Ukrainian banks’ cash exchange rates on 27/05/21
Source: Interfax-Ukraine
The number pig farms in Ukraine as of January 1, 2021 decreased by 7.4% compared to January 1, 2020, to 1,440, while the number of pigs in the industrial sector increased by 9.6%, to 3.68 million, the Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders said, citing the data of the State Statistics Service.
According to the association, the intensity of the reduction of pig farms in 2020 decreased less than the average in 2015-2019, since during that period 9-13% of operators left the industry annually.
The association noted the increase in livestock capacity by farms with a livestock of more than 10,000 pigs. In this segment, the livestock for the year increased by more than 300,000, to 2.34 million animals. At the same time, by January 1, 2021, more than 65% of the industrial pig population was “concentrated” at 77 production sites.
Operators with a livestock of 5,000-10,000 animals also showed positive dynamics, the number of animals they had in 2020 increased by 12.8%.
“The share of pig farms with a livestock of less than 5,000 animals has been declining most of all over the past years. Therefore, so far, 144 largest enterprises provide the increase in the capacity of the industrial sector. This means that domestic pig breeding, like the global one, continues to develop through enlargement,” the association analysts said.
The Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders is a non-profit voluntary organization established in 2011. The association unites 38 farms, the breeding stock of which is 39% of the national volume. The main goal of the association is to protect the rights and interests of enterprises in the pig industry and achieve world production standards.
The share of illegal tobacco products in the Ukrainian market in February 2021 amounted to 12.8% versus 5.8% in February 2020, the figure is the highest since 2011 and is mainly due to the growth of illegal sales of cigarettes and Duty Free products intended for export.
Such data were published by the research institute Kantar Ukraine by order of the ten largest Ukrainian manufacturers of tobacco products.
According to researchers, 62% of illegally sold tobacco products in the country have a mark of production at Vynnyky Tobacco Factory (Vynnyky, Lviv region) and are labeled as export or Duty Free products not intended for sale in Ukraine. The share of unidentified manufacturers is 23%, and United Tobaco LLC (Zhovti Vody, Dnipropetrovsk region) – 15%.
The most common brands of this group of illegal products are the Compliment brand marked as Duty Free – with a share of 50%, as well as those intended for export, but sold in Ukraine, Marshall (14%), Jin Ling (9%), Marvel and Urta (6% each). The total share of the named brands in this product group is 84%.
Kantar noted that 42% of smuggled cigarettes are products of Grodno Tobacco Factory (Belarus), and 20% are products of Moldovan factories. The most common smuggled brands are Credo, Queen, Ritm, Oris, NZ and Armeyskiye (Moldova).
The study showed that 63% of illegal products are distributed in six regions of Ukraine. Most of all – in Kharkiv (14%), Donetsk and Odesa (13%), Dnipropetrovsk (9%), Mykolaiv (7%) and Khmelnytsky (6%) regions.
According to Kantar, the share of illegal products sold through legal trade channels continues to grow: in February 2021, some 36% of illegal products were distributed through stalls, 29% – shops, 23% – open markets, and 9% – street trading.
Researchers estimated state budget’s losses from unpaid taxes at UAH 11.8 billion over 2021.
The transport enterprises of Ukraine, as well as part of the JFO area) in January-April 2021 increased transportation of goods by 0.7% compared to the same period in 2020, to 186.1 million tonnes, the State Statistics Service has reported.
According to its data, the freight turnover of carriers for the specified period decreased 2.9%, to 88 billion tonne-kilometers.
According to statistics, in January-April 2021, some 95.5 million tonnes of goods were transported by rail in domestic traffic and for export, which is 1.2% less than in January-April 2020. Some 61.7 million tonnes (7% more) were transported by road, 1.2 million tonnes (9.2% less) by water, 27.7 million tonnes (4.9% less) by pipeline, 30,000 tonnes (11.7% more) by air.
By the end of 2021, the mobile network operator Kyivstar plans to increase the base of contract clients by 500,000, President of Kyivstar Alexander Komarov told reporters on Wednesday.
At the end of 2020, the operator’s total client base was about 25.9 million mobile subscribers. At present, according to the operator, almost 90% of the Kyivstar network are prepaid mobile subscribers and the company has more than 10% are contract subscribers.
“The [number of] contract [subscribers] should grow by 500,000 new clients this year. This is a definite ambition of Kyivstar. We are generally supporters of identifying our client base and transferring it to more stable forms of connection,” Komarov said.
According to him, despite the fact that, in general, Kyivstar’s client base is stable (no more than 1% decrease year-on-year), in 2020 the prepaid subscriber base decreased 4%, which were redistributed into two segments: FMC (clients using fixed-line and mobile communication) and the contract subscribers.
“Our enemy of the contract is a very low average bill. The main means of transferring a client to a contract is a combination of a phone and payment for communication services. An average smartphone in Ukraine costs UAH 5,000-6,000, and communication services for 12 months – about UAH 1,000. Accordingly, we have very little of this added value to transfer a client to a contract. And in the gray market, the difference in price for a phone between a legal store and an online seller can reach 10-15%,” the president of Kyivstar said.
Kyivstar is a market-leading telecoms operator in Ukraine. It provides communication and data services based on a wide range of mobile and fixed-line technologies, including 3G. By the end of 2020, its services were used by about 25.9 million mobile subscribers and about 1.1 million fixed Internet customers.
The shareholder of Kyivstar is the international group VEON (earlier – VimpelCom Ltd.). The group’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange (New York).
Ukraine is currently at the final stage of negotiations with major partner airlines in an effort to create a national air carrier, Deputy Head of the President’s Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko has said.
“As for the airline, this is not only the president’s dream. We are at the final stage of negotiations with some large airlines, with which we are planning a national air carrier together, because they have experience,” he said on the Ukraine 24 TV channel on Thursday.
Speaking about the development of the airport network, Tymoshenko said that regional hubs have been added to the Big Construction Project: Zakarpattia, Chernivtsi, Rivne, Poltava, Kryvy Rih, construction is also underway in the city of Dnipro.
“Yes, the construction of the airport in Dnipro is not proceeding at the pace that we would like, and not the way the locals want, but today we promised that in a few months you will see the construction of the runway at a greater speed,” he said.
Earlier, in February of this year, Tymoshenko expressed hope that work on the creation of the state air carrier would be completed in 2021.
Former Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krykliy said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine that the concept of the state airline is based on the aircraft of the state aircraft building enterprise Antonov. Tymoshenko also said that this year it is planned to increase the state budget thanks to its filling with funds from transit air traffic, which, in turn, will be increased by transit in the sky of Ukraine by European air carriers.
