Ukraine's Ovostar agroholding reduces egg sales 10% in 2023, boosts livestock 7%

MOSCOW. Feb 1 (Interfax) - Ovostar Union, one of Ukraine's leading producers of eggs and egg products, reduced production 1% year-on-year to 1.531 million in 2023, Ukrainian media reported, citing the agricultural holding's statement.

Sales in the shell egg segment declined 10% to 970 million units. Exports increased 18.6% to 344 million units, totaling 35% of overall sales in the segment versus 27% in 2022.

Egg processing rose 15% to 492 million units. Production of dried egg products decreased 1% to 2,512 tonnes, and liquid egg products increased 20% to 12,998 tonnes.

The sales volume of dried egg products increased 15% to 2,468 tonnes in 2023, including exports by 17.2% to 1,695 tonnes. Sales of liquid egg products rose 20% to 12,828 tonnes, including exports by 19.8% to 5,170 tonnes.

Poultry livestock on the holding's farms rose 6.9% to 7.7 million heads over the past year, including the number of laying hens by 6.7% to 6.4 million heads.

"The company focused on the gradual restoration of livestock in 2023, resulting in growth of 7%. Efforts were also taken to restructure the product portfolio and sales channels to achieve greater efficiency," Ovostar CEO Boris Belikov said in the statement.

Belikov said that management was satisfied with the results of the group's operations, taking into account the "reasonably successful resolving of the tasks".

Ovostar Union is a vertically integrated publicly traded holding. The group's holding company is Ovostar Union N.V. The majority shareholder is Prime One Capital Limited, controlled by Ovostar CEO Boris Belikov and Vitaly Veresenko, chairman of the board of directors.