Miller Magazine Issue 108 / December 2018

34 MILLER / DECEMBER 2018 NEWS Ukraine’s grain harvest already breaks record of 2016 Singapore’s Wilmar may invest in soybean production in Russia Ukrainian farmers have gathered over 66 million ton- nes of grain crops from 96% of areas, which exceeds the record figure of 2016, the press service of the Agrarian Policy Ministry reports. “As of November 19, 66.4 mil- lion tonnes of grain crops were threshed from an area of 14.3 million hectares, or 96% of the forecast, with a yield of 46.5 centners per ha (41.8 centners per ha in 2017),” reads the report. In addition, for the first time, record figures will be recorded for the gross yield and yield of soybeans and sunflower seeds. As of November 19, 13.8 million sunflower seeds were threshed from an area of 6.0 million hectares (99.8%) with a yield of 22.8 centners per ha (20.1 centners per ha in 2017). Also. 4.3 million tonnes of soybeans were gathered from an area of 1.7 million hectares (99%) with a yield of 25.7 centners per ha (19.2 centners per ha in 2017). “Considering rather favorable weather conditions for late spring crops, our cautious forecasts about the re- cord harvest in the history of Ukraine’s independence are starting to come true. As of today, when grain har- vesting is still carried out, we have more than 66 milli- on tonnes, which already exceeds the previous highest figure of 2016,” said First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Maksym Martyniuk. According to him, the record-high grain crop in 2018 is due to the high yield of corn, which is also expected to reach a historical maximum of about 34.8 million tonnes. As of today, Ukrainian farmers have gathered 31.3 million tonnes of corn from an area of 4.1 million hec- tares (90%) with a yield of 75.9 centners per ha (52.5 centners per ha in 2017), which is also the highest figu- re in the history of independent Ukraine. UKRINFORM Singapore-listed commodity trader Wilmar Internatio- nal Ltd may invest in soybean production and processing and transhipment of soybean concentrates in Russia’s Far East, a regional ministry said. Wilmar’s long-term investment programme in the Far East has been developed with Russian support, the mi- nistry for the development of the Far East said in a state- ment, summing up me- etings between officials and potential investors on the sidelines of a regional conference in Singapore, which Pre- sident Vladimir Putin attended last month. The ministry said the potential long-term investment as part of the programme could reach $732 million, but so far the investor was ready for the first stage of the project, which requires only 680 million roubles ($10 million) to start soybean production on 10,000 hectares. The longer-term project includes production of soybeans on 600,000 hectares in the far eastern region of Primor- sk, the construction of two plants for soybean proces- sing with a capacity of 500,000 tonnes-600,000 ton- nes a year and the construction of elevators and a port terminal for transhipment of soybean concentrates and oil, the Russian ministry said. “We are very interested in investing in the Russian Far East as there is plenty of good land and it is close to China where there is a big demand for soy- beans,” Wilmar said in an email to Reuters. It said it planned to start the project with 10,000 hectares. “If the project is successful and we are given more land, the investment will grow to involve building processing plants, storage and port facilities,” it said, ad- ding that it will work with both Russian and Chinese part- ners. The ministry declined to comment on the possible timetable for the project and whether Wilmar would be a single investor in the project.