The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its July report has improved the forecast for the production and export of Ukrainian wheat in the 2021/2022 marketing year (MY, July-June) by 500,000 tonnes compared to the forecast in June, to 30 million tonnes and 21 million tonnes, respectively.
In July, the USDA kept its forecast for corn exports from Ukraine in the 2021/2022 MY at 30.5 million tonnes, harvest – at 37.5 million tonnes.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture also predicts an increase in world grain trade in the 2021/2022 MY by 800,000 tonnes to a record 204 million tonnes due to increased exports from the EU, Ukraine and Australia, while Canada, Kazakhstan and the United States will reduce exports of this crop.
The bill on legalization of medical cannabis provides for its removal from the list of narcotic substances and transfer it to the register of strictly controlled drugs, head of the parliamentary committee on public health Mykhailo Radutsky (Servant of the People faction).
“We are removing medical cannabis from the list of drugs, and this is not our invention. The UN did it many years ago. Cannabis is not a drug anywhere in the world, but only in countries like Russia, Belarus, Venezuela and, unfortunately, Ukraine. I hope that the parliament will correct this story,” Radutsky said at a briefing after the faction’s meeting on Monday evening in Kyiv.
The head of the committee said that only a doctor will prescribe an electronic prescription for a patient to purchase cannabis.
He reported that the Verkhovna Rada plans to consider at the first reading a bill on the legalization of medical cannabis on Tuesday and expressed hope that MPs will primarily think about patients and not about political dividends during the vote. According to the MP, after the adoption of the bill at the first reading, the MPs will have enough time to prepare the document for the second reading.
“I think that the law should be passed at the first reading, and there will be time until autumn to correct it before the second reading, we are not saints at the committee as well, we could miss something,” Radutsky said.
DTEK Oil & Gas produced over 960 million cubic meters of gas in January-June 2021, which is 10% more than in the same period in 2020, the company said.
“DTEK Oil & Gas is steadily increasing gas production thanks to systemic investments and the introduction of innovative technologies,” CEO of the company Ihor Schurov said.
The company is reportedly planning in the fourth quarter of this year to complete a large infrastructure project to build a refrigeration unit to optimize production at Machukhske field (Poltava region).
DTEK Oil & Gas has also already started geological exploration and office work in new deposits – Budyschansko-Chutivska and Zinkovska fields, which supplemented the company’s asset portfolio in 2020, the report says.
DTEK Oil & Gas recalled that in general, in 2021, the company is carrying out a program of drilling, workover and stimulation at base fields in Poltava region: during the first half of the year, the company commissioned two new wells, as well as carried out workover and stimulation operations at 21 wells of the operating stock.
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank intends to issue a loan of up to $ 20 million to a group of companies that owns two Araks shopping centers in Kyiv.
“The loan will support the modernization and upgrade of the commercial property owned by the group and located in Kyiv and Khmelnytsky substantially for the purpose of improving their energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption, as well as the refinancing of the group’s existing credit portfolio, Asters, a legal company acting as a loan advisor, said.
The network of Araks shopping centers in Kyiv includes two objects: the object opened in Kiltseva Street in 2009 (27,000 sq m) and the one launched in the village of Khodosivka in September 2019 (Kyiv region, 15,000 sq m).
The group also owns the Oasis shopping and entertainment center (30,000 sq m), opened in Khmelnytsky in 2008.
Airports of Ukraine in January-June 2021, according to operational data, served 5.5 million passengers, which is 32.2% more than in January-June 2020.
The passenger traffic of airports in international traffic for the specified period increased by 32.1% – up to 5 million people, the website of the State Aviation Service of Ukraine reported.
In addition, Ukrainian airlines served 3.5 million people in the six months of 2021, which is 73.8% higher than in the six months of 2020. Including in international traffic 3.2 million people were transported (an increase of 78.6%).
At the same time, in January-June 2021, airlines performed 29,400 commercial flights (an increase of 47.7%), including 23,700 international (42.8% more).
As reported, at the end of 2020, Ukrainian airports served 8.7 million passengers, which is 64.4% less than in 2019.
The Ministry of Health has begun using Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty vaccine against COVID-19 at mass vaccination centers.
According to the Ministry of Health, this vaccine will be available to everyone with a priority for the elderly and people with concomitant diseases.
“Until the end of July, Ukraine will receive 1 million doses of the Comirnaty/Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19, so the Ministry of Health decided to make this vaccine available to the general public,” the vaccination coordination center said.
At the same time, the Ministry of Health notes that up to 2,000 vaccination points operate daily in Ukraine, where they use the CoronaVac vaccine by Sinovac Biotech, which is supplied in single-dose vials and does not require ultra-low storage temperatures.
“All vaccines used by Ukraine are approved by the WHO [World Health Organization]. According to recent studies, the CoronaVac vaccine by Sinovac Biotech has demonstrated an efficiency of 83.5% in preventing symptomatic diseases of COVID-19 and 100% efficiency in preventing hospitalization and death,” the ministry’s press service said, citing Deputy Minister of Health, Chief State Sanitary Doctor Ihor Kuzin.
As of July 12, Ukraine has already received more than 5.6 million doses of various vaccines, in particular 2.4 million doses of CoronaVac/Sinovac, almost 1.7 million doses of Comirnaty/Pfizer, and almost 1.6 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from various manufacturers.
