Kernel, a large Ukrainian agrarian group, saw a 1.7% fall in grain sales in the third quarter of FY2017 started in July 2016 year-over-year, to 1.39 million tonnes.

The company said in a report posted on its website that bulk sunflower oil sales fell by 8.2%, to 293,750 tonnes and bottled oil sales grew by 21.3%, to 34.62 million liters.

Over the period the holding crushed 860,630 tonnes of sunflower seeds, which is 22.2% better than in Q3 FY 2016, reflecting near full utilization of the company's crushing plants on account of record sunflower seed harvest in Ukraine.

According to the document, export terminals continue to set records with transshipment volumes amounting to 1.614 million tonnes in Q3 FY2017, a 9.7% increase year-over-year.

In 9M FY2017 Kernel saw an 11.9% rise in grain sales, to 4.103 million tonnes, a 3.5% rise in bulk sunflower oil sales, to 802,140 tonnes and a 19.3% rise in bottled oil sales, to 92.18 million liters.

Total acreage sown for FY2018 is scheduled to be 381,900 hectares, negligibly lower than 385,600 hectares a year ago.

Crop mix remained virtually unchanged for FY2018 with winter wheat at 22% (vs. 21% in FY2017), corn - 37% (vs. 36% in FY2017), sunflower – 22% (vs. 21% in FY2017). Acreage under soybeans decreased to 12% in FY2018 (vs. 15% in FY2017) and rapeseed increased to 1.9% (vs. 0.7% in FY2017) of total areas in FY2018.

Kernel is the world's largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil. It is the leading manufacturer and supplier of agricultural products from the Black Sea region to world markets.