Bunge Opens $180M Oilseed Complex in Ukraine

Bunge officially opened its newly launched $180 million production and transshipping complex at the Mykolaiv Sea Port in Ukraine, reports Vector News.

The investment, which is one the largest U.S. investments ever made in the Ukrainian agriculture sector, is being seen as a testament to the growing investor confidence in the future growth of Ukraine’s ag sector, while also enabling an increase in price of agricultural commodities, and a strengthening of the Ukrainian currency exchange rate.

“The launch of this complex is an example of strong faith of the investor in good economic future of Ukraine,” said Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, at the opening ceremony, according to the Kiev Post.

The complex, which is centrally located at the port and is situated only 100 meters from the pier, makes it the only such facility in Ukraine so close to the water. It includes an oilseed refinery, an edible oil handling facility and an expanded grain terminal. It is estimated that the new oil plant will have the capacity to process 790,000 tons of oilseed per year, or 2,400 tons of sunflower and 1,700 tons of soybeans per day, and translates to a reloading capacity increase of 1.75 million tons of grain, meal and oil every year. It is also expected to lift Ukraine’s product volume and cargo handling capacity at the port by one million tons annually, according to World Grain.

The facility has state-of-the-art oilseed processing equipment for pressing and extraction, cleaning, drying, and technological storage, which all meet international standards. The site has a solid fuel burner that uses renewable fuel, including husk waste that is left from the processing activities.

This is Bunge’s second project at the port, after the company built a handling terminal at the port in 2011, expanding the country’s export volumes by three million tons per year. Together the two projects demonstrate the ongoing efforts of Bunge to develop infrastructure at Mykolaiv.

"The total cost of the two projects is $280 million. We will continue investing not only in the development of infrastructure and exports capacity of Ukrainian ports, but also in Ukrainian agriculture in general," said Dmytro Horshunov, Managing Director, Bunge Ukraine.