April 10, 2012

Ukraine's HarvEast plans to augment cereal production by 13.4% in 2012

Ukraine's HarvEast agricultural holding plans to increase cereal crops' gross harvest by 13.4% or 55,000 tonnes to 465,000 in 2012 against 2011, holding first deputy director-general Dmytro Skorniakov told journalists on Wednesday (Apr 4).

In his words, this year the company plans to expand wheat plantations by 14.2% to 80,000 hectares from 70,000 hectares last year; to reduce barley acreage by 40% to 12,000 hectares from 20,000 hectares last year due to low profitability; cut 25% that of feed crops to 30,000 hectares from 40,000 hectares in 2011; and leave the plantations of sunflowers and other industrial crops at the past year's levels, about 50,000 hectares.

Skorniakov notes, the area earmarked for the spring crops in 2012 is 80,000 hectares, and 96,000 hectares for the winter crops.

When estimating the condition of winter crops holding chief executive officer, Simon Cherniavsky, said that supposed losses after the last winter's anomalous cold spells were nearly 4,800 hectares (5% of the winter crops acreage) and this was basically winter barley.

In his words, this year the agricultural holding plan to raise the yield of farm crops by 11% to 40 centners per hectare against 36 centners per hectare in 2011, mainly through modernisation of production and renewal of the agricultural machinery fleet.

Cherniavsky also says that the gross yield of grain crops was 410,000 tonnes in 2011.

He says that in the first quarter of 2012 the holding concluded first export contracts with Inerco Trade S.A. (Switzerland), Alfred C. Toepfer International GmbH (Germany), in frames thereof the first batch of 30,000 tonnes of feed wheat and barley has been already shipped (via the Mariupol Sea Commercial Port).

The CEO says that next marketing year HarvEast plans to export up to 150,000 tonnes, or 30% of the 2012 harvest. Moreover, the holding is planning to expand one of the crop production arms: production and crossbreeding of seeds for planting cereal and oilseed cultures (wheat, corn, sunflower).

At the moment own-make seeds cover the sowing of winter crops and insignificant part of sowing of sunflowers; the rest of seeds the company has to import. Alongside, the holding sells seeds of separate varieties of grain crops (about 20%).

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, System Capital Management (SCM; Donetsk) and Smart Holding (Kyiv) established HarvEast agricultural holding on basis of the agricultural divisions of the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works (Mariupol, Donetsk region) in March 2011.