Itown Mall will appear in Odessa as part of the ITown Residential Complex (Sofievskaya Street, 1a), scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2024, the press service of the Ukrainian Trade Guild (UTG) told the Interfax-Ukraine agency, which is the developer of the concept and exclusive broker of the shopping center.
According to the press release, ITown Mall has three ground floors and two underground floors. GBA The total floor area (GBA) is 20,962 square meters and the leasable area (GLA) is 15 thousand square meters. The minus second floor will house home goods stores and a sports complex, the minus first floor will house a supermarket, the upper floors will house clothing and footwear department stores and technology stores.
The project of ITown business class residential complex is realized by “Prostir” group of companies. The residential complex includes five 9-25 storey residential buildings with a total of 378 apartments. According to the developer’s concept, in addition to housing and shopping center, the complex will also include class A offices, a university, scientific laboratories, an apart-hotel, a co-working space with a swimming pool on the roof, a cinema, a museum, etc. The project will be located in the center of the complex. Residential section E will be commissioned in 2023, and two more sections are scheduled for commissioning in 2024. UTG was established in 2001. It has developed more than 1300 real estate concepts. Over the years, the company has leased out 4.7 million square meters of commercial space in Ukraine.
The IT Coalition, an initiative led by Estonia and Luxembourg, has provided Ukraine with equipment worth EUR 900 thousand.
According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, this is the first delivery to the Armed Forces of Ukraine within the framework of the IT Coalition. Laptops, monitors and other communication equipment worth EUR 900 thousand will be delivered to the units in the near future. The efficient and fast procurement was made possible by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency.
“The equipment will improve communication and the ability to plan tasks at the tactical level. This is one of our priorities – to meet the needs of the units for communication at the front. I am grateful to our partners for their responsibility and speed in decision-making,” said Kateryna Chornohorenko, Deputy Minister of Defense for Digital Transformation, Digital Development and Digitalization.
The IT Coalition is an ad hoc group of states within the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (Ramstein format) led by Estonia and Luxembourg. It is focused on providing support to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the field of IT, communications and cybersecurity. The coalition has already raised financial and in-kind contributions of more than EUR 36 million, with contributions of more than EUR 23 million still expected.
As of May 2, Ukraine planted 3.407 million hectares of spring grains and pulses, up 1.5 times year-on-year, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported on Friday.
According to the report, 240.7 thousand hectares were planted with wheat (223.3 thousand hectares a week earlier), 775.7 thousand hectares with barley (761.5 thousand hectares), 161.1 thousand hectares with peas (159.2 thousand hectares), 159.9 thousand hectares with oats (146.6 thousand hectares), and 16.7 thousand hectares with millet.
Over the past week, farmers sowed 861 thsd ha of spring crops. A week earlier, the figure was 492.9 thou hectares, and 792.6 thou hectares the week before. The leaders are farmers in Sumy region, where 97.4 thou hectares were sown during the week.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, Kyiv region is the leader in terms of sowing rates, having planted 31.3 thou hectares of wheat, 43.1 thou hectares of barley, 5.8 thou hectares of peas and 6 thou hectares of oats. Dnipropetrovs’k region – 28 thou hectares of wheat, 50 thou hectares of barley, 14.17 thou hectares of peas, 1 thou hectares of oats; Ternopil region – 18.9 thou hectares of wheat, 63.6 thou hectares of barley, 3.6 thou hectares of peas and 5.1 thou hectares of oats. hectares of oats; Sumy – 18.2 thousand hectares of wheat, 17.9 thousand hectares of barley, 5.6 thousand hectares of peas and 9.8 thousand hectares of oats; Zhytomyr – 16.5 thousand hectares of wheat, 19.3 thousand hectares of barley, 3 thousand hectares of peas and 26 thousand hectares of oats. hectares of oats; Khmelnytsky – 14.8 thou hectares of wheat, 59.1 thou hectares of barley, 2.6 thou hectares of peas and 2.5 thou hectares of oats; Vinnytsia – 11.5 thou hectares of wheat, 55 thou hectares of barley, 6 thou hectares of peas and 1.1 thou hectares of oats.
In addition, sunflower was planted on 2,967.5 thou hectares, soybeans – 566.7 thou hectares, sugar beets – 248.4 thou hectares.
According to the April forecast of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, in 2024, the gross production of grains and oilseeds in the country is expected to reach 74 mln tons, including about 52.4 mln tons of grains and 21.7 mln tons of oilseeds.
In 2024, farmers will be able to harvest 19.2 million tons of wheat (22.2 million tons in 2023), 4.9 million tons of barley (5.7 million tons), 26.7 million tons of corn (30.5 million tons), 5.2 million tons of soybeans (4.7 million tons), 12.4 million tons of sunflower (12.9 million tons), and 4.1 million tons of rapeseed (4.7 million tons).
In 2024, the planted areas of grains and pulses are forecasted at 10.6 mln ha, which is 395 thou ha lower than in 2023.
One of Ukraine’s largest grain market operators, Nibulon JV LLC (Mykolaiv), has received EUR12.8 million from the Export Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) to purchase 74 units of modern agricultural machinery, the grain trader’s press service reported on Facebook.
“We are grateful to our Danish partners who support Ukrainian business, which is now working in spite of the war, not because of it. We really need more and more such positive signals as convincing role models. This is the only way we will be able to rebuild Ukraine as soon as possible,” said Nibulon’s CFO Iryna Levkovska, CFO of Nibulon.
Peder Lundqvist, CEO of EIFO, expressed confidence that the financing will help the company increase grain yields by modernizing agricultural machinery and strengthen the company’s long-term financial position.
“At EIFO, we are proud to be able to make a small contribution to the enormous recovery work that awaits Ukraine and is now one of the most important things for its citizens. We look forward to future cooperation with Nibulon and other Ukrainian and Danish companies operating in Ukraine,” he said during the signing of the loan agreement in the Ministry of Finance’s bomb shelter during an air raid alert.
According to Nibulon, the financing was allocated as part of a social program of the Danish investment fund created to help Ukraine. Its launch was announced in May 2023 during the Ukrainian Investment Forum in Copenhagen. The program will finance projects involving the best Danish technologies and innovative solutions and will be available to both the public and private sectors.
Nibulon JV LLC was established in 1991. Prior to the Russian military invasion, the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and crop reception complexes, capacity for simultaneous storage of 2.25 million tons of agricultural products, a fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugs), and owned the Mykolaiv Shipyard.
“Before the war, Nibulon cultivated 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries. In 2021, the grain trader exported the highest ever 5.64 million tons of agricultural products, reaching record volumes of supplies to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, in the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons, and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
Nibulon’s losses due to Russia’s full-scale military invasion in 2022 exceeded $416 million.
Currently, the grain trader is operating at 32% of capacity, has created a special unit to clear agricultural land of mines, and was forced to move its headquarters from Mykolaiv to Kyiv.
The exports of sunflower oil from Ukraine in September-April of 2023-2024 marketing year (MY) totaled over 4.4 mln tonnes, up 17% compared to the same period of the previous season, and became the second largest export volume in the history after 2019-2020 MY, when the exports reached 4.49 mln tonnes in the same period, APK-Inform news agency reported.
“The demand for this product in the current season from the key global importers was boosted by the more attractive price of sunflower oil compared to other vegetable oils, which resulted in the active increase of sunflower processing by the Ukrainian plants,” the analysts explained.
They also pointed out that an important factor is ensuring relatively stable shipments of oil by sea.
The agency’s experts reminded that they estimated the export of sunflower oil for the season-2023/24 at 5.6 mln tonnes (+4% compared to April estimates; -1% compared to 2022-2023 MY). However, given that about 79% of the forecast has already been exported, a significant decline in monthly shipments is expected by the end of the season.
“The decrease of the exports of the product in May-August of the current season may be due to the decrease of sunflower crushing amid the depletion of the stocks, which are estimated as the minimum for the last three seasons in the whole country as of the beginning of May”, – summarized APK-Inform.
Ukrainian cheese makers are facing a decline in sales due to both the high price of Ukrainian cheese and rising imports, according to Infagro, an industry news and analysis agency.
“In March, cheese imports increased by more than 40%, and in April this figure may increase by another 15-20%. That is, the share of European cheeses again accounts for about a third of total cheese sales in Ukraine,” the analysts said.
They emphasized that the share of imports in Ukraine’s domestic market is still lower than before the war, but this should force producers to take measures to stay in their own market.
“Due to the devaluation of the hryvnia, cheese exports are becoming even more profitable. At the same time, exports of cheese products, for example, to Kazakhstan, are falling rapidly. Ukrainian cheese products have already been practically pushed out of the Kazakh market by Russian producers. If exports of cheese products to Kazakhstan stop, production will have to be significantly reduced,” Infagro predicts.
