Transportation costs for importing goods have quadrupled compared to pre-war levels, and transport delays at the border average 20 days, said Dmytro Derevytskyi, chairman of the board of directors of the national marketplace network Allo Dmytro Derevytskyi, chairman of the board of directors of the national market chain Allo.
“In the pre-war period, a truck from Warsaw to Lviv cost about EUR1.3 thousand, then in 2022 – EUR2-2.5 thousand. Now the freight is about EUR4.8 thousand and changes daily, somewhere plus or minus EUR300,” he explained at a discussion organized by Deloitte in Kyiv on Wednesday.
He also noted that the search for alternative options (to the Polish border) is not optimal. According to him, the company has redirected its trucks to Slovakia, Hungary and Romania amid the blockade of the Polish border, but the checkpoints there do not have the capacity to quickly process the increased flow of freight traffic. Waiting times at the border from Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia range from 3 to 6 days, and taking into account the queue at the Ukrainian border for exit (14 days), trucks stand in line for about 20 days.
“The cost of funds in Ukraine is very high. Imagine which business will be able to pay for this downtime for such a long time,” Derevytsky said and called on business associations to lobby for at least a reduction in transport downtime on the Ukrainian border.
Allo LLC was established in 1998. The group’s network includes showrooms under the Allo Mah and Allo brands, Mi stores and outlets under the brands of telecom operators.
According to the Opendatabot resource, the participants of Allo LLC are PE Dniproinvest 2016 (95.19%), Dmytro Derevytskyi (3.6%), and Maksym Raskin (1.21%). Derevytskyi is listed as the ultimate beneficiary.
