OREANDA-NEWS. September 15, 2010. ASTARTA has successfully finished negotiations on an asset management agreement with an option to acquire the property complex of Volochysky sugar plant in the Khmelnytsky region (Ukraine).

Volochysky sugar plant with its production capacities of 3400 tons of beet per day was leased by the Group in the production season of 2008. The plant was idle in 2009.

In 2008, ASTARTA acquired Narkevychi sugar plant and a number of agricultural companies in the Khmelnitsky region, which after consolidation of assets in 2009 were included in the production division "Volochysk-Agro". In the past two years, the land bank under Group's control in the Khmelnytsky region grew to 31 thousand of hectares. Subsidiaries of "Volochysk-Agro" produced over 42 thousand tons of grain and oilseeds, 214 thousand tons of sugar beet, 35 thousand tons of sugar and 3.6 tons of milk in 2009.

ASTARTA plans to actively develop its business in the Khmelnytsky region with a significant expansion of its main assets including land bank and an increase in the output of its key products: grains, oilseeds, sugar beet, sugar, as well as cattle farming produce.