OREANDA-NEWS. On 27 February 2009 was announced, that Dutch experts from DSD BV made the evaluation of technological and economical aspects of sugar production at the Narkevychi sugar plant and agricultural products at ASTARTA's agri companies in the Khmelnytsky region. The evaluation was conducted to explore the possibilities to increase productivity and optimize the use of available resources. There are some recommendations prepared by Dutch experts:

• energy saving due to the possible use of alternative sources of energy, such as coal and fuel oil;

• plant productivity increase due to the spot modernization and the implementation of new technologies;

• logistics problems solution, optimization of processes like cultivation, harvesting, storage, and sugar beet reprocessing.

The implementation of the offered solutions discussed with specialists and ASTARTA's management will help to reduce energy consumption, decrease sugar losses, and improve the product quality.

The joint work with DSD BV is based on the cooperation between ASTARTA and the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO). In the fall of 2008, FMO provided ASTARTA with a long-term loan for the sugar and agriculture production development in the Khmelnytsky region.

In 2008, Dutch experts with the support of PUM made similar evaluation of the Kobelyatsky sugar plant that helps to determine the possible options of production modernization aimed to reduce the energy consumption, increase the  efficiency and decrease the СО2 emission.