Mr. Alisher Tiazhyn, Director General of Kusto Agro, is sure of that. In a conversation with Stanislav Shum, Director and Founder of the media resource Aggek.net, he told about this and also explained how logistics works when you have your own wagons and whether this helps deal with the transportation problem.

The Company’s wagon fleet totals 70 wagons. At first the Company had 20 wagons, then another 50 were purchased. “We bought the first wagons in Kremenchuk. I personally went to the factory and inspected them. They are of high quality and reliable. 50 wagons were purchased in the Carpathians,” Alisher Tiazhyn says. According to Director General, about USD 3.5 million were invested in the wagons. Before the war, this was enough to ensure the transportation cycle completely. And if the Company’s land bank had increased to 30,000-35,000 hectares, the Company would probably buy more wagons. But so far they don’t see any point in doing this. Another factor in favor of this decision is the manner of operation of the Ukrainian Railway, since the wagons may be delayed at a sorting station for months. In his opinion, the advantage of own wagon fleet is huge, the main point is the logistics which, if arranged skillfully, will not account for a half of the total price. The logistics must be underlain by correct algorithms and calculations. In any case, it is more profitable to transport grain by rail than by truck.

Unfortunately, since the full-scale invasion began, the Company’s logistics became more complicated but it has not been put on hold. Despite much lower turnovers, the harvest was transported. In the first months of the war, Kusto staff managed to unload 10,000 tons of corn. If earlier the harvest went to the ports of Odessa, since the beginning of the war we had to look for an alternative towards the western channels. And the Company coped with this task. “Since the war has broken out, our specialists began to study the market searching for new ways of transportation. That’s how we found Polish companies which were interested in our proposals,” Director General explains. About 30,000 tons of corn remained here from the past year’s harvest, which accounts for 20% of the entire harvest. “Generally, we forecasted that at the end of the marketing year there will be about 35,000 tons of grain left at the elevators. We have learned to plan, and this helps in the production, even in the hard times like today,” Director General says. To start transportation, we had to wait for one month until the plan was confirmed.

“Unfortunately, many agrarians were confronted with this problem this year,” Mr. Alisher Tiazhyn says. Thus, it was only recently that the 2021 harvest headed in the right direction by rail. The war in Ukraine has also changed the unloading of wagons. The unloading and loading speed decreased almost four times. Wagons go via different stations forming a train along the way, and this is time consuming. While earlier the turnover of one wagon was three times a month, i.e. one wagon transported 70 tons of grain three times, today the Company realizes that if the wagons return in a month or two, it will be a good result. Besides, the Ukrainian Railways Ukrzaliznytsia raised its tariffs, and while earlier the Company paid UAH 250 per ton of grain – today the charge is by 70% higher.

However, the Company is convinced that own wagons bring huge advantages in agricultural production. They always “lend a reliable shoulder” like own combine harvester, planter, or cultivator. This is a guarantee of transportation and, of course, it is cheaper than renting the wagons. Yes, there may be a low turnover but, anyway, the Company does not depend on a forwarder and does not overpay, and its grain is in its own wagons. “We have our own wagon fleet and we don’t depend on anyone,” Mr. Alisher Tiazhyn summarizes.