Astarta To Increase Sowable Land To 120 ths ha by 2008

Astarta (AST PW: N/R), one of Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, told Ukrainian News that it plans to increase its sowable land to 120 ths ha by the end of 2007, a target it had previously hoped to achieve by 2010. The company, after acquisition of agricultural farms and its subsidiaries, currently leases 110 ths ha. Olha Pankiv: Sugar producers have been actively increasing land under lease lately to ensure stable deliveries of this input. According to the preliminary estimates of the Agrarian Ministry, sugar beet harvest in 2007 will decrease by 25% yoy to 16.5 mln mt. This is leading to intensified competition for beets. Dakor (DAKOR: BUY) told us that in September its land under lease was over 103 ths ha, compared to 84.5 ths ha by the end of June 2007, and that it planned to increase further. Ukrros (UROS: N/R) announced plans to double its land under lease in 2007 from 35 ths ha by the end of 2006.