Mriya completes its winter crop harvest of 63K ha

Ukraine’s distressed farmer Mriya (MRIYA, MAYA GF) reported on Aug. 17 it has completed harvesting its winter crop. The company has collected 174 kt of wheat, 0.7 kt of barley and 33.4 kt of rapeseed from its total area of 62,900 ha. The harvest is in line with plans, the company said, also stressing that the harvesting campaign was conducted using own machinery.

Earlier, the company reported that for this season, it sowed 58,500 ha with winter crops and 64,200 ha with spring crops. For the next harvesting season, Mriya is going to increase acreage under winter crops to 100,000 ha. Its total land bank was almost 300,000 ha, as of early 2014.

Alexander Paraschiy: Based on the disclosed data, we estimate the company’s wheat yield is about 3.3-3.5 t/ha, which is way below the results reported for this season by Kernel (5.0) and Astarta (5.5). However, this is a satisfactory result, given the company’s financing shortages and corporate turmoil, which it has suffered since last summer.

We do not expect any good results from the harvesting of late crops – soybean, corn and sunflower – given Mriya’s hardships and lack of experience in cultivating some of late crops (recall, earlier the company was focused on planting sugar beets). That said, we believe it’s too early to state that Mriya has turned around. But we believe that with financial support and tough cost control from its creditors, the company indeed has a chance to sustain itself as a going concern.