By KYIV. Nov 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Astarta Agricultural Holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, will resume construction of an additional deep soybean processing line at the Hlobyne Processing Plant (Poltava region) in the fourth quarter of this year, which will allow producing up to 100,000 tonnes of concentrated soy protein in year.
“The project was announced in 2021 at a cost of $50 million, taking into account inflation, it is now (estimated) about $60 million,” Yulia Bereschenko, director of business development and investor relations for the group of companies, said at a conference call with investors and analysts following the company’s work for nine months of 2023.
According to her, the investments will be distributed over three years – this and the next two, and it is planned to finance the project primarily through free cash flow.
As reported, Astarta announced the start of construction of this line in mid-September 2021. The processing plant itself was put into operation at the beginning of 2014, its design processing capacity is 230,000 tonnes per year, and will remain at this level. The plant is capable of annually producing about 160,000 tonnes of high-protein soybean meal, 40,000 tonnes of soybean oil and 9,000 tonnes of granulated hulls. The enterprise also includes storage facilities for finished products and an elevator with a capacity of 42,000 tonnes and the necessary engineering, road and railway communications. Before the war, more than 80% of GPP products were supplied to the EU countries, the Middle and Far East. The bulk of soybeans for processing are grown by agricultural firms of the agricultural holding.
