The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine plans to maintain in the budget for 2019 the main programs of state support for the agro-industrial complex, which are being implemented this year, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said.
“We’ve started a number of new programs this year and decided to keep these programs for the next years. In particular, we give support to each family that will raise calves in the amount of UAH 2,500 per animal. Some 103,800 citizens have already received this assistance, but we assume that this figure will rise by 5-7 times, and we are moving towards this,” he said at a government meeting.
According to the prime minister, next year the government intends to continue compensation for the cost of keeping dairy cows. At the same time, he added that 1,200 agribusinesses have received funds in this area from the state.
“We will continue the program of support for the production of Ukrainian agricultural machinery. Some 2,700 agricultural producers bought Ukrainian goods, part of the cost of which we compensated,” Groysman said.
At the same time, the premier added that the farming support program, under which UAH 1 billion was allocated, is not being fully implemented due to “the existing bureaucratic problems.”
AGRO-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, GOVERNMENT, PROGRAMS, STATE SUPPORT
Astarta agroindustrial holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, cut sugar sales by 20% in July-September 2018 year-over-year, to 88,040 tonnes.
According to a company report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) on Wednesday, wheat sales over the period grew by 18%, to 143,680 tonnes, sunflower – by 30%, to 1,250 tonnes, soybean meal – by 6%, to 29,190 tonnes, while maize sales fell by 56.5%, to 10,790 tonnes, barley – by 88.9%, to 640 tonnes, and soybean oil – by 54.6%, to 4,480 tonnes.
Milk sales shrank by 6%, reaching 24,270 tonnes.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Cherkasy and Kharkiv regions.
Ukraine after the completion of the heating season increased its natural gas reserves in the underground gas storage facilities by 9.469 billion cubic meters (bcm), according to data from Ukrtransgaz. So, from April 8 to October 20, 2018 gas inventories rose by almost 2.3 times, from 7.435 bcm to 16.904 bcm.
According to the calculations of the Interfax-Ukraine agency, on October 1 through October 20 gas storage facilities were replenished by 669.29 million cubic meters (mcm, 33.46 mcm per day), in September by 1.595 bcm (53.17 mcm a day), in August by 1.793 bcm (57.85 mcm per day), in July by 1.655 bcm (53.38 mcm per day), in June by 1.623 bcm (54.09 mcm per day), in May by 1.632 bcm (52.65 mcm per day), April 9-30 by 500.84 mcm (22.77 mcm per day).
Ukraine came out from the 2017/2018 heating season with the minimum stocks in the last four seasons due to the frosty March-early April.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine expects that gas inventories by November 1, 2018 will amount to 17 bcm.
The first energy cooperative Soniachne Misto plans to launch a pilot project for the construction of a solar power station with a capacity of 100-150 kW at the expense of crowdfunding in Slavutych in 2019.
This was announced by Soniachne Misto head Andriy Zinchenko at the third Ukrainian-German forum “BEA: Bioenergy, Energy Efficiency and Agribusiness” in Kharkiv.
“The city leases several municipal houses to the cooperative, on which solar power stations will be built for the funds raised. Energy from the solar plants will be sold at feed-in tariffs. Part of the profit will be paid to cooperative members, another part will be redistributed for energy efficient measures in the city,” Slavutych Mayor Yuriy Fomichev said at a press briefing.
“Legally, we will conduct campaigns for the sale of shares in the cooperative, the yield will be verifiable depending on the size of the contribution,” Zinchenko told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The model provides for a dynamic approach to the size of contribution depending on the city and station size. In Slavutych, we focus on EUR300-400, but it will be possible to make larger contributions or take several shares,” Soniachne Misto co-founder Oleksiy Mykhailenko said.
According to the founders of the cooperative, the capacity of the pilot project of solar plants will be 100-150 kW, the approximate cost is $100,000-150,000.
CROWDFUNDING, ENERGY COOPERATIVE, PILOT PROJECT, SLAVUTYCH, SOLAR PLANT, SONIACHNE MISTO
Six hotels had received the hotel rating certificates issued by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine as of October 22, 2018. The respective information is outlined in data from the register published by the ministry on October 22. The following hotels were placed to the register: two five-star hotels – Grand Admiral Club (Irpen, Kyiv region) and Kadorr Hotel Resort & Spa (Odesa), four-star Dnipro (Kyiv) and other hotels. The certificates of the hotels will expire on September 27, 2021. Grand Admiral Club was opened in 2002. The hotel has 64 rooms, including rooms in wooden cottages, four conference halls with a total area of 358 square meters and six banquet halls for up to 300 people. Kadorr Hotel Resort & Spa has been operating since 2015. The hotel has 25 rooms, as well as a conference hall with an area of 114 square meters, accommodating up to 90 people. Hotel Dnipro was established in 1994, the number of rooms includes 186 rooms, four banquet and three conference hall with a total area of 192 square meters and a negotiating room for 10 people.
As reported, the assignment of stars to hotels was suspended on January 1, 2018 due to the termination of the certification authority UkrSEPRO.
Industrial production in Ukraine in September 2018 decreased by 1.3% compared to September 2017, while in August it fell by 0.5% compared to August 2017, in July the growth was 2.9%, in June this figure was 2.2%, and in May some 2.5%, the State Statistics Service has said. The agency said that with the adjustment to the effect of calendar days, industrial production in September 2018 also fell by 0.7% from September 2017, while in August 2018 from August 2017 the decline was 0.5%, in July 2018 the growth was 2.3%, in June 2018 some 2.5%.
The service said industrial production in September of this year increased by 1.7% compared to the previous month, and taking into account the seasonal factor it was the same as in August 2018.
In the nine months ending September 2018, the growth of industrial production in Ukraine slowed to 1.8% compared to the same period in 2017, while this figure stood at 2.2% for the eight months, at 2.6% for the seven months, and at 2.5% for the six months.
The supply of electricity, gas and steam in the nine months grew by 2.2%, while the processing industry saw a 1.6% increase, and output in the mining industry grew by 2.0%.
In September 2018 alone, the processing industry reduced production by 1.6% from September 2017, while the supply of electricity, gas and steam fell by 3.9%, and the mining industry saw a 0.7% increase in output.
The State Statistics Service said that industrial production in Luhansk region in September 2018 compared with September 2017 did not change, while Donetsk region saw a 1.2% decrease in industrial output.
As for other regions, a positive result in industry in September this year was recorded in Sumy region (growth by 41.7%), Ternopil region (4.9%), Zaporizhia region (by 4.4%), Zakarpattia (by 3.2%) Ivano-Frankivsk region (2%), Poltava region (1.2%), and Kyiv region (1.5%).
The following regions posted a decrease in industrial production: Odesa region by 14%, Volyn region by 10.3%, Lviv region by 5.4%, Zhytomyr region by 5.1%, Rivne region by 4.9%, Kirovohrad region by 3.4%, Cherkasy region by 3.3%, Kharkiv region by 3%, and the city of Kyiv by 6.3%.
As reported, industrial production in Ukraine in 2017 decreased by 0.1% after growing by 2.4% in 2016. This was preceded by four years of decline: in 2015, industrial production decreased by 13%, in 2014 by 10.1%, in 2013 by 4.3%, in 2012 by 0.7%.
