By KYIV. Nov 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Astarta agro-industrial holding, the largest sugar producer in the country, increased revenue from sugar sales by 32% in the first nine months of 2023 compared to the same period last year – to EUR142 million, according to the company’s report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
According to it, Astarta’s sugar sales amounted to 203,000 tonnes. At the same time, its selling price increased by 8% compared to the same period last year – to EUR684 per tonne, which allowed the gross profit of the agricultural holding’s sugar business to increase by 36% compared to last year to EUR41 against the backdrop of a slight increase in margins to 29%.
EBITDA of Astarta’s sugar business increased by 35% compared to the same period last year – to EUR35 million, while its margin remained stable at 24%.
The agricultural holding noted that for the nine months of 2023, the export of sugar and sugar-containing products provided 17% of Astarta’s total revenue, while a year earlier it accounted for only 7% of revenue.
According to the report, the sugar processing season in the 2023/2024 marketing year (MY) at Astarta started on September 12. It involves five sugar factories of the agricultural holding.
As of November 8, Astarta sugar factories processed 1.1 million tonnes of sugar beets and produced 171,000 tonnes of sugar, compared to 146,000 tonnes on the same date in 2022.
Astarta reported that 10 million tonnes of sugar beets have already been harvested in Ukraine with an average yield of 48 t/ha. Sugar production in 2023-2024 MY started at 30 factories. As of November 8, the country produced a total of 800,000 tonnes of sugar.
Ukraine resumed sugar exports on September 15 and currently there are no export restrictions. For the nine months of 2023, Ukrainian sugar exports amounted to 295,000 tonnes, which is 7 times more than a year earlier. The main buyer of Ukrainian sugar was the European Union, while Romania became its main importer, whose share was 31% of the total volume.
