Astarta, the largest Ukrainian producer of sugar, plans to retain total investment at the level of 2015 in 2016 – EUR 24 million, Astarta CEO Viktor Ivanchyk said in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Some 60% of them are investment into agricultural production, 30% in sugar production and 10% in other segments. It is planned investment will be sent to boost the capacity of two elevators by 60,000-80,000 tonnes and buy agricultural machinery in 2016.

Ivanchyk said that in the past 10 years Astarta has invested around $500 million in business development.

The company plans to send advance payments for planting sugar beets and soybeans - UAH 100 million (UAH 75 million in 2015).

"There are difficulties with winter crops, the structure of crops will be clear in next one month and a half," he said.

He said that the company as usual will sow sugar beets, wheat, soybeans, corn and sunflower seeds.

"The sowing campaign will cost more, but we're seriously working on the cash cost. We manage to agree on discounts with suppliers. We do not have a shortage. We've bought seeds, contracted crop protection agents and now we're buying fuel. We're ready to add farmers to the purchases and share discounts with them, including for machinery," he said.

Astarta is a vertically integrated agroindustrial holding, uniting six regional divisions in Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, and Kharkiv regions. They include nine sugar factories, agricultural farms with a land bank of about 245,000 hectares and dairy farms. Last year, the holding commissioned a plant for processing soybeans in Poltava region (Globyno processing plant).