Astarta Agro-Industrial Holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, has completed the harvest of winter grains and pulses on an area of over 61 thousand hectares.
According to the press service of the agricultural holding on Facebook, the gross harvest exceeded grain and amounted to 302 thousand tons, including 260 thousand tons of winter wheat, 40 thousand tons of rapeseed and 2 thousand tons of winter peas.
According to the report, the abnormally hot and precipitation-free weather allowed for a quick harvest. This year’s harvest lasted 14-17 days (within the region), while last year’s harvest lasted 24 days.
The average yield of winter wheat in the agroholding was 5.3 tons/ha, and winter rapeseed – 3.4 tons/ha. The highest average yields of 6.3 tons/ha of winter wheat and 3.8 tons/ha of winter rapeseed were recorded in Khmelnytsky and Vinnytsia regions. The average yield of winter peas, a new crop for the company, was 3.5 tons/ha.
“The well-coordinated work of the team, stable communication in the fields (StarLink) and dispatching of the entire supply chain (AgriChain) made it possible to ensure the smooth running of all processes. In such unfavorable weather conditions, early winter rape and wheat varieties were more productive, while late hybrids were less productive. Winter peas also proved to be a good performer. In general, this year, as in the previous year, we focused on optimizing production costs, given the price environment. And I think we are succeeding,” said Roman Pavlyk, Head of Crop Production at Astarta-Kyiv.
At the end of this week, the agricultural holding plans to start harvesting soybeans and sunflower.
In 2023, Astarta Agro Holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, 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.
Astarta CEO Viktor Ivanchik’s family currently owns 40.68% of the company. Fairfax Financial Holdings is also a major shareholder with 29.91%, and another 2.12% of shares belong to the company itself and were previously bought back as part of a buyback.
By October 18, Ukrainian agricultural producers sowed the main winter crops on an area of 2.8 million hectares (58% of the forecast of 4.5 million hectares), including 954 thousand hectares were sown over the past week on October 11-18 , according to the website of the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food on Tuesday.
According to the agency, 61% of the planned area, or 2.5 million hectares, was sown with wheat, 265 thousand hectares (39% of the area) with barley, and 69 thousand hectares (81% of the area) with rye.
At the same time, it is specified that the most intensive sowing of winter crops is carried out in the Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa regions, in each of which over 100 thousand hectares of winter crops were sown per week.
In addition, 999 thousand hectares were sown with winter rapeseed in Ukraine, which is 104% of the previously planned figures.
Thus, by October 18, a total of 3.8 million hectares, or 42.8% of the last year’s figure, were sown with winter grains and oilseeds in Ukraine.
In 2021, Ukraine allocated 8.87 million hectares for winter crops, including 6.66 million hectares for wheat, 1.02 million hectares for barley, 160.6 thousand hectares for rye, and 1.03 million hectares for rapeseed.
As of September 27, Ukrainian agricultural producers sowed the main winter crops on an area of 709 thousand hectares (15% of the forecast of 4.56 million hectares), 298 thousand hectares were sown over the past week on September 20-27, according to the website of the Ministry of Agrarian politics and food on Tuesday.
According to the agency, 16% of the planned area, or 622 thousand hectares (+258 thousand hectares for the week of September 20-27), barley – 65 thousand hectares (+33 thousand hectares, 10% of the area), rye – 27 thousand hectares (+11.7 thousand hectares, 31% of the area).
At the same time, it is specified that the most intensive sowing of winter grains is carried out in the Chernihiv region, where 33.1 thousand hectares, or 37% of the forecast, are sown.
In addition, the sowing of winter rapeseed has been fully completed in Ukraine, the final area under this crop amounted to 961 thousand hectares.
Thus, by September 27 in Ukraine, a total of 1.67 million hectares were sown with winter crops, or 18.8% of the last year’s figure. In 2021, Ukraine allocated 8.87 million hectares for winter crops, including 6.66 million hectares for wheat, 1.02 million hectares for barley, 160.6 thousand hectares for rye, and 1.03 million hectares for rapeseed.
The area sown with winter grains for the harvest of 2020 amounted to 7.6 million hectares, which is 0.2% more than the area for the harvest of this year, the State Statistics Service has reported.
According to the agency, the following crops were sown: winter wheat on 6.4 million ha (0.6% less than in 2019), winter barley one 1 million ha (3.9% more), and rye one 135,000 ha (16.7% more).
In addition, the area under winter rapeseeds for the next year’s crop amounted to 1.3 million hectares (0.3% more from 2019).
As reported, with reference to the information-analytical portal of the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine, as of December 10 Ukraine had threshed 75.2 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops from an area of 15.2 million hectares with the average yield being 4.95 tonnes/ha, exceeding the result of grain harvest for the whole of 2018, when the gross harvest amounted to 70.1 million tonnes.
