The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine has announced that its order approving new rules for the registration of patent attorneys and their activities came into force on March 11.
“This year, after approval of the composition of the Attestation Commission of the Ukrainian National Office of Intellectual Property and Innovations (Ukr. which performs the functions of the National Intellectual Property Authority, the consideration of applications of citizens who have expressed their intention to acquire the right to practice as patent attorneys and their certification will finally be resumed,” Deputy Minister Vitaliy Kindrativ said in a release from the Ministry of Economy.
The Ukrainian register of patent attorneys currently includes 514 people without specifying whether they are currently engaged in this activity. The latest registrations are dated January 2017.
The Ministry of Economy clarified that the order approved four documents in total. These are, in particular, the Regulation on Patent Attorneys, which defines who patent attorneys are, how they act, their rights and obligations, the Regulation on the Attestation and Appeal Commission, which regulates the consideration of applications and complaints during the attestation of patent attorneys, and the Regulation on the State Register of Patent Attorneys, which defines the procedure for updating information on all registered patent attorneys in Ukraine and the possibility of obtaining free access to it in electronic form,
“The certification of new patent attorneys will increase the number of certified intellectual property professionals in Ukraine who provide services in this area and will be able to represent the interests of national innovators and foreign investors,” the Ministry of Economy concluded.
The State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” is starting to sell surplus firewood for industrial use to domestic and foreign buyers and is ready to provide additional services to non-residents, the press service of the state company reported on Facebook.
“The State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” is starting to hold the first auctions with additional services for non-resident companies. In particular, we offer delivery from the warehouse and loading of products into railway cars, as well as customs clearance of products,” the statement said.
According to the report, as the heating season approaches its end, state forestry enterprises have accumulated surplus fuel wood, most of which is industrial firewood. Currently, only industrial pine firewood is up for auction.
Since last year, the selling price of such firewood has fallen from UAH 1,350 per cubic meter to UAH 950 per cubic meter. The products were sold at the main and then at additional auctions. However, even with a one-third reduction in price, the Ukrainian market is not ready to consume all the resources put up for auction.
At the same time, the Forests of Ukraine noted that the volume of wood is sufficient to satisfy both Ukrainian processors and non-resident buyers.
As reported, in 2023, the volume of logging in Ukraine amounted to 15.7 million cubic meters of wood of all types of felling, 13.1 million cubic meters of which were harvested by state forestries.
Dynamics of reserves of Ukraine from 2012 to 2023
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
In 2023/24 marketing year, Ukraine exported 31.887 mln tonnes of grains and pulses, down 6.8% compared to the previous year, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported, citing the operational data of the State Customs Service.
According to the press service, 2.217 mln tons of grains and pulses were shipped this month, which is 11.4% more than last year.
According to the report, since the beginning of the current season, Ukraine has exported 12.761 million tons of wheat (989 thousand tons were shipped to foreign markets in March); barley – 1.782 million tons (159 thousand tons); rye – 1 thousand tons (0); corn – 17.059 million tons (1.064 million tons).
Total exports of Ukrainian flour as of March 13 are also lower than last year and are estimated at 75.7 thousand tons (1.7 thousand tons in March), including 71.9 thousand tons of wheat (1.6 thousand tons).
Ambassadors of the European Union member states have approved the allocation of 5 billion euros of military aid for Ukraine under the European Peace Facility.
The decision was taken on Wednesday in Brussels on the sidelines of a meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives, the Belgian Presidency said on its social media page X.
“A deal! EU ambassadors agreed in principle to reform the European Peace Facility to support Ukraine with a €5 billion budget for 2024. The European Union remains determined to provide long-term support to Ukraine and to ensure that the country receives the military equipment it needs to defend itself,” the presidency said.
The European Union should think about reducing access to the European market of sugar from third countries at least by 10%, then there would be a place for Ukrainian sugar in the EU, which would not allow this market to collapse, said the director of the National Association of Sugar Beet Producers of Poland Rafal Strahota in the program “Between Brussels and Kiev” on farmer.pl.
“The European Union has opened up the market in recent years. It has signed a number of trade agreements with various third countries. I know it is difficult, but if we reduced access to the EU market by at least a dozen percent, there would be enough room for Ukrainian sugar, and at the same time it would not destroy the EU market,” he said.
The director of the industry association noted that no one in the European Union had raised this topic.
Strakhota recalled that the European Commission is developing a regulation on protective measures, which provides for the introduction of a limit on sugar imports from Ukraine, taking into account export data, which are based on 2022-2023. Taking these data, Strachota calculates that Ukraine will be allowed to supply Poland with 320,000 tons of sugar per year.
“This is too much,” he stated.
According to the National Association of Sugar Beet Producers of Poland, in 2023-2024, the structure of Poland’s sugar imports looked like this: 32% accounted for Ukraine, 23% – Brazil, 9% – Eswatini, 7% each – Mauritius and Colombia, 18% – other countries.
At the same time, Poland grew 2.34 million tons of sugar beet in 2023 by expanding the production area under it, which amounted to 265 thousand hectares. The average beet yield was about 64 tons/ha, with very large yield differences between individual regions. In Poland, more than 26,000 people grew beet last year.
“At the same time, from October to December 2023, average sugar prices in Poland fell by 12%, and when packaged in 1 kg packages, the price drop exceeded 20%,” said the director of the industry association.
Strahota expressed concern that before the Autonomous Trade Measures (ATM) come into effect in June 2024, the Polish market could face a problem due to Ukrainian sugar.
“We fear that by that time a lot of sugar may come from Ukraine. Let me remind you, the action has ended (the sugar season – IF-U) and sugar has been produced. It is in warehouses, and in fact in these warehouses there are still about 600 thousand of sugar, which can easily get to the EU,” – Strahota emphasized.
He recalled that in 2023 in Ukraine was sown about 250 thousand hectares of sugar beet, produced about 1.8 million tons of sugar. Domestic consumption is less than 1 million tons, so the export potential is 800 thousand tons.
“In the first three months of the current marketing year, about 200 thousand tons of sugar from Ukraine entered the EU,” the expert said.
The publication cited data according to which Ukraine supplied to Poland in 2021 17.777 thousand tons of sugar, in 2022 – 15.278 thousand tons, and in 2023 it reached 468.97 thousand tons.
“At stake is the fate of the extension of the EU trade liberalization with Ukraine for another year, that is, until June 2025 with the restriction of sugar imports from this country, but in this case, the average figures of 2022 and 2023, when imports of this raw material from Ukraine were huge, are taken as benchmarks,” regretted the director of the National Association of Sugar Beet Producers of Poland and added that the country asks the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Union to use the volume of supplies for 2021-2022 to calculate the allowable sugar imports.
