BONTRUP Ukraine

Heritage in agriculture

With a long history in farming, the BONTRUP family business is keen to innovate with nature to feed society sustainably. BONTRUP owns and operates about 22.000 hectares of fertile soil in the north east of Ukraine, managed by BONTRUP Ukraine. BONTRUP Ukraine was established with the aim of operating a large-scale agriculture operation with a long-term vision and to create long-term shared value in a clever way for customers, partners, employees, society and the company. To walk the talk in its agriculture business, people and nature are a central theme.

The 22.000 hectares are particularly suitable for agriculture and dairy farming because of the type of soil and the favourable climate. The agriculture business focusses on grains (wheat and corn) and on ingredients for the plant-based oil sector such as rapeseed and sunflower.

Crops are sold both in the domestic (sunflower, rye) and foreign markets (wheat, corn, rapeseed). Sales contracts are mainly concluded with the world’s leading traders such as Nibulon, Glencore, Bunge, Agroprosperis, Cargill, and leading Ukrainian converters such as Kernel and MHP.

Integrated in local community

BONTRUP works in partnership with local residents and governments, such as village and city councils, to initiate and provide funding for the development of these programmes.

Support is provided to educational and medical institutions. Since the start in 2007 the ‘BONTRUP’ volleyball and football tournament have become an annual tradition. Over the past three years, about 2.3 million UAH have been allocated for charitable assistance to the population of the villages in the Shostka and Glukhiv regions.

300 Ukrainian employees

Driven by the shared passion to innovate with nature, BONTRUP Ukraine’s 300 employees actively work to improve and protect the local environment and ecology. Collectively they make it is possible to achieve high yields, optimally using all production potential for the further sustainable development of the agriculture business, and at that the same time to preserve the land and the environment.

Partnership with FMO

In January 2014, Dutch Development Bank (FMO), signed a financing agreement with the sole shareholder of BONTRUP Ukraine, BONTRUP Agriculture B.V.. With the support of a EUR 7.5mln senior credit facility from FMO, BONTRUP Agriculture is further expanding its business in the Ukraine. The expansion plan consists of investments in farmland, machinery (e.g. tractors) and an expansion of the current warehousing. The FMO financing is being used to support the introduction of technology (high standard dairy farm practices and agricultural farming) in the Ghlukov region of the Ukraine. This is a remote region close to the border of Russia where high standard technology is not widely available.

Partnership with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency

In 2019, BONTRUP Agriculture successfully finalized a loan agreement in the amount of EUR 3.5mln with the Dutch Trade and Investment Fund (DTIF). DTIF is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is managed by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). These funds are being used by BONTRUP Agriculture to further invest in professionalizing and expanding its existing business in Ukraine in addition to the steps already taken.

Acquisition of arable land

BONTRUP Ukraine operates arable land on a lease basis from the local community. Frequently, the local government coordinates opportunities to acquire arable land. In support of this process, the local government organizes information sessions to explain to the local community and land owners how the lease contracts work. Information is shared to provide insights from a financial perspective, but also from a social impact perspective. Per hectare leased, BONTRUP Ukraine donates money that will be allocated to a variety of social projects. BONTRUP Ukraine is committed to follow this process, as it ensures the resources are spend in a correct manner. If the land owners are interested in a lease contract, they reach out to us, after which a contract is set-up and signed. This process is conducted in compliance with Ukraine legislation.