Astarta sees no threat to its revenues despite the ban on imports to Poland

The recently introduced ban on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine to Poland will not threaten Astarta Holding's revenues, as the company wants to export its goods to Western European countries, representatives of the company's management board announced during an online conference.

The company also announced that it does not intend to pay dividends from the profit for 2022.

On April 15, Poland banned, until June 30, the import of agricultural products from Ukraine, including cereals, sugar, eggs. After Poland's decision, Hungary and Slovakia also temporarily blocked imports of Ukrainian grain, oilseeds and some other agricultural products to protect their domestic market.

“We still have permission to transit through these countries. Our export targets are rather Western European countries, e.g. Spain, Italy, Greece, Croatia. We do not see a big risk to our revenues,” said Viacheslav Chuk, commercial director of Astarta, during a Tuesday conference.

According to Yulia Bereshchenko, director of investor relations, Astarta will be supported by the expected sugar deficit in the EU and on the global market.

“Sugar deficit is expected not only in the EU but also globally, as the world's largest sugar producers, such as Brazil and India, start using sugar to produce ethanol. This could potentially reduce the exports of these countries,” said Yulia Bereshchenko.

Representatives of Astarta informed that the company does not intend to pay dividends from last year's profit.

“The environment in Ukraine is difficult, our priority is to allocate expenses to projects that are aimed at increasing the value of the company,” said Yulia Bereshchenko.

“We started paying dividends a year before the start of the war, with the intention of continuing this policy, but the war thwarted those plans. In the current circumstances, no dividend is planned this year,” she added.

In 2021, Astarta paid a dividend of EUR 0.5 per share, allocating EUR 12.5 million for this purpose.

Read also: Astarta Publishes the Report for the Year 2022

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