IMC Agro Holding has completed sunflower harvesting on 24.3 thou hectares, yielding 77.7 thou tons of gross harvest with a yield 60% higher than the national average of 3.2 t/ha, the company’s press service reported on its Facebook page.
According to the report, IMC also sowed winter wheat on an area of 20.7 thousand hectares.
“This year, September was abnormally dry and hot, so we managed to complete all field work in a short time. As a result, despite the hot and dry summer, we harvested a good sunflower crop with high quality indicators. As for the winter crops sown at the optimum time, we expect productive precipitation to sprout,” said Bogdan Krivitsky, Chief Operating Officer of the agricultural holding.
“IMC is an integrated group of companies operating in Sumy, Poltava and Chernihiv regions (north and center of Ukraine) in the crop production, elevators and warehouses segments. The company’s land bank is about 120 thousand hectares and storage capacity is 554 thousand tons, with a harvest of 1.002 million tons in 2023.
In the first half of 2023, IMC earned $6.28 million in net profit, down 44.6% year-on-year, while its revenue increased by 61.6% to $71.95 million, including a 41.2% increase in exports to $58.9 million. Normalized EBITDA amounted to $17.06 million, down 41% compared to the first half of 2022, due to higher selling costs and lower harvest prices.
The harvest of corn, according to preliminary estimates of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, in 2024 will be 25 million tons, sunflower – 12 million tons, soybeans – 5 million tons, said Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Vitaly Koval in an interview with Forbes Ukraina.
“Ukraine did not receive about 2% of early grains compared to last year’s harvest. This group did not suffer as much as late crops. Soybeans, buckwheat, corn and sunflower suffered the most. They have a shortfall of about 10-15% depending on the region. However, this is not critical for the food security of the country,” he said.
Koval expressed confidence that in the new season the structure of crops will not change globally compared to last year. At the same time, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy has concerns about winter rape: there is not enough moisture to sow it.
“In total, about 5 million hectares of winter crops will be sown,” summarized the Minister of Agrarian Policy.
The farms of Ukrprominvest-Agro, one of the leading sugar producers in Ukraine, are actively harvesting late crops: 55% of soybean and 48% of corn have been harvested at PJSC Food Company Podillya, and 86% of sunflower and 30% of soybean at Food Company Zorya Podillya, the company’s press service reports on its Facebook page.
“The 2024 season was dry and hot, which led to premature drying and ripening of crops. Therefore, compared to previous years, we decided to start harvesting earlier,” said Yevhen Moskalev, Director of Ukrprominvest-Agro’s Agricultural Production Department.
According to him, this strategy applies to all crops except sugar beet, which has been postponed in anticipation of productive rainfall that will help soften the dry and hard soil for high-quality harvesting with less losses and less load on the harvesters.
The agroholding noted that Podillya has fully harvested its sunflower crop. The company also harvested soybeans on 55% of the area and corn on 48% of the area. On September 17, the sugar beet digging season started.
Zorya Podillya started harvesting early soybeans, followed by sunflower. As of mid-September, 86% of the sunflower area was harvested, 30% of soybeans were harvested, and corn harvesting has begun. Also, on September 10, the company started digging sugar beet in the area of its operations.
The sowing of winter crops for the 2025 harvest began in August-September: 5.7 thousand hectares of rapeseed and 655 hectares of winter rye have already been sown for green fodder for livestock, and winter wheat sowing has begun.
As reported, in 2024, UPI-Agro allocated 72.9 thou hectares for spring crops, including 22.3 thou hectares for sugar beet, 22.7 thou hectares for soybeans, 25.2 thou hectares for corn, and 2.7 thou hectares for sunflower.
“Ukrprominvest-Agro is engaged in growing crops, producing sugar, flour, 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 total number of cattle of the agricultural holding is 6.3 thousand, pigs – 12 thousand. The total elevator storage capacity of the agricultural holding is 120 thousand tons. The group’s sugar business is represented by two sugar factories in Vinnytsia region. In 2021, the group produced 263.4 thousand tons of sugar, the third highest in Ukraine. The holding 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.
“Kernel, one of the largest Ukrainian agricultural holdings, processed 816 thsd tonnes of sunflower seeds in the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 (FY, July 2023-June 2024), up 10% year-on-year and in line with the previous quarter.
“At the end of February, the Group launched a start-up initiative at a new oilseeds crushing plant located in western Ukraine, which crushed 24 thousand tons during the reporting period. At the time of publication of this report, the plant is reaching full production capacity,” the company said in a report to the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
According to the agroholding, two of Kernel’s oilseed processing plants in Kharkiv region are out of operation due to their proximity to the Russian border and the war zone. The assets continue to be subject to regular attacks and suffer serious damage. One of these plants is currently in an emergency condition due to its location in the epicenter of hostilities. Both assets were fully impaired in 2022.
At the same time, sales of sunflower oil in January-March 2024 increased by 40% compared to the same period in 2023 and reached 382 thousand tons, totaling 1,090 thousand tons in the first nine months of FY2024, up 33% year-on-year.
Sales of bottled sunflower oil accounted for 5% of total sales (19 thsd tonnes) in the third quarter of FY2024.
Although the profitability of sales was relatively stable in the third quarter of FY2024, compared to the previous quarter, EBITDA per tonne of oil sold decreased by 36% to $131, as the profit for the previous quarter was exceeded by a one-time insurance payment caused by material damage and business interruption.
As a result, EBITDA of the Sunflower Oil segment decreased by 34% to $50 million in the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 for the nine months ended March 31, 2024.
The Oilseeds Processing segment generated $184 million in EBITDA for the agricultural holding, down 16% year-on-year.
“As of March 31, 2024, Kernel had a relatively good supply of sunflower seeds: 511 thousand tons of seeds were in stock. Together with further purchases in April-May 2024, this will ensure that the agricultural holding’s plants will be operational until mid-summer, with a further switch to rapeseed processing at some plants, which was already practiced a year earlier.
“Following the progress of the processing season, we have revised our estimates of the sunflower harvest for 2023 and are increasing the harvest of seeds in Ukraine from 14 to 14.5 million tons,” Kernel said.
At the same time, since April 2024, the group’s enterprises have been experiencing problems with electricity supply caused by Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s generating and distribution infrastructure. This has led to increased downtime and reduced productivity, although the impact is still manageable, the agricultural holding explained.
“Kernel also said that in June-July 2024, it plans to commission a sixth cogeneration thermal power plant with an installed electric capacity of 22.5 MW as a generating capacity at its recently launched oilseed processing plant in western Ukraine.
“This renewable energy capacity is of great importance, especially given the plant’s planned capacity and the upcoming power outages in Ukraine in the fall and winter of 2024,” Kernel emphasized.
USAID’s Agricultural and Rural Development Program will provide farmers with free sunflower seeds provided by Lidea Ukraine as part of the AGRI-Ukraine initiative, the donor organization’s press service reported on Facebook.
According to the report, the assistance will be offered to farmers who have previously applied through the State Agrarian Register (SAR) for corn seeds, but did not have enough sowing units of this crop.
The program is open to farmers in Dnipropetrovska, Kyivska, Sumska, Kharkivska and Chernihivska oblasts who cultivate between 5 and 500 hectares. Each farmer will be able to receive up to 40 sowing units of sunflower.
There is no need to submit a new application to the State Register, the organizers will contact those who have applied with the offer, USAID AGRO said.
It is expected that Lidea Ukraine will deliver 2858 sowing units of sunflower seeds to farmers from the regions most affected by the war. The delivery of the seeds will be organized by the All-Ukrainian Association of Communities as part of the United Communities project.
“Thanks to this initiative, farmers in the frontline and de-occupied regions will be able to grow and supply at least 24 thousand tons of sunflower to the market. According to preliminary forecasts, the harvest harvested from the donated seeds will bring farmers about UAH 360 million in revenue, which will help restore agricultural production in war-affected communities,” USAID AGRO said.
As reported, recently, as part of the USAID AGRI-Ukraine initiative, Lidea Ukraine has transferred 3362 sowing units of corn seeds to farmers in frontline communities. The application process was completed ahead of schedule due to high demand.
In the third quarter of fiscal year 2024, Kernel processed 816 thousand tons of sunflower seeds, up 10% year-on-year.
According to the company’s announcement on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on Tuesday, six crushing plants of the agricultural holding operated at almost full capacity, while two plants were idle due to the proximity to the Russian border and the war zone.
In addition, at the end of February, Kernel started commissioning the Starokonstantinovka oilseed processing plant in Khmelnytsky region. At the time of writing, the plant has reached over 90% of its processing capacity at the commissioning stage. The plant is expected to be fully operational by May 2024 and reach its maximum processing capacity of 1 million tons of sunflower seeds annually.
At the same time, sales of sunflower oil in January-March 2024 increased by 44% year-on-year to 394 thsd tonnes, totaling 1,103 thsd tonnes in 9M2024.
Sales of bottled sunflower oil in the third quarter of FY2024 amounted to 5% of total sales (19 thousand tons).
Kernel emphasized that the volume of loading of the group’s granaries in the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 was at a seasonally low level – 254 thousand tons, which amounted to 2.7 million tons for 9 months of fiscal year 2024, which corresponds to the same period last year.
The export terminal’s transshipment volume for the reporting period increased to 2,464 thsd tonnes of grain, sunflower oil and meal, which showed a 2.3-fold increase. This was driven by consistent export activity via the Black Sea, increased volumes of sunflower oil produced, transshipment through port terminals acquired earlier in the season, along with the provision of transshipment services to third parties.
Despite the high transshipment volumes of the terminals, the volume of grain exports from Ukraine in January-March amounted to 1.877 thousand tons, which is 2.3 times more than in the same period last year, the company stated.
Before the war, Kernel Agro Holding was the world’s leading producer of sunflower oil (approximately 7% of global production) and its exports (approximately 12%). It is one of the largest producers and sellers of bottled oil in Ukraine. In addition, it is engaged in the cultivation and sale of agricultural products.
Kernel’s net profit for FY2023 amounted to $299 million, while the company ended the previous year with a net loss of $41 million. The agricultural holding’s revenue for FY2023 decreased by 35% to $3.455 billion, but EBITDA increased 2.5 times to $544 million.
In the first half of FY2024, Kernel’s net profit fell 3.6 times compared to the first half of FY2023, to $102 million, and EBITDA halved to $223 million, with revenue down 16% to $1.59 billion.
