on measures related to the transportation of certain agricultural products from Ukraine, which restricted the import of 24 Ukrainian agricultural products after September 15, removed the line referring to cane and beet sugar, as well as hard sucrose.
The decision came into force on October 10.
As reported, the European Commission announced on September 15 that it would not extend restrictions on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine to five neighboring EU countries (Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia) with some conditions to avoid a new surge in supplies.
The restrictions were imposed on May 2, 2023 and concerned imports of wheat, rapeseed, sunflower and corn. These five Eastern European member states argued that Ukrainian agricultural products, when imported duty-free into the EU, were settling with them and harming the local agribusiness sector.
After the restrictions were lifted, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia introduced unilateral bans. Poland expanded the list of products banned for import with rapeseed cake and meal, as well as corn bran, wheat flour and derivatives. Hungary brought the list to 24 commodity items.
Ukraine has filed a lawsuit with the WTO, accusing Poland, Hungary and Slovakia of discriminating against its agro-products.
Ukraine is currently negotiating the introduction of a licensing mechanism for exports of Ukrainian agro-commodities with mandatory verification in each of the five countries.
