Ukraine's Kernel achieves record corn harvest in 2023, increases wheat harvest 2.5-fold

MOSCOW. Dec 26 (Interfax) - Ukrainian agricultural holding Kernel has completed its 2023 harvest, achieving high yields for a number of agricultural crops, Ukrainian media reported, citing the group's report for Q1 of its current financial year (July 2023 - June 2024) on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

"The group achieved a record corn yield of 10.2 tonnes per hectare (up 15% year-on-year) thanks to exceptionally favorable weather conditions during the season," the report says.

As a result, with a 44% reduction in the area under corn to 84,400 hectares, the harvest decreased 35% to 861,000 tonnes.

Meanwhile, a 75% increase in the area under wheat to 61,100 hectares and an increase in yield of 44% to 6.7 t/ha made it possible to harvest 2.5 times more - 406,000 tonnes. As for oilseeds, the sunflower yield was 2.8 tonnes per hectare (an increase of 11%), and the soybean yield was 2.9 tonnes per hectare, the same as last year.

The soybean harvest exceeded last year's tenfold, reaching 188,000 tonnes thanks to a tenfold expansion of the sowing area while maintaining yield. A harvest volume of 335,000 tonnes of sunflower was obtained, which is 1% more than the year before, with an 8% reduction in the sowing area to 119,700 hectares.

"Unlike the previous year, there were no serious disruptions during the 2023 harvesting campaign," the holding said.

The report says that Kernel completed sowing crops for the 2024 harvest, allocating 93,000 hectares to winter wheat and 14,000 hectares to rapeseed (a year earlier, winter wheat plantings were significantly lower at 60,400 hectares, or 17% of the total cultivated area, and the area under rapeseed was indicated as insignificant).

The area under other crops this year was reduced 32% to 28,400 hectares, the report said.

Kernel also reported that during the reporting period ending September 30, 2023, it sold one of its elevators in the Kharkov region. In December 2023, the group's fifth cogeneration thermal power plant was commissioned at the Pridneprovsky Oil Extraction Plant with a capacity of 21 MW.

The company confirmed that it plans to commission a new modern extraction plant in the Khmelnitsky region in the spring of 2024 with a capacity of 1 million tonnes of sunflower seeds per year, which will make it the largest in Ukraine.

As reported, Kernel posted a net loss of $30.9 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2024, after completing the same period of the previous fiscal year with a net profit of $162 million.

Kernel is one of the largest producers and sellers of bottled oil in Ukraine, is a major producer and exporter of sunflower oil, and cultivates and sells agricultural products.