Web exclusive posted August 29, 2008 at 1:49 p.m. CST

Ukrainian agricultural producer Landkom International PLC released its 2008 rapeseed harvest data Aug. 28. Approximately 7.94 million pounds of its 48.7 million-pound rapeseed harvest was lower-quality product, which will be processed into 792,500 gallons of biodiesel for use in the company's tractors, trucks and logistics fleet.

"The costs associated with this part of the crop were substantially less than the high-quality [rapeseed] sold for foodstuff," the company reported.

Earlier this summer, Landkom International pre-sold the first 19.8 million pounds of its rapeseed to "one of the world's largest commodity suppliers," at approximately 24.5 cents a pound, it stated.

Landkom International has also invested in its own biodiesel plant "in order to reduce the company's exposure to fuel costs."

The Ukrainian company's Chief Executive Officer Richard Spinks said that despite the late start to the land preparation last year and the "derelict state of the land brought back into production" as well as other setbacks, Landkom is thrilled with the product yield and quality. The company reports it managed to yield 40.9 million pounds of what it called "high quality" rapeseed from 12,363 acres – which represents an average yield of 3,305 pounds per acre. In North America, canola farmers – canola being a low acid variety of rapeseed – are extremely satisfied with 2,500 pounds per acre.