The first speakers, participants and sponsors of the international agrarian conference WHERE THE MARGIN IS 2023

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The conference is meant for big and biggest agricultural producers, ag inputs manufacturers, dealers and distributors, financiers, insurers, agricultural and agribusiness investors, policy makers.

The purpose of the Conference is to create the platform where agricultural producers and their counterparts along the vertical supply chain meet together and have a complex discussion on opportunities and challenges of the upcoming crop marketing year and the years ahead. We are proud that as the result of previous conferences there emerged a big number of new partnerships, strategic alliances and investments.

Among the speakers of the Conference: Dan Basse, President and CEO, Agresource, Chicago, IL

Among the already registered companies for off-line participation, are such domestic agricultural and agribusiness leaders, as Cotecna Inspection (Vostok), ZK EFKO-K, Rusagro, Sucden (Russia), Industrial Group UMZ, Trade House Cherkizovo, Cherkizovo Group, TH «Investprom-Opt», ParitetAgro, Izobilnensky grain terminal, Syngenta, Sareptskay mill, Association of ElectronAgro, Agronout, Viterra Rus, DANONE RUSSIA, Belin, Petrokhleb-Kuban, MariboHilleshög, Russkiy Dom, Elevator «Kommodity Kolodeznoe», Agroholding STEPPE, Management Company of Russian Direct Investment Fund, Rail Pro, Louis Dreyfus Company, Trade House Zernotex, FES-Agro, Control Union, LYSTERRA, PhosAgro, Rusagro-Invest, Progress Agro, TH «Dominant», Altai Grain Processors Union, Essen production AG, Management Company «ASB-Agro», Zerno-Resurs, Schelkovo Agrohim, RAZDOLIE-EXPORT, GRANOLUX, August, PORT TRAТZIT, TC SIGMA, Novorossiysk Grain Plant, SPIMEX, EuroChem, SGS Vostok Limited and others.

Introducing the sponsors of the Conference:

Gold sponsor — STEPPE Agroholding https://ahstep.ru/

STEPPE Agroholding is one of the largest agricultural companies in the south of Russia, it is part of international investment company AFK Sistema. The land bank is 578 000 hectares, the company ranks 4th in the ranking of the largest landowners according to Forbes.

The company develops business in six key areas: crop production, dairy farming, trading of agricultural products, sugar and grocery trading, gardening, as well as cheese production and distribution. The main assets are located in the south of Russia in the most favorable regions in terms of climate, productivity and logistics — Rostov Region. Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories.

The revenue STEPPE Agroholding by the end of 2021 is 57.2 billion rubles (74.1% more compared to the same period last year), OIBDA is 14.4 billion rubles (an increase of 54.1% year on year). In the second quarter of 2022, the company’s revenue increased by 215.6% year on year to 15.3 billion rubles, OIBDA increased by 46.5% to 2.9 billion rubles year on year.

The gross harvest of wheat – the main production crop in 2022 became a record for the company – about 1.1 million tons, which is 13% more than the result last year. STEPPE Agroholding actively invests in breeding work. Together with a partner, a new variety of wheat «Sistema» was developed with a yield potential of over 100 centners per hectare.

The company has been actively developing an import substitution program for several years. Now the share of Russian agricultural machinery in the company’s fleet is about 70%, plant protection products – about 80%, the company also uses only Russian fertilizers and only domestic seeds of wheat and other key production crops. The implemented import substitution strategy allows the company to feel confident in the conditions of disruption of logistics chains and economic turbulence that has been observed in the market this year.

STEPPE Agroholding is the leader in Russia in dairy productivity of cows. In the rating of the most efficient farms in Russia according to the National Union of Milk Producers (Soyuzmoloko) and its partners, the farms of STEPPE Agroholding annually occupy the first place by a large margin from competitors. The company has seven dairy complexes. According to the results of 9 months of 2022, the annual growth rate of milk yields is 75%. By the end of the year, the Agricultural Holding plans to reach a record gross yield of more than 140 thousand tons.

The company produces a wide range of grocery products under its own brand. According to the results of 8 months of 2022, sales of cereals under the brand STEPPE increased by 80%, new lines of side dishes appeared on the market, the range of snacks expanded. The consumer segment of the STEPPE Agroholding business is also represented by a wide range of cheeses and dairy products. All these products can be found on the shelves of the country’s largest retail chains – Auchan, Lenta, Pyaterochka, Perekrestok, as well as Internet sites: OZON, Yandex.Market.

STEPPE Agroholding has 751 hectares of intensive type gardens in the Krasnodar Territory. The annual fruit harvest is about 30 thousand tons. The presence of its own fruit storage allows storing up to 23 thousand tons of products during the year. This allows us to guarantee regular deliveries to our retail partners throughout the year and not be affected by seasonal price drops in autumn during the period of mass fruit harvest.

Prompt response to external challenges, a high level of professionalism of the management team of the STEPPE Agroholding and effective development strategies are the key to the sustainability of the company, and also serve as a reliable foundation for intensive growth.

Silver sponsor — Syngenta http://syngenta.com

Since the formation of Syngenta in 2000, out of the agri-businesses of Zeneca and Novartis, the company has established itself as a leader in the Russian crop protection market and one of the largest suppliers of quality hybrid seeds. With a wide network of representative offices in over 30 Russian cities and more than 600 employees (doubled since 2007) Syngenta has been continuously expanding its operations into the country.

In 2017, Chinese state-owned ChemChina completed a deal to acquire Syngenta.

Syngenta has been consistently localizing and investing heavily in Russia. On October 24, 2019, the groundbreaking ceremony for Syngenta’s CP asset took place at the Yelets site of the Lipetsk Special Economic Zone, which would be home to the prospective operations. Syngenta is investing RUB 1.6 billion in its plant to create more than 40 jobs in the Yelets district. By 2021, 80% of Syngenta CP portfolio for Russian farmers will be produced in Russia.

In the beginning of September 2019 Syngenta announced about the acquisition of all relevant assets of The Cropio Group, an Ag Tech company with a presence in over 50 countries, but with a primary focus in Eastern Europe. The Cropio platform is an equipment-integrated, end-to-end software solution that provides imaging, recordkeeping, and equipment tracking.

In the rating of Rosselkhozbank, compiled in December 2020, the Cropio application took the first place among all precision farming services used in Russia. The coverage area of Cropio in Russia exceeds 8 million hectares.

The conference was supported by leading business news agencies Interfax, Grain-online and other agricultural media resources.

During all the conference lifetime the IKAR team of analysts will be available for informal talks on various vertical commodity markets, such as grains, oilseeds, sugar, meats, dairy and vegetables. See the results of the year in agricultural markets from IKAR

cereals — wheat, barley, corn, oats, rye, legumes
flour, bran, cereals — rice, buckwheat, hercules, millet
oilseeds — sunflower, soy, rapeseed, mustard, flax, safflower, ginger
sugar, beetroot and related markets — pulp, molasses, yeast, beet seeds, starch, molasses, GFS syrups
milk and dairy products
meat — poultry, pork, beef
vegetables: greenhouse — cucumbers, tomatoes and open ground – potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, beets