As of September 18, farmers in all regions of Ukraine planted 1.0487 million hectares of winter crops, up from 639.9 thousand hectares last week, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reports.
According to the report, winter wheat was sown on 340.3 thousand hectares (101.1 thousand hectares a week earlier), barley – on 16.5 thousand hectares (3.7 thousand hectares), rye – on 3.4 thousand hectares (0.4 thousand hectares), and rapeseed – on 688.4 thousand hectares (534.7 thousand hectares).
According to the Ministry, winter wheat is being sown in 18 regions, barley in 12, and rye in six. Winter rape is being sown in 18 regions of Ukraine. Farmers in Volyn, Rivne, Ternopil, and Lviv regions have finished sowing it.
As of the same date a year earlier, Ukraine sowed 1.584 mln ha of winter crops, including 1 mln ha of rapeseed, 514 thou ha of wheat, 47 thou ha of barley, and 24 thou ha of rye.
The Saudi Arabian Investment Company for Agriculture and Livestock (SALIC) has concentrated 12.6% of all outstanding shares of MHP, Ukraine’s largest chicken producer.
“SALIC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), has acquired 13,514,563 GDRs of MHP SE, the parent company of MHP,” the Ukrainian agricultural holding said in a stock exchange announcement.
MHP’s share price on the London Stock Exchange is about $4 per share.
Salic was founded in 2012, in Ukraine the company already controls the agricultural holding Continental Farmers Group with a land bank of about 195 thousand hectares.
MHP is one of the largest agricultural holdings in Ukraine, which has been actively developing outside the country in recent years. Its Ukrainian land bank is about 370 thousand hectares.
In the first half of 2024, the company reduced its net profit by 33% to $45 million, due to foreign exchange losses of $81 million compared to $5 million in the first half of 2023. EBITDA increased by 20% to $280 million on a 4% decrease in revenue to $1.489 billion, thanks to crop production.
MHP’s founder, majority shareholder and Chairman of the Board is Ukrainian businessman Yuriy Kosyuk.
In January-August 2024, JSC Ukrgasvydobuvannya and PJSC Ukrnafta increased commercial gas production by 7.7% (by 0.7 bcm) compared to the same period last year – up to 9.8 bcm.
These data were made public by Oleksiy Chernyshov, CEO of Naftogaz Group, at the European Business Association’s event Global Forecast. Strengthening Unity”.
Chernyshov also clarified that the group’s oil and condensate production during this period amounted to 1.3 million tons, compared to 1.2 million tons in January-August 2023. The plan for the year is 2 million tons, with 1.8 million tons in 2023.
According to him, Naftogaz is one of the largest investors in the country’s economy with an annual volume of investments and capital expenditures of about $2 billion.
Earlier, UGV reported an increase in commercial gas production by 7.2% to 9.26 billion cubic meters over 8 months of 2024.
As reported, Naftogaz’s consolidated quarterly report says that the group’s forecasted commercial gas production for 2024 is expected to reach 14.6 bcm. In February, Chernyshov said that the group’s goal for this year was to get closer to 15 billion cubic meters.
The State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” is asking to transfer self-seeded forests to state control in order to organize their fire protection, proper control and, if necessary, to quickly restore them, the CEO of the state enterprise Yuriy Bolokhovets said on Facebook. Bolokhovets reminded that the function of foresters is to detect and initially extinguish fires. However, only the State Emergency Service, which has a large number of powerful equipment, can cope with a large-scale natural disaster.
“In many cases, foresters begged the local authorities to transfer the forested areas to the state enterprise so that our farms could organize firefighting and proper control. But they were refused, and now we have the unfortunate consequences of irresponsibility. Self-seeded forests need to be urgently transferred under state control,” the Forests of Ukraine believe.
The state enterprise is currently considering the prospect of restoring the forest areas destroyed by fires. However, it runs into a procedure that takes a lot of time and money.
“The speed of restoration of burnt forests depends solely on the deregulation of the regulatory framework,” emphasized Bolokhovets.
The Forests of Ukraine intends to work on coordination and communication between units from different regions, increase the number of fire reservoirs, and establish cooperation with local authorities to create voluntary fire brigades.
“It is important that the conclusions are drawn not only by foresters,” urged the director general of the Forests of Ukraine.
As reported, in September 2024, record drought and lack of precipitation in a number of regions provoked large-scale forest fires. We are talking about a forest fire in Poltava region that covered almost 1000 hectares. A large fire in the Vyshedubechansky forestry on the area of 145 hectares has been localized near Kyiv. Significant fires in Kharkiv region in Zhovtnevyi and Chuhuiv-Vovchanskyi forestries have been stopped. The fire is no longer spreading, but the detonation of ammunition continues inside the forests.
According to the Forests of Ukraine, the situation has been stabilized thanks to the actions of foresters and units of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. But for another week, foresters will have to fight large-scale forest fires.
In January-August 2024, Kokhavyno Paper Mill (KPM, Lviv region), which produces sanitary paper products, increased its production by 67.4% year-on-year to UAH 1 billion 279 million, according to statistics from UkrPapir Association.
As reported, in the first seven months of the year, the mill’s production growth was 61.1%, and in the first six months of the year it was 54.5% compared to the same period last year.
According to the association’s statistics provided to Interfax-Ukraine, the production of the base paper for sanitary products at the mill increased by 34.8% to 37.7 thousand tons over the eight months.
The production of toilet paper in rolls remained at the last year’s level – 90.4 million units. KPF confidently ranks second in terms of its output after Kyiv CPP.
As reported, in October last year, Kokhava Pulp and Paper Mill put into operation a paper machine for the production of cellulose base paper (previously, it produced only waste paper-based products). To organize such production in 2021, the mill attracted a EUR 13.8 million loan from the EBRD.
Kokhava Pulp and Paper Mill, which has been operating since 1939, produces base paper for sanitary and hygiene products, as well as toilet paper and paper towels. Before the new machine was put into operation, the mill had two pulp mills with a total capacity of 40 thousand tons of base paper per year.
In 2023, the plant increased its production by 18% compared to 2022 to UAH 1 billion 151.2 million, while net profit increased 2.7 times to UAH 137 million.
Druzhkovka Metalware Plant (DZMZ, Donetsk region) intends to allocate UAH 19.936 million to pay dividends based on the results of its operations in 2023.
This main issue is on the agenda of the general meeting of shareholders scheduled for October 18, 2024, which will be held remotely.
The draft decision provides for the payment of dividends from retained earnings for 2023 in the amount of UAH 0.30 per 1 share (total number of shares – 66 million 453,976 thousand). Dividends will be paid directly to shareholders.
In 2023, the net profit of the company amounted to UAH 24.049 million, and in 2022 – UAH 33.832 million.
At a meeting held on April 29, 2024, the shareholders decided to leave the profit for 2023 undistributed and not to accrue or pay dividends.
Druzhkovka Metal Products Plant specializes in the production of hardware products: bolts, nuts, rivets for general engineering, fasteners for the upper structure of railway tracks, high-strength fasteners for building and bridge structures. In May 2022, the company issued an order to terminate employment contracts due to Russia’s military aggression and the inability to carry out production and business activities. Later, the company changed its legal address from Druzhkivka, Donetsk region, to Dnipro, Dnipro region.
According to the fourth quarter of 2022, the company’s shares were owned by an individual Oleksiy Spyridonov, who held 14.9949%, Olena Mishchenko-Solona (resident of Spain) – 13.0304%, Iryna Mishchenko – 24.5167%, Serhiy Popkov – 5.8611%, Anton Malikov – 9.75%, Olena Malikova – 8.25%, Valeriy and Dmytro Malikov – 9.774% each.
The authorized capital of the company is UAH 3.323 million, the nominal value of 1 share is UAH 0.05.
