The US National Academy of Sciences is working to create a new multimillion-dollar joint science and innovation fund for Ukraine, US Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery Penny Pritzker said.
“It will fund specialized cutting-edge research in the service of Ukraine’s economic development,” she said at the U.S.-Ukraine Partnership Forum on Wednesday in Washington.
She said similar initiatives by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences have already been implemented for Israel, India, Egypt, Pakistan and Mexico.
“This is in addition to $230 million in support for Ukraine’s private sector, including new funding for farmers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses in rural and underbanked communities,” Pritzker added.
According to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences website, it is launching the Science and Innovation Fund for Ukraine, supported by about $8 million from the Simons Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and other U.S. philanthropic organizations, with the goal of raising at least $15 million to support the first three years of operation. ETH Zürich is also in the works to create it.
It is noted that the Foundation will provide merit-based grants to individuals and organizations for a range of activities, including: workshops to address scientific issues critical to Ukraine’s long-term renewal; bilateral and multilateral initiatives to advance science policy practice.
It is also envisaged to support Institutes on priority S&T topics contributing to the future of Ukraine; fellowships and research grants to support early and intra-career scientific exchanges; and training on the commercialization of scientific research
It is envisioned that it will include grant funds to support the participation of Ukrainian researchers in international scientific research.
It is stated that the Fund will be managed by a Secretariat based at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, which will attract partners in Ukraine, additional funds, manage the application process, allocate and monitor the Fund’s expenditures, and evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the Fund’s activities.
Astarta Agroholding cut its net profit by 5.0% to EUR61.9m in 2023, while its EBITDA fell by 6.1% to EUR145.77m, the company said in its annual report on Wednesday evening.
“EBITDA margin decreased by 7 percentage points (p. p.) year-on-year to 23%, reflecting lower crop prices, higher selling expenses and a change in the basis of supply in the sale of crops,” the document said.
According to it, Astarta’s revenue last year increased by 21.3% to EUR618.93m, gross profit by 7.8% to EUR223.59m, while operating profit decreased by 12.2% to EUR95.78m.
It is specified that the Agriculture segment contributed 39% of consolidated revenue or EUR240 million in 2023 (+33% y-o-y), while the Livestock segment contributed 7% of total revenue or EUR43 million in 2023 (+10% y-o-y).
Sales of the Sugar Production segment grew by 28% y-o-y to EUR199m and accounted for 32% of total revenue in the period under review, while the Soy Processing segment contributed 20% of Astarta’s revenue or EUR122m, unchanged y-o-y.
According to the report, export sales accounted for about 53% of consolidated revenue or EUR325m last year.
The lower gross profit growth is due to the lower effect of the revaluation of the fair value of biological assets in the cost of revenue (EUR60 mln in 2023 vs. EUR73 mln in 2022), reflecting cheaper commodities and changes in exchange rates.
It is indicated that in UAH terms, Astarta increased net profit by 11.9% to UAH2bn 452.81m in 2023 on revenue growth of 39.3% to UAH24bn 446.26m.
According to the report, cash flow from operating activities amounted to EUR91m vs. EUR39m in 2022 due to lower working capital outflows, while cash flow from investment activities increased 2.6 times to EUR40m, with the largest investments in soybean processing and sugar production.
Net financial debt (net of lease liabilities) declined by 10% last year to EUR39m, while net debt increased slightly by 3% to EUR156m due to higher lease liabilities of EUR118m vs. EUR109m in 2022.
As reported, Astarta reported EUR65.16m net profit in 2022, down 46.8% from 2021. The holding’s EBITDA decreased by 23.2% to EUR154.77m in the year before last, while revenue increased by 3.8% to EUR510.07m.
In 9M 2023, net profit decreased by 9.8% to EUR55.97 mln, while revenue grew by 14.8% to EUR392.00 mln. EBITDA decreased by 10.8% to EUR116.63 mln.
In UAH terms, Astarta increased its net profit by 6.9% to UAH 2 bln 219.11 mln in the first 9 months of last year, while revenue grew by 37.7% to UAH 15 bln 513.56 mln.
Ukrainian construction materials manufacturers and research institutes are working to bring their products and structures used in the defense sector to NATO standards, said Konstantin Saliy, president of the All-Ukrainian Union of Construction Materials Manufacturers (VSPB).
“The direction we are working on is to ensure that Ukrainian products, building materials, structures and constructions for the Ministry of Defense meet the NATO AQAP 2110 standard,” Saliy said at the roundtable “Building Materials. Preparedness for Market Needs for Recovery” at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.
According to him, Ukrainian unions and associations of building materials are involved in the construction of defense structures and in the scientific and technical councils of the Defense Ministry.
“We are working, we are heard and asked. We are trying to combine the efforts of our military with specialized state research institutes to make this assistance professional. We want all the developments to be tested at training grounds and field trials to be conducted,” he explained.
The King Salman Center for Rescue and Humanitarian Assistance (KSRelief) has donated $10 million to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). King Salman Rescue and Humanitarian Relief Center (KSRelief) has donated $10 million to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to support war-affected Ukrainians in 1,200 facilities across the country with daily hot meals, according to the WFP press office.
“We are grateful to KSRelief for supporting a vital component of our emergency assistance programs in Ukraine that supports the most vulnerable Ukrainians and strengthens the local institutions and organizations that care for them,” said Marianne Ward, acting director of WFP Ukraine.
According to a press release, the agreement was signed between H.E. Dr. Abdullah Al Rabia, Advisor to the Royal Court and General Manager of KSRelief, and WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain.
Saudi Arabia’s contribution will help provide 50 million meals to the institutions that WFP supports (hospitals, shelters for internally displaced persons, orphanages, neuropsychiatric and geriatric institutions, and other public or private organizations that care for vulnerable Ukrainian citizens).
“We are pleased to be part of this important emergency program to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of the affected population in Ukraine. KSrelief’s humanitarian assistance will provide vital food aid to the most vulnerable communities across the country,” the press office quoted KSRelief’s Assistant General Manager for Planning and Development, Ahmed Al Baiz, as saying.
The assistance provided will allow the purchase and delivery of about 7,600 tons of food. It is noted that all products, including flour, pasta, buckwheat, oatmeal, peas, sugar and oil, are purchased from Ukraine to support the local economy and food system.
Over the next six months, WFP’s institutional feeding program plans to provide food assistance to 210,000 vulnerable Ukrainians. KSRelief’s contribution will cover a significant portion of the program’s needs – approximately 67%. This is support for 140 thousand people.
During 2023, WFP’s institutional feeding program supported 460,000 Ukrainians in Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovograd, Kyiv, Lviv, Mykolayiv, Odessa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Volyn, Zakarpattya, Zaporizhzhya and Zhytomyr regions.
Institutional feeding is one of the many ways WFP supports Ukrainians affected by the war. WFP is also distributing food packages in areas close to the front line where food is hard to find or very expensive, distributing cash assistance to vulnerable Ukrainians across the country, and supporting the safe release of agricultural land mines in Kharkiv Oblast to help farmers and food producers. WFP has also chartered 25 ships to export Ukrainian grain to countries in need through the Black Sea Grain Initiative and Grain from Ukraine.
The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization that saves lives in emergencies and uses food aid to build a path to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, natural disasters and the effects of climate change.
A feed mill in the Poltava Oblast plans to expand its capacity to process corn and pea grain, the USAID Agro Program reported on Facebook.
According to the report, the Lokhvitsky Feed Mill will implement the grant project in cooperation with the agency.
Under the project, the enterprise will begin construction of a cereal plant that produces corn groats and flour, and will also process peas. The operation is scheduled to start up in November this year.
The plant is expected to produce up to 120 tons of grain per day. It will operate on new equipment from a Ukrainian manufacturer. The plant plans to cooperate with farmers who will grow corn on the seed provided to them.
Ukraine needs to approve standards for recycling construction waste resulting from military operations and develop recipes for processing various materials, said Konstantin Saliy, president of the All-Ukrainian Union of Construction Materials Producers (VSPB).
“The lack of state standards for the recycling and processing of construction materials – demolition waste – is the biggest obstacle to development. According to EU standards, this construction waste should not create landfills on the outskirts of our cities, but should be recycled. But the problem is that the government has not even raised this issue publicly in two years. We, the unions and associations, are raising it, and we hope that there will be a donor structure that will help Ukraine with a grant, and we will be able to conduct a scientific study on the development of recipes for processing various types of waste,” Saliy said at the round table “Building Materials. Preparedness for Market Needs for Recovery” at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Tuesday.
He reminded that, according to preliminary estimates, Ukraine has 100 million cubic meters of waste due to military destruction, but this figure does not cover waste in the temporarily occupied territories affected by the Russian invasion.
According to the expert, the cost of the initial study of formulations for recycling construction waste is estimated at $200 thousand, and the construction of a laboratory – $3-5 million.
“The issue of building materials recycling is very interesting because Europe did not experience such destruction after 1945, and the materials were completely different. In addition, not all materials can be recycled – objects hit by some missiles become toxic. A lot of research needs to be done, and it is difficult to do it with just one laboratory. It is necessary to have a full laboratory for toxicology, sanitary tests, and fire loads,” explained the president of the VSPU.
