Despite record processing volumes, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer’s net profit declines 10%.

In the last production year, Astarta processed 2.7 million tons of sugar beets, grown both independently and by agricultural partners, and produced 377,000 tons of sugar at its five sugar factories. The 2023 processing season was the best, in terms of the volume of processed raw materials and sugar produced, in the past five years.

However, for the first nine months of 2023, the company’s net profit decreased by 9.8% to €55.97M, despite an increase in sales by 14.8% to €392M. The company’s gross profit increased by 3% to €151,9M, while operating income decreased by 15.9% to €79.91M, and EBITDA decreased by 10.8% to €116.63M.

The reason for the losses was longer harvesting periods that were caused by several factors: difficult weather conditions – heavy and prolonged rainfall in October-November 2023 that led to the harvest’s postponement and logistical difficulties in delivering raw materials to processing enterprises, and subsequent disruptions in supplies to some sugar factories and a decrease in their productivity.