OREANDA-NEWS  On 23 October was announced, that ASTARTA successfully continues its sugar production campaign at all the  six owned plants. In the nearest future, ASTARTA would launch production at Volochyskiy sugar plant in Khmelnytska oblast, that is taken in lease.

As of October 17, ASTARTA's sugar plants produced more than 55 thousand tons of high quality sugar or about 17% of the total Ukrainian sugar production in a new season. The current inter-group's sugar yield is c.13,5% (the previous year - 12,9%), and thus substantially higher than the Ukrainian average of 12,6%.

In accordance with the policy of vertical integration, more than 80% of the processed sugar beets in the 2008 season are grown in-house. The own raw material base significantly reduces dependence on external supplies, optimizes operations' timing, reduces costs, and contributes to a high quality of the final product.

The average ASTARTA's agri-companies' beet yield increased this year up to 47 tons per hectare (in the previous year - 37 tons). The agricultural companies in Poltavska oblast showed the best results of the beet yields of c.50 tons per hectare. At some fields in Poltavska oblast the average yield reached up to 70 tons per hectare, that exceeds average for some EU countries. The Group's agricultural companies in Khmelnytska and Vinnytska oblast (many of them new to ASTARTA)  have the average yield of about 40 tons per hectare, also exceeding the Ukrainian average. This is not least due to the ASTARTA's strategy focused on the sustainable appreciation of agricultural land quality.

Comment of Viktor Ivanchyk, CEO of ASTARTA Holding N. V.:

"We are satisfied by the current sugar campaign at our plants. Their operation is  rhythmical and without any essential problems. The implementation of energy saving technologies introduced with the financing of the EBRD loan and own funds, resulted in the decrease of the average gas consumption per product unit by up to 10%, even taken into account the unavoidable production initiation losses. By the end of the production campaign, we would sum up the results, and the savings rate should be substantially higher".