Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) in the first half of the year ranked fifth in the pharmaceutical market of Uzbekistan, the company’s share was 2.3%.
Anton Zubov, the director of marketing and sales to the CIS countries of Farmak, told Interfax-Ukraine that in January-June 2021 the company increased sales in the Uzbek market by 61% in monetary terms compared to the same period in 2020.
“Our growth would have been even higher, however, during the pandemic, we were forced to limit the export of enoxaparin sodium (included in the COVID-19 treatment protocols) in favor of meeting the needs of the Ukrainian patient as a matter of priority,” he said.
According to Zubov, Uzbekistan is a key country in the company’s export sales. In the structure of shipments of Farmak products to the CIS countries, it occupies 50%.
Speaking about the main drivers of market development, Zubov noted the focus on the purchase of vaccines and the rapid growth of COVID-associated drugs, mainly antibiotics and anticoagulants.
“It was the increase in the consumption of these drugs that led to such a significant increase in the market this year,” he said.
Zubov stressed that export is a strategic direction for Farmak, and Uzbekistan ranks first in its overall structure.
“According to the export assessment data for the first half of 2021, Farmak is the undisputed leader among Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies supplying their products to the CIS countries. Our share is 32%, which is more than twice the share of our closest competitor. The growth for the same period in relation to the previous year amounted to 23%, this year – 9%. The market share increased by 1.4 percentage points,” he said.
Zubov said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the first place was taken by the Flenox drug, which is used to treat and prevent blood clots.
In addition, the endocrinological portfolio of the company, with the key drug Dialipon, is also in demand.
The company also notes a consistently high demand for the antiviral group, in particular, for the Amizon drug and the Picolax laxative drug.
At the same time, Zubov noted that, like many countries of the CIS region, Uzbekistan is trying to protect the interests of domestic producers.
“We see that Belarus is moving this way, introducing strict quotas on imported goods and restricting imports on pharmacy shelves. In Kazakhstan, for example, there is a “third is a crowd” rule, when, if there are two offers from local producers, the third offer from the importer is automatically withdrawn. Uzbekistan also actively defends the interests of its manufacturers. Assessing the obvious trends, our company plans to localize production of solid dosage forms in the territory of this country,” he said.
According to Zubov, at present, Farmak is actively developing a project to localize production in Uzbekistan on the basis of a pharmaceutical cluster, which is being built near Tashkent.
“Farmak has already declared its intentions to be localized in Uzbekistan. At the moment, we are actively negotiating with the directorate of the pharmaceutical cluster and are now at the stage of negotiating an investment agreement, “he said.
Zubov recalled that the declared volume of investments is $ 10 million, but “already now we see that, in fact, the amount of investment is likely to exceed the originally planned one.”
“Good equipment and specialists are expensive,” he explained.
Zubov said that traditionally the pharmaceutical market of Uzbekistan is the fourth largest in the CIS. According to IQVIA, its volume in 2020 amounted to $ 1.3 billion against $ 1.6 billion in Kazakhstan, but Uzbekistan is developing more dynamically and may take third place in 2022.
In January-June 2021, the pharmaceutical market of Uzbekistan grew by 75% in monetary terms (in U.S. dollars) and by 45% in natural terms (in the number of packages).
Qatar seeks a sustainable investment partnership with Ukraine, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Acting Minister of Finance of Qatar H E Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari said during the second meeting of the joint commission on economic, trade and technical cooperation between the two countries.
“In August 2020, the Qatari company QTerminals signed an agreement with the Ukrainian side on the concession for Olvia seaport in Mykolaiv. In the next five years, it is planned to invest in the development of the Ukrainian port and infrastructure. We will continue to expand the investment partnership,” he said.
“Today’s meeting of the commission is a necessary tool to achieve this goal,” he added.
Following the meeting, the co-chairs of the commission namely Minister of Commerce and Industry of Qatar H E Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari and Ukrainian Minister of Finance Serhiy Marchenko signed a protocol on amending the agreement between the governments of Ukraine and Qatar on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax evasion in relation to income tax.
The parties also discussed further steps in the development of bilateral relations and defined promising areas of cooperation, in particular, attracting investments, developing entrepreneurship and cooperation in tourism, agriculture, infrastructure, energy, health care, and financial sector, the report said.
“The meeting reaffirmed the desire of the two states to intensify economic activity. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we are seeing an upward trend in bilateral trade and hope to continue this positive trend. One of our top priorities is to attract investment in the economies of the two countries and strengthen business cooperation,” Marchenko said.
The Ministry of Finance recalled the first meeting of the joint commission on cooperation between Ukraine and Qatar took place in 2018.
PASSENGERS CARRIED IN JAN-JUNE OF 2021, IN MLN
Fierce competition in all industries and the rampant development of information and communication technologies constantly require businesses to look for new means to expand markets.
In August 2021, the Ukrainian Exporters Club launched a new online “Digital expo – Ukrainian Products and Services” Project. The Scope of the Project is to draw the attention of foreign importers, distributors, representatives of trading networks to Ukrainian products, attract them to cooperation and, thus, increase Ukrainian exports.
Digital expo is a web resource where only Ukrainian companies are represented. Each of them has its own web site with a scope of activities description, photos and presentations of products and services and a feedback form to send requests for cooperation. For ease of search, all companies are grouped by main categories, namely:
PRODUCTS:
Metallurgy and Metalworking Production
Energy and Raw Materials Resources
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Food Industry
Mechanical Engineering
Vehicles and equipment
Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Industry
Agriculture
Wood and Furniture
Construction Industry and Public Works
Glass and building materials
Precision equipment
Electrical and electronic equipment
Textiles and clothing
Luxuries
Products for sports and recreation
SERVICES:
Information Technology
Printing and publishing
Transport and related services
Marketing, Advertising and Mass Media
Banking
Finance and Insurance
Business services
Health Care
TOURISM
Digital expo is three sites, each in its own language: in Ukrainian, English and Chinese. This is done in order to improve market coverage and increase the confidence of foreign companies located in different regions of the world.
In fact, “Digital expo – Ukrainian Products and Services” is not a new project of the Ukrainian Exporters Club. It is a modernized, updated and adapted to modern market needs “Inspired By The Best In Ukraine” Project, which was created in 2015.
The previous project was supported by DHL and the EBRD at various stages of its life. It presented Ukrainian products and services at the international exposition IF CHINA in Beijing in 2016 and CIIE in China in 2019.
In the summer of 2021, the electronic catalogues of the Ukrainian Exporters Club became Digital expo.
In the last 3 months (June to August) of 2021, the exhibitors received more than 10,000 requests for cooperation from Malaysia, Poland, Turkey, China, Korea, Baltic States and other countries.
The modern project has become even better. It participates in international online expositions, including: worldexpo, expotobi, food1.com, echemi.com, infobel.com, foodfocus.co.za and others.
“Digital expo – Ukrainian Products and Services” is supported by world and Ukrainian reputable organizations, including: Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, Kyiv Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Entrepreneurship And Export Promotion Office, Euromonitor International and Others. The general media partner of the exposition is the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency.
You can learn more about the “Digital expo – Ukrainian Products and Services” Project and apply for participation at the link: https://inspiredbythebestofukraine.ticketforevent.com/ru/home/40010/
Ukrainian importers in January-August fully used quotas for duty-free import of pork from the European Union, further import of chilled pork will be subject to a 12% duty, and frozen pork – 10%, this was reported on the website of the Pig Breeders of Ukraine association. “As of September 1, some 20,000 tonnes of chilled and frozen pork from the EU countries were brought to Ukraine. This corresponds to the quota for duty-free supply of pork from the European Union countries established under the economic part of the Association Agreement. Since these limits have been used this year, each next kilogram of European chilled pork will cost importers 12% more due to the duty, and frozen pork meat will rise in price by 10%,” the organization said.
According to the association, there has been some recovery in import activity this year, which confirms the use of the pork import quota in August, while in previous years the import quota was used in November-December.
It clarified that Ukrainian importers have similar agreements on duty-free supplies of up to 14,400 tonnes of pork from Canada (the quota was used by 9%) and up to 1,700 tonnes from the UK (no deliveries from this country were made in 2021).
“If the import of raw meat from these countries becomes economically attractive for the importer, the supply of frozen pork is unlikely to have a significant impact on the domestic pork market. In addition, the expected changes in exchange rates in the fall will also increase the entry barrier for imported raw materials,” the association concluded.
United States President Joseph Biden hopes to visit Ukraine again in the future.
Biden himself made the relevant statement on Wednesday, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to the journalist of the U.S. edition of CBSNews Ed O’Keefe.
“U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. Biden says the United States is ‘firmly committed’ to Ukrainian sovereignty ‘in the race of Russian aggression.’ He added later he hopes to visit Ukraine again in the future,” the journalist said on Twitter.
As reported, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that diplomats are working on preparations for the visit of President of the United States Joseph Biden to Ukraine.
