Agroton has just revealed further third quarter losses..
CEO Iurii Zhuravlov said that the group's "focus for 2010-11 was on reducing costs to become a leader in cost versus yield".
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There is this regular pattern amongst agri-business in Ukraine; spend like there’s no tomorrow, wonder why you haven’t made any profit then start cutting costs like there’s no tomorrow.
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The trick is knowing when and where to cut.
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It takes experienced and determined agronomists to know what can be cut, what can be reduced, what can be replaced, what should to be left in place and what needs to be increased to maintain viable margins.
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Unfortunately there are precious few experienced agronomists currently operating in Ukraine, there are loads of guys called agronomists but they have a veneer thin level of knowledge and are completely resistant to adopting new techniques and ideas.
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While I wish Mr Zhuralov every success I would focus on acquiring experienced and capable people with innovative ideas and agronomic knowledge and develop an agronomy strategy based on proven and reliable data.