Thank you very much for joining the call. I suggest we are still letting people into the room, so just bear with us for a couple more minutes. We would like to ask everyone to be on mute, given the number of people online, so that we do not have interference. After a very brief presentation of our nine-month results, we'll go into Q&A, which we will also ask to be in writing in the box so that we can read it out for everyone. We start with our revenues. One can see that we managed to increase our top line in all business segments except for soybean processing. This is a technical because of the lower prices for soybean products. Profitability remains solid on a gross and EBITDA margin. If we are talking about our EBITDA margin, it is stable at 30%.
There is strong development on the biological assets growing in the ground, and our net profit margin even expanded from 14%-17%. Without IAS 41 effect, we also show our profitability on the same page, and it is slightly lower on the gross margin level at 37% and slightly lower on EBITDA margin. Talking about our cash flows, we still focus on maximizing our operating cash flows, and we are pleased to report that they increased by almost three quarters to EUR 136 million. We were able to continue investments. For the nine months of this year, the key investments went into agriculture and sugar making. Specifically, in sugar making, we are building a new silo, which became operational to preserve the quality of our sugar, especially for the premium export markets.
We are still on track to invest into the soybean protein concentrate project that we started last year, but this investment is likely to appear in the fourth quarter of this year. But also, despite our increase in CAPEX in the cash flows, the leverage still remains quite low, below one times net debt to EBITDA. Agriculture, we see positive pricing environment, especially for wheat and rapeseeds. Corn acreage was reduced this year as we are focusing on soybeans and sugar beets, which we process in-house. Nonetheless, the revenues and profitability for the crops that we sell to third-party off-takers rather than processing internally remains at a very good level. What was not as favorable this year is the weather conditions for growing our crops.
For winter crops such as wheat and rapeseeds, Ukraine was enjoying relatively favorable conditions, but drought and hot weather in summer, unfortunately, affected our late crops. We can see average yields in Ukraine in general and for us specifically down by 15%- 25%, whether it's corn, sunflower seeds, or soybeans. We are still in the finishing stages of harvesting sugar beets, and we also expect a similar impact on our yields there, which will bring our yields closer to the average Ukrainian levels. We finished winter crop sowing, rapeseeds, and wheat for next year's marketing season, and this is also in line with general progress in Ukraine, at which 98% of winter crops were already completed for next year's harvest. The pricing environment is better than last year, specifically for wheat in Ukraine.
Also, we can see that the farmers in Ukraine are able to earn more on a per ton basis because the pricing differential between global prices and Ukrainian ex-works prices is narrowing down. Odessa-based ports continue to operate at high throughput capacity despite more aggressive attacks from Russia and, unfortunately, fatalities and casualties involved. The volumes continue to flow out, so if this throughput capacity remains intact, Ukraine will be able to further reduce its logistics costs, which is very favorable to the local growers of grain and oilseeds. Sugar production, the pricing environment is worsening now, but if we take nine months overall, the prices were down by almost EUR 100, which obviously hit our profitability with gross margin contracting from 29%-24% and EBITDA margin at half of what it used to be last year. Sugar beet harvesting started earlier this year.
We have our five plants fully operational, and by now, we already processed almost 2 million tons of sugar beet and produced 270,000 tons of sugar, which was higher than last year during the same period. We continue to rely mostly on our own crops in sugar making at more than 80% of total sugar beet processed. With regards to Ukraine, the average yield is closer to 48 tons per hectare. So the overall sugar production is not known yet as sugar plants continue to operate, but it is likely to be slightly lower than last year on the account of lower sugar beet yields. The pricing environment, generally, as long as it remains above $500, remains more or less favorable despite the 20% drop compared to last year, which allows Ukrainian sugar producers to actively pursue exports of sugar outside Ukraine.
After the EU quota was exhausted by the end of the first half of this year, everyone is waiting to restart exports into the EU markets under 110,000-ton quarter from January, but in the meantime, Ukrainian sugar producers export on MENA markets until the reopening of the EU. Soybean processing demonstrating very steady margin despite lower prices for both soybean meal and oil. This is because management is focusing on the crush and margin and makes sure that it remains at good levels, 33% at gross margin level and EBITDA margin nearly 30%. Generally, there is an expectation of continuation of good margin environment for the crushers in Ukraine because the farmers increased production of soybeans from under 4 million tons before the war to 6 million tons this year, and higher availability of soybeans is very favorable for the crushers margin. Cattle farming continues growing from strength to strength.
We are increasing milk production, our herd, and daily milk yields. Pricing environment also remains favorable because there is a consolidation trend in the market. The household producers of raw milk numbers going down, while industrial producers such as Astarta keep increasing production, market share, and commanding premium price for its high-quality raw material. This is it for the nine-month results, and we would be very happy to answer your questions. One second. We are just looking for the box with the questions, and we'll read out the first one soon. Okay. First question coming from Adam. How many percentage of sugar amount that can be imported to? Do you mean EU rather than UA? I hope this is Europe. From Ukraine, will be assigned for Astarta. All company like Astarta may export as much as we want. I'm going to pass the floor to our commercial director, Viacheslav Chuk.
Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for your question. I would like to mention that as of now, there is a number of volumes of sugar set to be delivered by all Ukrainian producers, which is not allocated between separate players, and till June 2025, around 100,000 tons of sugar could be exported to the European Union. We, as the biggest exporter of the sugar from Ukraine, both to EU markets and world markets, and of course, we will be looking in this environment without no specific allocation, we will be willing to export according to our forecast to preserve our numbers. However, there is now, there are discussions and still with the government to allocate the quota to the producers according to the share of the production as per market.
So it means that our share to the EU could be according to our share of production of sugar in Ukraine. So it's around 25%.
Yes. I would like to add one of the areas I'm responsible for is sustainability. And it should be noted that EU consumers of sugar and other products very much focus on sustainability attributes of the products imported from Ukraine. And this is not just concerning deforestation regulation, which is coming into force next year, but also regarding sugar. We are an industrial producer of sugar, which is focusing on regenerative agricultural methods, on decarbonization of our sugar making. We have sizable renewable energy, biogas, which is fed into one of our sugar plants. And this all plays a very positive role in negotiating our volumes placement into the EU market.
We believe we can be seen as a supplier of more sustainable product compared to our domestic competitors. So we do hope that our exports will be as strong as in the previous period once the market is officially reopened. Next question from Yakub. Could you comment on lower cost of production of sugar in third quarter? Do you believe you can maintain this level in 2025? Do we have it shared on the screen? So we go back to share sugar production on the screen. Right. Third quarter. Yakub, to be honest, we look at our results on a cumulative basis because of the seasonality of our business. So I suspect our costs will lower because of lower exports in the third quarter. But also, we have a mix of old and already newly produced sugar in third quarter.
We did focus on the cost of sugar for the new season. We were able to lower the costs on raw material side, on sugar beet costs, on gas prices. This is probably a blended cost reduction from two seasons in the third quarter. Okay. Next question. A word of comment to higher unit cost of milk and grains in third quarter. To be honest, Yakub, it would be easier for us to comment on what we have on the screen. I cannot deduce currently a separate third quarter from nine-month results, but I suggest we will handle it offline if we are talking just about third quarter results. Could you please comment on the declining local sugar price over recent few months? What are your expectations for it? Is sugar exports in other destinations than EU profitable if the transport cost is considered?
Savvas, please comment on the prices.
Thank you very much, Yulia. I would like to add that it's traditionally that prices are dropping during the high season when there is a production. You can also see this on other markets like Europe. And some stabilization will come after the sugar campaign is over and the storages are packed with sugar. From the perspective of profitability of other export destinations, as you know, most bigger part of the export destinations are linked to the London Stock Exchange tickers of the London sugar. And the fluctuation of such London for the recent couple of months gave opportunity to export the sugar with profit to other markets. Thank you.
Next question is, is there any work related with EU CBAM, Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism regulation in Astarta, calculation system or preparation for such calculation? Right.
As you know, CBAM does not cover agriculture and food processing in the EU, and it is not expected to cover same sectors in Ukraine. Maybe European regulators decide that after shipping and transportation, they would like to turn to another sector. But given the food inflation, it is unlikely in the next several years. However, it doesn't mean that carbon is not something that we don't take into account in our strategy and general focus on decarbonization because sugar plants are one of the largest fossil fuel consumers as an industry. Our boilers at sugar plants are included into the MRV monitoring, reporting, and verification project. In fact, our first report was supposed to be evaluated by Ukrainian authorities before the war, but we didn't receive any feedback in 2022 for obvious reasons.
So we know that the Ukrainian government is still working to implement an emission trading system in line with the EU requirements. And this is where the economic costs and opportunities will materialize if Ukraine launches ETS. But this is not a CBAM issue. We do not expect to pay an import duty related to carbon emissions for the food products. Can companies share some insights on AgriChain tool? Do companies have any progress on it? And what costs are AgriChain tool support and development among other expenses? Is company going to profit from it in the future? Okay. Sorry, my screen jumped to the next question, but I will come back to the previous one. So regarding AgriChain tool, this is our in-house software, which allows us to streamline our agricultural operations, but it is also the core for regenerative agriculture.
The key decarbonization tools and regenerative agriculture tools in agriculture are reduced tillage, precision farming, and cover crops. So AgriChain is our key tool for precision farming. If we can deliver crop protection, fertilizers, and other inputs directly to the plant, then we will reduce our costs in agriculture. And AgriChain now covers all stages of agriculture production. It also covers maintenance of agriculture equipment, storage facilities, transportation. So it really is becoming more than just a primary agriculture tool, which monitors crops, diseases, and satellite images of our crops. It does present some modules which are of interest to other players. And I think we mentioned in our previous calls that selected modules are used by other agricultural producers in Ukraine and licensing agreements. So from this point of view, AgriChain is recognized as a primary IT agri-management system.
Do you observe any M&A activity in the Ukrainian agricultural sector? Well, there is always activity in the Ukrainian agricultural sector, first of all, related to farmland. It usually changes hands right after each harvest, which are two harvests in Ukraine for spring and late crops. But if we're talking about anything sizable above $100 million, no, we haven't seen any of these large-scale transactions recently. Follow-up from Martin. Shall I understand that 25% decline from the top in July is a regular high-season pattern? I think this question is probably for the sugar prices domestically.
That's a follow-up question. I would suggest that in the markets where there is 1,000,000 consumption and 1,800,000 forecast for the production, and not all of the players are eligible or in compliance to the export to destinations like MENA CEFTA.
So that provides for the conditions of such drop of price on the high season. Thank you.
Another question. Currently, in Western media, we get lots of news related to the electricity supply problems in Ukraine. How much does this impact your sugar and other production facilities? Sugar production is based on gas, natural gas supplies, plant pellets, coal, which we have in stock or access to currently, and the sugar-making season should be over soon, so this risk is already very much behind, touch wood. For soybean crusher, it operates on biogas, which is produced in-house from sugar beet processing residues, sugar beet pulp. It is converted in our biogas facility into biogas and then supplied to the soybean crusher throughout 11 months of the year, and also, we're now thinking about converting more biogas into electricity for in-house needs.
We would expect a higher share of renewable electricity in total consumption this year compared to the previous year. And we always look forward to increasing this share. So from this point of view, we're pretty much well supplied. And we also have backup diesel generators for our operations when we have intermittent access to the grid. Is your production cost of sugar within break-even for 2024-2025 campaign with UAH 20,000 per ton, excluding [inaudible]?
I think that still the season is ongoing. So we need to wait the closing of the season to calculate the price.
Yeah, but at the moment, our costs are lower than the price in Ukraine or globally. Do you recognize any proprietary volumes in the sugar segment, or all reported volumes are from your own production? We provide a breakdown of in-house sugar beet in total every year.
And for the remaining 15%-25%, depending on the year of sugar beet processed, this is supplied by third-party farmers. And the conditions we work with them on can vary from a tolling arrangement to purchase on our own books, processing, and selling as our product. So in the overall scheme of things, the majority, well, overwhelming majority of sugar is our own proprietary product.
If I may add on the purchase from third-party sugar, it depends, of course, on the periods when the farmers are willing to sell. But in trading in produced sugar, if we talk about the current campaign, which is started in the third quarter of 2024, we already purchased around up to 3,000 tons of sugar.
Plans for current cash assets? What plans for current cash assets? Sorry, can you please specify what you mean, Yuri?
I mean, the company is going to do with significant cash on balance.
Well, I don't want to make a joke that unlike Kernel, we are not buying crypto assets, but to be totally open, we continue to invest. You see that we modernize our agricultural equipment. We build new silos specifically to have in mind serving the European market of white sugar. Second year of investment into the soy protein concentrate, which will be destined for the European market. Overall, our CAPEX program is higher starting from last year compared to the previous years. So we have development plans, and this cash will be employed in our development program. I hope we answered your questions. I don't see any more questions popping up in the box. So I would like to thank everyone for your interest and dialing into this call.
We are available to follow up on any more questions on the one-on-one.