Ukrlandfarming agroholding has revised downwards its investment plans for 2014 due to the unstable political and economic situation in the country.
“As of early 2014 we expected that total investment will reach
$400-600 million. At present, we’ve revised it and see that it could be
$200 million. However, this does not mean that we stop projects: if
foreign banks resume cooperation programs, we could gain by the end of
the year,” Ihor Petrashko, Deputy CEO of Ukrlandfarming said at the
Agribusiness in Ukraine Forum 2014 organized by the Adam Smith
Institute.
He said that the holding has not yet found a partner to build a grain
terminal at Yuzhny Port (Odesa region), although the company continues
working in this direction.
Petrashko said that the hryvnia devaluation impacts the individual
segments of the holding’s operations in different ways: it affected the
sowing campaign in the grain segment, but in general, the influence will
be positive if a ban on grain exports is not introduced; and in the egg
segment the devaluation has a negative effect, as 75% of egg products
are sold on the domestic market.
“During this year there will be a large decline in the indicators
pegged to the U.S. dollar in the egg segment, and maybe we’ll revise
production volumes. We planned to increase production by one billion
eggs, but it’s likely that we’ll retain the existing volumes and prepare
a conference for investors where we’ll explain why we revised the
plans,” he said.
He added that the holding continues working in Crimea. Ukrlandfarming
cultivates 12,000 hectares in the peninsula, mainly growing rice. Due
to the complications in water supplies to Crimea, it is unknown if rice
is to harvested on the fields.
“We have two poultry farms in Crimea. We did not launch new cycles
there… We’re trying not to do anything new there until we understand how
Ukraine reacts to the operation of companies in Crimea,” Petrashko
said.
Asked about the re-registration of land leasing agreements in line
with Russian laws, Petrashko said that it is unclear with the
re-registration now.
