Ukraine's Continental agricultural holding begins topdressing winter crops, notes good condition of seedlings

MOSCOW. March 1. (Interfax) - Ukrainian agricultural holding Continental Farmers Group, or CFG, operating in the country's western regions, started its 2023 production season by topdressing winter crops, for which it allotted 79,600 hectares, Ukrainian media reported citing the company's website.

"The company's winter crop structure is traditional - wheat, barley and rapeseed. The exit of the crops from winter can be assessed as successful, as the seedlings are in good condition. The low temperatures observed in mid-February did not have a critical impact on the crops, so the company expects successful dynamics for the vegetative winter processes this season," the report says.

"Operating activities are going according to plan. The weather contributed to the timely start of fieldwork, which we traditionally begin by topdressing with nitrogen fertilizers. If we are talking about technological processes this season, then we, of course, have looked at the market trends and partially revised our plant protection and nutrition systems. However in general, the planned indicators for crop yields are set at last year's level," the press service quoted Operations Director Vitaly Stavnichuk as saying.

It said that 73,000 tonnes of fertilizers were purchased for fieldwork, and production units were provided with protective equipment and seeds for future sowing.

Continental Farmers Group cultivates about 200,000 hectares of land in the Ternopol, Lvov, Khmelnytsky, Chernovtsy and Ivano-Frankovsk regions. The company is one of the leading potato producers in the country.

CFG is owned by Saudi Agricultural & Livestock Investment Co. In 2019, SALIC completed the process of merging the Ukrainian agricultural holding Mriya, which it purchased in 2018, and the Continental Farmers Group it already owned under the single brand Continental Farmers Group.