Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) has become the latest company to enter Eastern European biofuel development.

Today, ADM announced the completion of the acquisition of Ilitchevskiy Maslo Extractionniy Zavod (IMEZ) in the Ukraine, a seed crushing facility close to the port of Odessa in the Ukraine.

"The IMEZ facility at Illitchevsk complements our global asset base in an important origination location," said Mark Zenuk, ADM Vice President and Managing Director for Europe and Asia.

New legislation in the Ukraine in recent months introduced favorable tax incentives for biofuel developers. Ukrainian officials estimate at least 20 biodiesel plants will be built in the country in the near future, with a combined capacity of at least 623,000 tons a year.

Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) is a world leader in bioenergy, given that it is one of the world's largest processors of soybeans, corn, wheat and cocoa. It has already been pursuing biodiesel refining in Germany.

Analysts applaud the company for preserving its margins, even in the face of skyrocketing corn prices fostered by ethanol production.

"ADM's oilseeds business serves as a natural hedge to its corn processing business, whose growth rates and deltas on a sequential basis suggest there is a tendency for the growth of the businesses to move in opposite directions," wrote David Edwards of investment bank ThinkEquity this morning, who specifically noted ADM's corn processing margins "have held up relatively well."

Some have worried about the sustainability of ADM's business, given the rising costs of corn. But Edwards reiterated his buy rating today for ADM, and raised (yes, raised!) his price target for the company to $47.

There's not a lot of corn grown in Eastern Europe. Rapeseed is the biofuel feedstock of choice, given the plant's hardiness in harsh climates. It's often used as a winter cover crop, as it provides good coverage of soil in winter and limits nitrogen run-off. A variety of rapeseed best known in North America is canola.

Other developers have been targeting the region for a while.

German biofuels producer EOP is betting Romania and Bulgaria will be good targets for biofuel development.

EOP Beteiligungs has built operations in Romania to process rapeseed. The company has announced several international projects in the past year, including a joint venture for the processing of rapeseeds in Ukraine, and other projects in Austria and Latvia.

In its expansion, EOP identified these countries as possibly having to struggle to comply with E.U. goals on the use of alternative fuels.

Even Russia is ramping up biofuel development, eying it as a valuable export product.

Today, the Russian news and information agency Novosti reported that Russia will soon enter the production of biofuels for export, quoting the country's agriculture minister.

Alexei Gordeyev said Russia is building a plant to produce ethanol from grain in the West Siberian city of Omsk, and a rapeseed-based biodiesel refinery is expected to be constructed in the country's west, Gordeyev said.

Russia plans to export its biofuel to Europe, where environmentally friendly biofuel must by law constitute 5.75% of motor fuel as of 2010, the agriculture minister said.

ThinkEquity's Edwards was dubious that ADM or other western companies would set up operations in Russia.

“From what I understand, it’s a place you want to keep your investment dollars out of. They’re a country known for nationalizing things,” he noted to Cleantech.com.