The supply chain company Czarnikow (the UK) has signed a representative agreement with the Ukrainian company Entrypoint, created by the ex-managers of Astarta, to finance, procure and supply food ingredients and packaging for companies in Ukraine, Entrypoint said in a press release.
“This partnership is built on Entrypoint’s long standing history in the food and beverage industry in Ukraine, and surrounding markets, together with Czarnikow’s global presence, supply chain capabilities, financing and sourcing,” William Rook, Czarnikow Director and Head of Ingredients, said.
Mykola Kovalski, the co-founder of Entrypoint, has collaborated with Czarnikow in the past through his work with leading Ukrainian food and energy businesses. He was Business Development Manager at Astarta Group, Ukraine’s leading sugar producer.
“As consumer demand across the region is becoming more exquisite and diverse, Entrypoint will be instrumental in connecting Czarnikow with reliable end buyers,” he said.
“Having signed an agency agreement with Entrypoint Group, a business intelligence consultancy in Ukraine, Czarnikow will be leveraging its global platform to competitively source, ship and finance food ingredients and packaging to Ukraine and the surrounding markets of Moldova, Georgia and Belarus,” the report says.
“Best known for its 160 years of experience in the global sugar market, in recent years Czarnikow has expanded its product offering to include food ingredients and packaging such as dairy, sweeteners, fruit and PET. These products have brought new opportunities both with longstanding, established clients and new potential markets. To make the most of new opportunities, Czarnikow is working with individuals with local on-the-ground understanding of specific regions,” according to the press release.
Entrypoint provides transaction and risk advisory services with a regional focus on Ukraine, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
The mobile network operator Kyivstar has begun to use a digital graphic signature on the screen to connect contract subscribers to its network in its branded stores, as well as in national and regional multi-brand electronics networks.
The operator’s press service said on Monday that the introduction of the digital graphic signature is an opportunity to speed up service and use a more environmentally friendly way of document flow that does not require paper consumption.
“Subscribers and store employees do not need to spend time preparing and printing paper documents. As a result, now it takes only about 5 minutes to sign mobile phone contracts,” the press service said.
Kyivstar said that the digital graphic signature is a handwritten signature of an individual on the tablet screen, linked to the contract, and is confirmed by a qualified electronic signature of the operator.
The functionality became possible thanks to the introduction of Jet, the new application for service and sales in Kyivstar branded stores and multi-brand electronics networks.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal has said that almost 550,000 jobs were saved thanks to government business support programs.
“The key role here was played by the partial unemployment program, according to which state support for business amounted to more than UAH 3 billion,” Shmyhal wrote on Facebook.
According to him, thanks to state support in 2020, more than 600,000 Ukrainians were employed.
Prices in the Ukrainian industry in December 2020 increased by 14.5% compared to December 2019, the State Statistics Service has reported.
As previously reported, in 2019 the growth in prices of industrial producers amounted to 7.4%, in 2018 to 14.2%, in 2017 to 16.5%, in 2016 to 35.7%, and 2015 to 25.4%.
The service clarified that within Ukraine the prices of industrial producers in December 2020 compared to December 2019 increased by 9.7%, for supplies outside the country by 36.1%.
Prices in the Ukrainian industry in December, compared to the previous month of 2020, increased by 1.8% after growing in November by 2%, in October by 3.8%, in September by 1.7%.
At the same time, the State Statistics Service indicates that the average annual decline in prices in industry in 2020 (January-December to January-December of the previous year) amounted to 1.6%, while in the previous years, prices increased, in particular, in 2019 by 4.1%, in 2018 by 17.4%, in 2017 by 26.4%, in 2016 by 20.5%, and 2015 by 36%.
Prices in extracting industry in December 2020 (compared to December 2019) increased by 29.5%, due to an increase in prices in the extraction of metal ores by 44.6%, oil and gas by 28.6%, and in production of coal they decreased by 7.3%.
In processing industry, prices rose by 15.7%. In sugar production they grew by 59.6%, production of bread and bakery products by 9.9%, meat products by 2.9%, dairy products by 6.5%, beverages by 2.6%.
In addition, prices in metallurgy in December 2020 from December 2019 rose by 25.2%, in production of intermediate consumption goods by 21.9%, in chemical industry by 20.9%, in production of non-durable goods by 18.7%, woodworking by 10.5%, pharmaceutical production by 10.4%, mechanical engineering by 2.1%.
In the supply of electricity, gas and conditioned air, prices increased by 3.9%, in production of coke by 1.8%.
Ukraine’s neighboring countries are in the “red” zone on the situation with COVID-19, according to data on the website of the Ministry of Health as of Monday.
Among the closest neighbors of Ukraine, the “red” zone includes, in particular, Slovakia (674,500 cases of COVID-19 incidence per 100,000 population), the Russian Federation (340,900), Poland (316,700), Belarus (279,800), Moldova (264,410), Romania (253,080) and Hungary (242,730).
The “red” zone includes countries with an incidence rate per 100,000 population over the past 14 days higher than in Ukraine (106,800). There are 78 countries in total.
Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovenia, UK, Switzerland, U.S., Sweden, Israel, the Netherlands, Latvia, Denmark, Portugal, Georgia, Italy, Austria, Germany, Spain, Turkey, France, Canada, Belgium, Norway are also among the countries of the “red” zone.
The list of countries of the “green” zone includes, in particular, Greece, Japan, India, Egypt and Australia.
The pharmaceutical company Interchem (Odesa), the double liability company, is developing a new anesthetic drug, preparing an international dossier for it, Director General of Interchem Anatoliy Reder has said.
“The drug will be an anesthetic. It is original, completely new, it is a new molecule. We have been deeply studying it for three or four years,” he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Reder said that the company will develop a dossier for this drug in accordance with international standards.
“For us in this project, it is important that we first thought about how to form an international dossier of the new drug. For one reason or another, we always had a dossier, either Soviet or Ukrainian. Today we understand that an international dossier is needed, and we want to try making it for this drug,” he said.
Reder said that the company has begun collaborating with an international research organization that will conduct preclinical trials of the new drug.
According to Reder’s forecasts, the development of the new drug could take one and a half or two years.
“We hope that within one and a half or two years the pills will appear in Ukraine,” he said.
Interchem is one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the country.
