Agria Group Holding JSC concluding contract for acquisition of a share from the capital of subsidiary

Agria Group Holding JSC cultivates a total area of 15,000ha – 8,000ha of which are own land. The Group operates in North-Eastern Bulgaria.

The main cultures grown are wheat, barley, maize, sunflower and rapeseed.

The main agricultural technical activities and processing are carried out with own highly-productive equipment and the lands are processed with compounds for vegetation protection, phosphate and nitrogen fertilizers, aiming to improve the production quality. Irrigation facilities are built in the land of Smyadovo and Veliki Preslav, with an irrigation capacity of 900 ha.

The 2024 development strategy of the group involves an optimization in the cultivated agricultural lands and а strengthening of the export operations of the company.

The total capacity of the storage facilities of Agria Group Holding JSC amounts to approx. 290,000 tonnes, including three main storage bases located in Popovo, Devnya and Lyaskovets.

The most recent of all storage facilties is the one located in Devnya. Its constuction dates back to 2007 and currently consists of 12 metal silos and a flat warehouse. Its total storage capacity is 65 000 mt of grain, including wheat, corn, barley, rapeseed and sunflower seed. The storage facility is in the immediate vicinity of Hemus Highway and very close to Port Varna East Terminal and Lesport. The base is equipped with modern laboratory in compliance with EU requirements.

The warehouse facility, which is a property of Kristera AD, with its storage capacity of 170,000 tons of grain forms the logistic center in the Industrial zone of the town Popovo. A modernly equipped laboratory guarantees the quality of the input and output of the traded grain and oil-bearing crops.   Kehlibar EOOD is a subsidiary company, operating in the field of sunflower oils production, with a brand of the same name. The company’s trading list includes crude and refined sunflower oil, sunflower husk pallets and sunflower meal. The oil-bearing cultures and grain storage capacity is 20 000 tonnes and the annual processing capacity is 50 000 tonnes. Kehlibar EOOD managed a food safety (HACCP) system under the requirements of EN ISO 22000:2005.   Agria Group Holding JSC intends to invest in the construction of a fourth logistics center in the area of Beloslav, which will attend to the planned in Strategy 2024 grain export expansion. Together with the new logistics center it is foreseen to expand the grain and oil-bearing cultures processing through new production powers.

Trading with grain and grain products is a core business for the Company and represents over 80% of the Company’s activity. Kristera AD and Korn Trade EOOD are the subsidiaries carrying out trading and export for the Group.

We have developed a market structure providing raw materials (grain crops), a flexible logistics structure and good positioning of the main grain storage locations in close proximity to Constanta, Varna and Burgas Ports cargo terminals.

Approximately 800,000 tonnes of grain and oil-bearing crops are stored and traded in the holding’s grain facilities. Pursuant to Strategy 2024 the Company plans an expansion of the capacity, reconstruction and modernization of existing storage facilities in the different agricultural bases of the company.

Agria Group Holding JSC researches the possibilities  for investment in the field of Biotechnology through wet corn milling; a process of refining grains produced by the subsidiaries of the Holding. Through the corn wet milling process animal feeds, food oils, as well as starch and sugars, (glucose, dextrose and maltose syrups) are produced, which can be further processed into PLA, suitable for biodegradable polymers and polyesters, in an integrated Bio-refinery based on bio-chemical processes.

As a result of the well-developed activities of the companies in the holding group in the production of grain and oil-bearing crops, a quantity of biomass is generated. The company is in the process of studying the potential of biomass utilization as a product for energy production.