Сельское хозяйство

Myronivsky Khliboprodukt [MHPC LI, BUY] announced its operational results for 1H09 in a press release today. MHP successfully launched the second phase of the Myronivka Poultry Plant in 2Q09. The company’s annual chicken meat production capacity will reach more than 200 thsd mt. MHP’s poultry volumey increased by 6% YoY to 116.3 thsd mt of meat in 1H09.

According to the newspaper “Delo”, the top five Ukrainian grain traders are as follows: Nibulon (exported 4 mln mt of gain); Louis Dreyfus and Serna (Glencore), which exported 2 mln mt of grain each; Toepfer, Bunge and Kernel exported 1.5 mln mt each.

As of July 7, Ukraine harvested 17.6 mln ha or 13.6% of its expected crop. The crop yield averaged 2.5 mt per ha. Ukrainian farmers harvested 1.2 mln mt of wheat (yielded at 2.51 mt per ha), 3.1 mln mt of barley (yielded at 2.6 mt per ha), and 0.24 mln mt of rapeseeds (yielded at 1.3 mt per ha).

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) approved the sale to Mriya of a more than 50% stake in six sugar plants in Ternopil region. The sugar plants previously belonged to Ukrainian Industrial Group.

Ukraine exported 24.7 mln mt of grain in the 2008/09 marketing year. In particular, Ukraine exported 12.6 mln mt of wheat, 6.3 mln mt of barley and 5.4 mlm mt of corn. Earlier, Mr. Melnik, the Minister of Agriculture, estimated Ukraine’s exports at 25 – 26 mln mt of grain in the 2008/09 marketing year.

As of June 30, 2009, Ukraine harvested a total 1.5 mln mt of grain with an average yield of 2.46 mt per ha (-6.8% YoY). According to a press release posted by the State Statistics Committee, farmers in Crimea as well as Odesa, Mykolayiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Poltava, Kirovograd, Zaporizhzhya and Kyiv Regions have started their harvesting campaign.

Mriya [MAYA GR, BUY], one of the top agricultural holdings in Ukraine, with a land bank in operation of 190 thsd ha, released its audited 2008 IFRS results. Key highlights: net revenues increased by nearly 5 times to USD 89.4 mln, EBITDA expanded by 4.5 times to USD 74.2 and net income surged by 4.6 times to USD 66.8 mln. As of January 1, 2009 Mriya’s bank debt amounted to USD 45.2 mln and the company accumulated USD 71.5 mln in cash, including cash in banks.

Astarta’s [AST PW, BUY] major shareholders – Viktor Ivanchyk and Valeriy Korotkov – bought 93.8 thsd (0.38%) additional shares in Astarta holding. As a result, the company’s free float slightly decreased to 19.62%.

MCB Agricole [4GW1 GR, BUY], a Ukrainian agricultural producer with a land bank of 100 thsd ha, has started its harvesting campaign in Crimea and in Odesa region. The total area sown with winter crops amounts to 63.2 thsd ha. For the harvesting campaign Agricole is going to use 139 agricultural machines (41% own machinery, 59% leased).

Ukrros [UROS UZ, BUY], released today its operational update on the sown area for the 2009/10 marketing year. The company used a total of 103 thsd ha for the harvesting campaign, including 24.6 thsd ha for winter crops and 78.4 thsd ha for spring crops. The company stated that 17 thsd ha was cultivated with sugar beet.