OREANDA-NEWS. On 24 August 2009 was announced, that agri-industrial holding "Astarta-Kyiv" finished harvesting early grains with 222 thousand tons collected on the area of 59 thousand hectares. The average yield is 4.5 tons per ha for wheat, 4.4 tons per ha for winter barley and 3.0 tons per ha for spring barley.

The highest results are achieved by regional subsidiary LLC "named after Dovzhenko" (Poltava region) - 5.9 tons per ha for winter wheat, regional subsidiary LLC "Poltavazernoproduct" (Poltava region) - 4.0 tons per ha for spring barley, regional subsidiary LLC "Khmilnytske" (Vinnytsia region) - 5.0 tons per ha for winter barley. ASTARTA's average yields exceed Ukrainian averages by 30-40%.

At present, ASTARTA's agri-companies are preparing for harvesting sugar beet, soybeans, sunflower and corn, which are rated good. This year, ASTARTA plans to harvest about 360 thousand tons of grain and oilseeds, as well as about 1.7 million tons of sugar beet.

Comment of Viktor Ivanchyk, CEO of "Astarta-Kyiv":

"The agricultural segment of our business also has as high priority as sugar production. Our main goal was to optimize and increase efficiency of this segment this year. Due to the efforts made, we have already enjoyed positive results: in spite of unfavorable general situation, financing problems, we have not only grown and harvested a good crop, but also increased the harvesting efficiency, reduced the cost of production, and improved the quality of produce."