April 23, 2024
Kernel continues to maximize oilseeds crush volumes, while grain exports are still significantly below pre-invasion levels.
The Kernel Group has released its operating report for the third quarter of financial year 2024 (January - March 2024).
Q3 FY2023
Q1 FY2024
Q2 FY2024
Q3 FY2024
Grains exports, kmt
824
203
1759
1877
Oilseeds crush, kmt
744
610
811
816
Oil sales, kmt
273
340
368
394
In February 2024, the group started sunflower seeds processing at a new plant in Starokostyantyniv, Khmelnytskyi region (it is planned that the plant will reach full processing capacity - 1 million tons of crush per year - as early as May of this year), so during the reporting period, a total of six processing plants were operating (two crush plants in Kharkiv region have not been working since the beginning of the invasion).
The total volume of oilseeds processing by Kernel in January-March 2024 was 816,000 tons, which is almost the same as in the previous quarter (811,000 tons) and higher than last year’s (744,000 tons).
Sales of sunflower oil in the reporting period also increased compared to previous periods and amounted to 394,000 tons. According to our estimates, during January-March, Kernel remained the number one exporter of sunflower oil from Ukraine with a share of about 20%.
In the grain export segment, Kernel also remains the number one exporter, but the export figures themselves are inferior to those before the full-scale Russian invasion.
In the grain export segment, Kernel also remains the number one exporter, but the export figures themselves are inferior to those before the full-scale Russian invasion.
The company's grain exports in the third quarter of the financial year 2024 amounted to 1.877 million tons (in the previous quarter - 1.759 million tons), for the first three quarters of the financial year in general (July 2023 - March 2024) - 3.8 million tons (+25% to the corresponding period of FY2023). For comparison, for the entire financial year 2021, Kernel exported 8 million tons of grain, and for the second quarter of the FY2022 (October-December 2021) - 3.5 million tons.
According to our estimates, Kernel's share among the largest Ukrainian grain exporters for January-March 2024 was 11.5%, from the beginning of the current season to the end of March 2024 - 11%.
It should be noted that in the reporting quarter, the volume of transshipment of grain through the group's terminals significantly (by 600,000 tons) exceeded the indicators of grain export, which indicates that in order to maximize the volume of transshipment through its own terminal in Chornomorsk, Kernel actively involved third-party companies.
We expect quite good financial performance of the company in the reporting quarter. Kernel's January-March 2024 financial report will be released in June.