Continental resolved to grow its grain storage business to 600 thou. t

Continental Farmers Group (CFG), a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's SALIC in Ukraine, is planning to increase its agricultural commodities storage capacity, states CFG CEO Georg von Nolcken in an interview with Ukrainian News.

He explains that crops rising yield indicators are the major driver for this process. In 2021, CFG boosted its storage capacity by 20%, 90 thou. t, to 500 thou. t. In the coming two years, the group is set to expand the capacity to 600 thou. t. The investment preliminary estimate is USD 16 mln.

"In 2022, we expect to invest about USD 40 mln in machinery, transport, equipment, the development of the grain elevator business and also in the potato business. Investments in the latter two areas in 2022 assume the preparation of projects, the implementation of which is scheduled to begin in 2023," marks Georg von Nolcken.

According to him, investment in agricultural machinery will amount to USD 25 mln. The planned acquisitions include tractors, harvesters, sprayers, trailed machinery, several transport units, and a wide range of equipment.

"In the future, we will work in four areas — agriculture, logistics, elevator business and processing. I can't say for certain that we will accomplish all of them in 2022, but the long-term plan is to move in that direction as part of our strategy," adds CFG CEO.

Continental Farmers Group's investment in the purchase of the grain elevator and construction of the potato storage facility in 2021 summed USD 15 mln, and the total investment during 2021 reached USD 42 mln.

In early October, CFG commissioned its greenfield potato storage in Lviv region. An 87.5 thou. t grain storage was acquired by the company in Ivano-Frankivsk region.

CFG harvested 459.4 thou. t of the new crop during the first phase of the campaign.