Ukrainian agricultural holding Continental Farmers starts harvesting winter crops
Moscow. June 24. INTERFAX - The Ukrainian agricultural holding Continental Farmers Group (CFG), which operates in the western regions of the country, has started harvesting winter crops from almost 90,000 hectares, Ukrainian media said, citing the company's press service.
Continental Farmers Group has started harvesting winter crops. The harvest began with the threshing of winter barley in the Lvov cluster, followed by the Galich, Bukovina and Center clusters, the press release says.
Threshing of winter rapeseed will begin when the barley harvest is complete in the first ten days of July. Winter wheat is forecast for harvest in mid-July.
According to the press release, the 2024 season saw the agricultural sow 43,200 hectares with winter wheat, 33,400 hectares with winter rapeseed, and 12,900 hectares with winter barley.
CFG Operations Director Konstantin Shityuk said that, due to the characteristics of this spring and the prolonged winter crop growing season, the company expected a very early start to the harvest, but the long drought in May changed the situation, and only in early June did farmers throughout the western region see sufficient rainfall to normalize the duration of crop development.
"We nevertheless began harvesting barley much earlier than average. June precipitation had virtually no effect on its development. However, the harvest of winter rapeseed and winter wheat will begin at the usual time, in July. We prepared for the current harvest campaign quite seriously, taking into account the presence of significant uncertainty factors associated with the possibility of movement of freight vehicles, movement of equipment, and changes in legislation on mobilization, etc. There were difficulties with supplies of spare parts and disruptions in logistics, but, in general we managed to prepare our equipment, provide resources and get to the starting line in the spring 100% ready," Shityuk said.
The agricultural holding said that Continental's elevator facilities are equipped with generators to ensure operation during power outages and are fully prepared to accept the early group of crops.
CFG cultivates 195,000 hectares of land in the Ternopol, Lvov, Khmelnitsky, Chernovtsy and Ivano-Frankovsk regions. The company is one Ukraine's leading potato producers.
Continental Farmers Group is owned by Saudi Agricultural & Livestock Investment Co. (SALIC, Saudi Arabia). SALIC completed the process of merging Ukrainian agricultural holding Mriya, which it purchased in 2018, and the Continental Farmers Group, which it already owned, under a single brand, Continental Farmers Group, in 2019.