Ukraine officially opened a new sugar production season on September 1 with the production of sugar beet at Radekhivsky Tsukor LLC, the National Association of Sugar Producers Ukrtsukor has said. According to its website, this year the most part of sugar plants of Ukraine postponed a start of new season of beet refining for later terms.
“The reason is unfavorable weather conditions, because in most regions of Ukraine, soil crust has formed due to hot and dry weather, which complicates the technological process of harvesting. In other parts of the country, due to heavy rains, the sugar content of root crops decreased, so the farmers stopped field works, expecting higher quality indicators of the crops. These very factors influence the reduction of sugar beet digging,” the association quotes its deputy board chairman Ruslan Yanenko as saying.
Besides, Ukrtsukor expects better situation on the fields, and the most number of plants will start operating in the end of September. In total, 32 sugar plants will work in new season.
As reported, the production of sugar in the 2018/2019 marketing year decreased by 15%, to 1.82 million tonnes. Some 42 sugar refineries operated during that season.
According to estimates of Ukrtsukor, the number of operating sugar plants in 2019/2020 will drop from 42 to 32, when sugar production is predicted on the level of 1.1-1.2 million tonnes.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at a closed meeting has decided to dismiss Ulana Suprun from the post of acting Minister of Health of Ukraine, MP from the European Solidarity faction Oleksiy Honcharenko has said.
“The decision was made unanimously. The decision on Suprun is final,” he said on Facebook.
He noted that this decision was made in a package of personnel issues (dismissal) along with the issue of dismissal of Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko from the post of head of Kyiv City State Administration.
As reported, Ulana Suprun was appointed acting Minister of Health on July 27, 2016.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has agreed on the dismissal of Head of Kyiv City State Administration Vitali Klitschko.
“We turned to the President’s Office regarding the dismissal of Klitschko,” Honcharuk said at a government meeting on Wednesday.
The Ukrainian delegation, led by Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection Oleksiy Orzhel, is ready for trilateral negotiations on the transit of Russian gas in the Ukraine-EU-Russia format in September, the press service of the relevant ministry said, citing the words of the head of the department.
“The Ukrainian delegation, which I will head, is ready to take part in trilateral gas talks this month,” the press service quoted Orzhel as saying.
The Ukrproduct Group, a large Ukrainian producer of packaged butter and processed cheese, saw GBP 0.74 million of net profit in H1, 2019 that is 1.8 times more than over the same period in 2018.
According to the company’s report posted on the London Stock Exchange, Ukrproduct revenue saw 1.5-fold rise, reaching GBP 22.24 million, and gross profit grew by 1.55 times, up to GBP 1.93 million.
Through the first six months of 2019 operating profit of the company totaled GBP 0.4 million compared with operating loss of GBP 0.19 million in H1 2018.
As at June 30, 2019, the group had total liabilities of GBP 16.8 million against GBP 15.1 million in 2018, net assets and net assets of GBP 1.3 million million with cash balances of GBP 0.2 million.
According to the group, the main drivers of revenue growth were butter, beverages and processed cheese. The Company estimates that Ukrproduct’s butter market share in Ukraine has increased by approximately 3% to 10.1% when comparing H1 2019 with H1 2018, whilst market share in processed cheese and processed cheese products has decreased by approximately 0.3% to 8.5% when comparing H1 2019 with H1 2018.
“However, in the first half of 2019, Ukrproduct became the top exporter of processed cheese in Ukraine. Hard cheese sales decreased by 2%, whilst sales of bulk & packaged spreads increased by 17%,” the group said.
As the group said, sales of kvass beverage improved, driven by an active marketing strategy and the launch of a new product containing natural ingredients of juice and mint.
The most significant portion of the Group’s revenue comes from selling packaged butter and supplementary products, which represented 57.2% in the first half of 2019 and 45.9% in first half of 2018 of total revenue for the relevant periods.
Export sales of Ukrproduct increased due to rising export sales in supplementary products, however, export sales of packaged butter and spreads decreased overall. Skimmed milk products exports continue to decline as a result of worldwide prices being lower than domestic market prices.
The Group continues to expand export sales into non-dairy products: beverages and other food commodities.
Ukrproduct Group produces branded dairy goods (the Nash Molochnyk, Narodny Produkt, Vershkova Dolyna and other trademarks).
Number of unemployed in Ukraine in 2018-2019
