IMC Agro Holding has completed harvesting winter wheat from 20.2 thousand hectares and harvested 139.8 thousand tons with an average yield of 6.9 t/ha, which is the second best result in the history of the company and 60% higher than the average wheat yield in Ukraine, the company’s press service reported on its Facebook page.
According to the report, the agricultural holding is satisfied with the results, as most of the harvested winter crops meet the quality parameters of milling wheat.
“Last fall’s weather conditions were favorable for timely sowing, good germination and tillering of winter wheat. This spring, we carried out fertilization and plant protection against weeds, diseases and pests in accordance with the technological map. All operations were completed on time according to the crop development stages and weather conditions,” said IMC Production Director Mykola Pylypenko.
He noted that the agroholding started wheat harvesting earlier than usual due to the lack of precipitation needed for optimal plant development in the Poltava cluster. This led to a slight decrease in yields and an early start of the harvest in Poltava region.
“In other regions of the company, Chernihiv and Sumy, weather conditions were more favorable, and we significantly exceeded our targets for yield and gross production of winter wheat,” summarized Pylypenko.
“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 land bank is about 120 thousand hectares, storage capacity is 554 thousand tons, with a 2023 harvest of 1.002 million tons.
In 2023, IMC posted a net loss of $21.03 million compared to $1.12 million a year earlier, and its EBITDA decreased 11.3 times to $3.22 million. The holding’s revenue increased by 22.3% to $139.45 million, while the share of exports decreased to 68% from 73% a year earlier.
TAS Agro has completed harvesting winter crops and threshed about 24 thousand hectares of wheat and rapeseed, with a winter wheat yield of 6.3 t/ha, a record high for the agricultural holding’s history, the company’s press service reports on Facebook.
“The harvest of early grain crops was completed quite successfully, despite the difficulties and additional risk factors that accompanied farmers this year. Early spring, abnormal heat in June and July, and power cuts had virtually no impact on our businesses due to the introduction of advanced technologies, upgraded equipment and employee responsibility. We managed to implement an effective strategy for the entire range of agrotechnical operations, harvested the grain in the best possible time and also produced a record winter wheat crop. The Northern cluster became the leader in the company in terms of yield of this crop with 7 tons per hectare,” said Oleg Zapletnyuk, CEO of TAS Agro.
The agroholding specified that in 2024, the company will use its own equipment, which was updated during the year, to the maximum extent possible. Only combine harvesters were rented due to economic feasibility. Along with the harvesting campaign, we worked on organizing logistics and marketing of the harvested crop. Currently, the grain is accepted at pre-prepared elevator facilities.
TAS Group was founded in 1998. Its business interests include the financial sector (banking and insurance) and pharmacy, as well as industry, real estate, and venture capital projects.
Before the war, TAS Agro Group cultivated 83 thousand hectares in Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kherson, and Dnipro regions, where it grows soybeans, sunflower, rapeseed, wheat, barley, and corn. In addition, the agricultural holding is engaged in dairy farming (up to 5.5 thousand heads of cattle) and owns six elevators with a simultaneous storage capacity of 250 thousand tons.
The founder of TAS is Sergey Tigipko.
The agricultural company Cygnet has completed the winter wheat harvest and harvested 17.5 thou tons from an area of 2.2 thou hectares, the company’s press service reported on Facebook.
“We planned to complete the winter wheat harvest in 12 days, but actually managed to do it in 10 days. Despite the intense heat, everything went quickly, and it did not interfere with our harvesting,” said Oleksandr Shramko, deputy general director for crop production at Cygnet.
According to him, nine harvesters were working, including five hired ones. The average productivity of the combine was 24.5 hectares per day.
“This year, we achieved a record yield of 7.85 tons per hectare. In the early stages of wheat development, weather conditions were quite good, but in late May and early June there was a lack of precipitation, so in some periods the plants were stressed. However, in the second half of June, we got rainfall and the situation changed for the better. Speaking of yields, this year’s yields are above average, which is quite good,” Shramko added.
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 simultaneous 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.
Customs inspectors have prevented an attempt to export 1.5 thousand tons of Ukrainian wheat worth UAH 9.2 million to Italy without a license using falsified documents, the press service of the State Customs Service (SCS) reported on Telegram.
“At the Mukachevo customs post, customs declarations for the export of domestic wheat (not for sowing) were submitted for customs clearance. The total weight of the goods was indicated as more than 1.5 thousand tons worth UAH 9.2 million. The seller of the goods was a Kharkiv-based company,” the statement said.
According to the State Customs Service, customs officers noticed that the goods were not licensed for export. During the inspection, it turned out that the director of the Kharkiv company resorted to tricks to circumvent the licensing of agricultural exports, and in the shipping documents he indicated an Italian company as the recipient of the goods. The export of wheat to Italy, unlike other EU countries, is not subject to licensing.
The foreign company responded to the State Customs Service’s request and denied the information about the purchase of Ukrainian wheat in a letter. For its part, the Italian customs also officially confirmed that there are no declarations in their database related to the Italian company that bought the goods.
“Two reports on violation of customs regulations under Part 1 of Article 483 of the Customs Code of Ukraine were drawn up against the head of the Kharkiv company for submitting documents containing false information about the recipient of the goods. The sanction of the article provides not only for the imposition of a fine in the amount of 50 to 100% of the value of the offense items, but also for their possible confiscation,” the State Customs Service emphasized.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) raised the forecast of wheat exports from Ukraine in 2023/24 marketing year by another 1.5 mln tonnes to 16.5 mln tonnes.
According to the April report of the U.S. agency, at the same time, the estimate of carry-over stocks at the end of the MY was reduced from 3.28 mln tonnes to 1.58 mln tonnes, domestic consumption – from 7.7 mln tonnes to 7.3 mln tonnes, and carry-over stocks at the beginning of the MY – from 3.5 mln tonnes to 2.9 mln tonnes.
As for Ukrainian corn, the forecast of its exports after increasing by 1.5 mln tons in March, in April was kept at the same level – 24.5 mln tons.
At the same time, the overall forecast for Ukrainian feed grains was increased by 0.1 mln tonnes to 26.97 mln tonnes due to the same reduction of carry-over stocks at the end of this MY to 4.08 mln tonnes.
In general, the updated global wheat harvest forecast for 2023/24 MY has been improved by 0.66 mln tonnes to 787.36 mln tonnes, while the forecast for global wheat exports has been increased by 1.34 mln tonnes to 213.47 mln tonnes. On the contrary, experts revised the forecast of wheat ending stocks in the world downward by 0.56 million tons to 258.27 million tons.
As for corn, the forecast for its global production in April was reduced by 2.38 million tons to 1 billion 227.86 million tons, while exports were reduced by only 0.47 million tons to 200.59 million tons. The USDA also lowered its estimate of carryover stocks by 2.35 million tons to 318.28 million tons.
As reported earlier, Ukraine attributed the improvement in grain export estimates for this marketing year to the increase in the volume of grain transportation through the new sea corridor under the control of the Ukrainian Navy.
Ukrainian wheat, which is in great demand on the world market, has started to rise in price due to a decrease in supply from key players who have reduced their activity ahead of the new season harvest, according to the analytical cooperative “Start”, created within the framework of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council (AAC).
“In April, 541 thsd tonnes of wheat have already been exported. Some of the products that could not be exported in March will be shipped from Ukraine in April. Therefore, this month we can reach the export level of 3 mln tons – this will happen due to the March contracts. Importers are ready to wait for wheat deliveries, as demand is growing. The increase in demand is supported by the forecasts of production decline in the EU, the US and Ukraine, i.e. all key exporters,” the analysts said.
They reminded that last season Ukraine exported a lot due to large carry-over stocks. This season, they will not exceed 1 million tons, as the ports are working. At the same time, the sown areas are shrinking, and less wheat will be harvested. The first estimates of the export potential of Ukrainian wheat in the new season have already been reduced by 3-4 million tons.
“Although the Ukrainian CPT market saw a drop in prices last week, the market is coming back to life, prices are returning to previous levels and will continue to grow. Our main competitor – Russian wheat – has risen in price by $8-10 per ton in recent weeks. The price of Ukrainian wheat will rise by at least $2-3 per ton by the end of the week,” the experts predict.
According to their estimates, by the end of the week, the conditional prices for wheat on CPT basis will be about $175 per ton in the Danube ports, $170 per ton in deep-water ports, $198-203 per ton on DAP Constanta basis.
“According to expectations, the demand for wheat will continue to drive the wheat market upwards,” Pusk summarized.
