The Chinese company Jiangling Group Electric Vehicle (JMEV) plans to build an electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Sremska Mitrovica in northwestern Serbia with the long-term goal of exporting cars to the European Union without paying duties. This was reported to Radio Free Europe by Brancica Zjalic, JMEV project manager in Serbia.
“The size of the investment will be determined in the next two months and depends on whether we will produce three thousand or five thousand cars a year,” Zjalic said. She added that Serbia was chosen because of its good economic relations with both China and the EU. “Serbia is a kind of bridge between China and Europe in terms of sales of electric vehicles,” she said.
In October 2024, the European Union imposed high duties (up to 35%) on electric vehicles made in China for five years to protect European automakers from allegedly unfair competition from Chinese manufacturers that benefit from government subsidies.
Serbia, for its part, signed a free trade agreement with China that entered into force in 2024, which has drawn criticism from the EU given Serbia’s status as a candidate for accession to the Union.
Source: https://t.me/relocationrs/542
Wine consumption in the world in 2024 decreased by 12% compared to the peak level of 2007, according to a report by Knight Frank.
At the same time, “some of the world’s key wine regions were not affected by this decline.”
The vineyards of New Zealand suffered the most. For example, in the Marlborough region, their value fell by 33% last year from a historic high in 2023, said Kurt Lindsay of Bayleys, Knight Frank’s partner company in the local market.
The value of vineyards in the Los Carneros region in California’s Napa Valley fell by 15% in 2024 compared to the previous year, in Australia’s Barossa Valley and France’s Côte du Rhône region – by 10%.
Wine production has decreased by about 20% over the past 20 years, according to Knight Frank. At the same time, many winemakers still have excess stocks, the Financial Times reports.
According to Lindsay, excess stocks in Marlborough, New Zealand, have led to a decrease in the cost of bulk wine (shipped in large containers and bottled at the destination) from 7 New Zealand dollars ($3.9) to 3 dollars per liter.
In Chile, the price of Pais grapes for balloon wine fell to $0.09 per kg last year, which is about half the cost, says Miguel Torres chief winemaker Eduardo Jordan.
At the same time, premium grape-growing areas, including French Champagne, have retained their value, the FT writes.
In the British Essex, the value of vineyards jumped by 20% in 2024, according to Knight Frank.
Austria has supported the Grain from Ukraine food initiative by contributing EUR2 million, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reports.
According to the report, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Vitaliy Koval discussed cooperation in the agricultural sector and the development of trade relations with Austrian Ambassador to Ukraine Arad Benkö. He also thanked the Austrian partners for their contribution to the Grain From Ukraine initiative of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“This is an additional €2 million for food security, which is an important step in supporting countries suffering from hunger,” he said.
The Minister emphasized that European integration is one of the priorities of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and spoke about the steps already taken on the way to the EU. In particular, the parties discussed the need to work together at the European Commission level to ensure unimpeded exports of Ukrainian agricultural products.
“Austria remains an important trading partner of Ukraine: in 2024, bilateral trade in food and agricultural products amounted to $210 million. Ukraine exported mainly corn, fruit and vegetable juices, soybeans, sunflower oil, as well as frozen fruits and nuts. Instead, it imported chocolate and cocoa products, ready-made sauces, animal feed, corn, and mineral and carbonated waters from Austria,” Koval explained.
The Minister also suggested considering a mechanism to insure agricultural trade operations between Ukraine and Austria against military risks.
The construction of the Port.Lviv logistics center with a total area of 77 thousand square meters has been completed, and the final stage of the complex received a certificate of commissioning in February 2025, the press service of the developer and project management company Alterra Group toldInterfax-Ukraine.
The estimated market value of the complex of all buildings is about $65 million. The territory combines warehouse, production, retail, and office space. The premises range in size from 60 to 16.5 thousand square meters, with ceiling heights from 3 to 12 meters. As of February 2025, the vacancy rate was less than 1%.
More than 80 companies from various industries are located on the territory, and more than 1 thousand jobs have been created. Among the residents of Port.Lviv are the distributor of auto parts OMEGA, the international cargo sorting center Meest International, manufacturers of natural peanut butter TOM, ceramic tiles Golden Tile, TSG auto glass, and other businesses that cooperate and reinforce each other.
The security of the logistics complex is ensured by video surveillance and access control systems for vehicles and people. The complex is equipped with fire sprinkler systems, automated communications management and a backup power supply. During power outages, a system of generators ensures continuous operation.
Alterra Group LLC was established in 2016 with a charter capital of UAH 5 million and the ultimate beneficiary is Dmytro Kovalchuk. The company has nine projects in its portfolio, with 107,868 sqm already commissioned and 108,900 sqm to be ready in 2025. According to the company’s annual reports, the company’s revenue for 2024 amounted to UAH 236 million 969.7 thousand, which is twice as much as in 2023, and the net loss was UAH 699.3 thousand, which is 1.7 times less than the loss for 2023.
Ukraine has more than UAH 126 billion in its treasury account as of March 3, as well as $40.3 billion in foreign exchange reserves, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“The treasury account includes foreign currency funds. In fact, the budget execution for the first two months is more than UAH 2 billion plus, that is, we are filling our budget for both January and February, and both customs and tax authorities have fulfilled the plan,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
Shmyhal clarified that he reported this information on the sufficiency of financial resources and the possibility of financing the $38 billion budget deficit in 2025 at the rate of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
He reminded that Ukraine has recently passed the seventh review of the IMF program and will receive a tranche of $0.4 billion, which was reduced from the previously agreed $0.9 billion precisely because of the availability of sufficient resources and the desire to receive this money later.
“All other instruments are actually concentrated around the IMF program: Ukraine Facility from the European Union, under which we will receive EUR 12.5 billion this year. Also, the infrastructure of the $50 billion ERA loan (proceeds from frozen assets of the Russian Federation – IF-U) is actually locked around this program: Europe will give us EUR18 billion in the form of a macrofinance this year,” the Prime Minister said.
He added that the agreement signed with the participation of the President on March 1 with the United Kingdom will bring in more than $3 billion.
“We also have Japan and Canada ahead of us with their contributions to the ERA program. We are also working with the World Bank, the EBRD, other financial partners, and other countries. These are the Nordics, the Baltic countries, European countries, which also make smaller contributions, but we will receive from 100 to 300 to 500 million euros from other partners this year. All of this adds up to the budget deficit we have,” Shmyhal explained.
Over the past five years, Ukraine has gained access to 91 new markets, the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, Serhiy Tkachuk, said during a public report on the results of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection in 2024.
He noted that in 2020, there was a certain decline in the pace of opening new markets for Ukrainian agricultural products. Thus, since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Ukrainian agricultural products have been able to enter only 13 new markets, while in 2019 this figure was 32 new markets.
Among the negative factors affecting the expansion of the geography of agricultural sales, he also mentioned the war, which at the same time allowed the launch of a new type of product quality control system – online audits. However, not all countries agree to use them, in particular, Moldova does not agree to work on this principle.
Tkachuk emphasized that the government planned to open 14 new markets in 2024, but was lucky to increase this figure to 16 new markets. These include access for Ukrainian honey to the Chinese market, poultry to Bahrain, egg products to Canada, and flour and feed to Israel.
“In general, Ukraine currently has the right to export agricultural products to 364 trade destinations,” added the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection.
He said that in 2025, Ukraine hopes to open the Chinese market for Ukrainian peas and wild-caught aquatic products, pet food, poultry and flour. The Ukrainian government is also negotiating to open the UK market for Ukrainian beef.
