The Finnish group Olvi has signed an agreement to acquire Bosnia and Herzegovina’s largest brewery, Banjalucka Pivara, including its subsidiary in Serbia, according to the Serbian Economist Telegram channel.
The exact name of Banjalucka Pivara’s Serbian subsidiary has not been disclosed. Publications indicate that Olvi has acquired both the brewery itself and its Serbian subsidiary, expanding its presence throughout the Balkan region and gaining access to the markets of Serbia and Montenegro.
Financial and product indicators for Banjalucka Pivara (Bosnia and Herzegovina):
1. Revenue in 2024: approximately €28 million.
2. Profitability: the company is consistently profitable with growing market shares in the region.
3. Brands: including the popular Nektar, the fastest growing in all countries in the region.
By acquiring Banjalucka Pivara and its operations in Serbia, Olvi strengthens its regional network and gains access to the Balkan markets, as well as logistics corridors to Mediterranean tourist destinations.
The merger allows the Finnish company to develop its product range (non-alcoholic beverages, cocktails), strengthening its range at Banjalucka Pivara’s facilities.
The transaction is awaiting approval by the Bosnian antitrust authorities and is expected to be completed no later than the first quarter of 2026.
Source: https://t.me/relocationrs
In the first two months of the new marketing year (2025/2026 MY), which began on July 1, Ukraine exported 1.456 million tons of wheat, which is 28% less than in the same period last season (2.026 million tons), according to APK-Inform.
Egypt became the key importer of Ukrainian wheat, almost doubling its purchases to 699,000 tons and becoming the largest buyer.
At the same time, most other traditional importers reduced their volumes:
Supplies also decreased to:
As of early September, Ukraine had harvested 30.4 million tons of grain crops on an area of 7.2 million hectares, which is about 63% of the total crop.
Earlier, the Experts Club information and analytical center presented a study of Ukraine’s main trading partners in the first half of 2025, where Egypt ranked first in terms of positive balance among all of Ukraine’s trading partners.
“Egypt is an extremely important and profitable trading partner for the country, along with a number of other Arab states. Partnerships with these countries provide the country with currency and somewhat correct the extremely negative trend of recent years with Ukraine’s constantly growing trade deficit,” emphasized Maxim Urakin, founder of Experts Club.
A prosthetics and orthotics laboratory has been opened in Kharkiv at the University Hospital of the National Medical University. The facility will provide patients with a wide range of services (from physical therapy and psychological support to prosthetics and orthotics), according to Oleg Synyegubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration.
“At the initial stage, the laboratory will serve about 10 patients per month, and after full launch, up to 25,” Synyegubov wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to him, this includes the manufacture of temporary and permanent prostheses and orthoses, their adjustment, testing, and maintenance; integration into the patient’s clinical pathway—from acute condition to full or partial rehabilitation; consultations on biomechanics and restorative medicine.
In addition, it is planned that the laboratory will become a practical base for training new specialists and improving the qualifications of doctors.
Synyegubov noted that this project was implemented in cooperation with the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki has signed a law on “aid to Ukrainian citizens” aimed at regulating the future status of Ukrainians living in Poland, his office said.
According to the head of the president’s office, Zbigniew Bogucki, this law is the “last” in the framework of special assistance to Ukrainians. It extends the legal stay of Ukrainian citizens who have fled the war until March 4, 2026, and links the right to receive social assistance to criteria such as employment or children’s education in Polish schools.
“The decisions laid down in this law effectively put an end to tourism from Ukraine at the expense of Polish taxpayers,” Bogucki said at a press conference. He stressed that with the adoption of the law, Poland intends to “move to normal conditions” by applying the same rules to Ukrainian citizens as to other foreigners residing in the republic.
The main provisions of the law
• Extension of the period of legal stay in Poland under temporary protection status until March 4, 2026.
• Restriction of access to benefits: payments will depend on the availability of work or education for children. Exceptions are provided for parents of children with disabilities.
• Strengthening control over the use of the “special assistance” mechanism and clarifying the legal status of Ukrainians in Poland.
• The desire to reform the assistance system so that it eventually approaches a standard migration system.
Lawmakers in the president’s office say that further continuation of this scheme is impossible, and now Ukraine and Poland must move towards more sustainable regulation of the stay, employment, and integration of Ukrainians.
According to media reports, there are at least 1.5 million Ukrainian citizens in Poland in 2025.
Source: http://relocation.com.ua/polish-president-signs-law-extending-aid-to-ukrainians-until-march-4-2026/
A mechanism for confirming exporters as commodity producers, which will allow them to avoid paying the recently introduced 10% duty on exports of soybeans and rapeseed, should be in place by the end of next week, said Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture of Ukraine Denys Bashlyk.
“It will be as convenient as possible, the software is already 90% ready. The Cabinet of Ministers will make a decision next week,” he said at the Forbes Agro conference in Kyiv on Friday.
Bashlyk noted that there are currently situations where producers export and are forced to pay duties because there is no such confirmation mechanism.
According to him, the confirmation mechanism is planned to be implemented through the state agricultural register so that it does not take too much time, does not require “a million references” and the need to confirm each batch.
As for the duties already paid by commodity producers, the government is preparing amendments to the law on the state budget for 2025, which will allow the return of duties already paid, the deputy minister said.
In general, he noted that the Ministry of Economy is against the abolition of the 10% duty on exports of soybeans and rapeseed.
“We understand the risks that farmers may face, but it should be noted that there is another side to this story — the creation of a separate fund to which the paid duties will be transferred. And so, should the abolition of these so-called soybean amendments be on the agenda today? No, it should not,” Bashlyk said.
Farmers at the Forbes Agro conference criticized the introduction of this duty because, in their opinion, processors at the beginning of the war, due to logistics problems, received high profits at the expense of agricultural producers, and now processing does not require such privileges and should pay the market price for raw materials, competing with importers. According to the speakers, these duties will result in a reduction in rapeseed and soybean crops and a deterioration in crop rotation.
The head of Ukraine’s largest oil producer, Kernel, Yevgen Osipov, canceled his planned interview at the conference, and the founding editor of Forbes Ukraine, Volodymyr Fedorin, who was supposed to conduct the interview, said that Osipov did not like the publication’s article criticizing the duty.
As reported, Law No. 13157, signed by the president on September 2, stipulates that agricultural producers and cooperatives that export their own products will be exempt from paying duties. However, due to the lack of clear rules for documentary confirmation of the origin of goods, the mechanism does not actually work, and the export of oilseeds has been largely blocked.
A number of agricultural associations, including the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council (VAR), the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UAC), the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA), the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation, as well as the European Business Association and the American Chamber of Commerce, have appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada to repeal the law establishing a 10% duty on exports of soybeans and rapeseed as soon as possible.
On September 19, MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak (Voice faction) registered a corresponding bill No. 14055 on the repeal of the “soybean and rapeseed amendments.”
On Sunday, September 28, Ukraine will remain dry, with only light rain in the northern part during the day and a predominantly northeasterly wind of 5-10 m/s, according to the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center.
The temperature in the west and north of the country will be 4-9°C at night and 9-14°C during the day, and 2-7°C at night and 13-18°C during the day in the rest of the country.
In Kyiv, there will be no precipitation on the night of September 28, with light rain during the day. The wind will be northeasterly, 5-10 m/s. The temperature at night will be 7-9°C; during the day 10-12°C.
According to data from the Boris Sreznevsky Central Geophysical Observatory, the highest daytime temperature in Kyiv on September 28 was 29.3°C in 1927, and the lowest nighttime temperature was -1.2°C in 1906.
On Monday, September 29, rain is expected in the western, northern, and southern regions, as well as in Vinnytsia and Cherkasy regions, with no precipitation in the rest of the country. The wind will be predominantly easterly, 5-10 m/s.
The nighttime temperature will be 4-9°C; during the day in the west and north of the country, it will be 9-14°C, and in the rest of the territory, 13-18°C. In the highlands of the Carpathians, there will be wet snow; the nighttime temperature will be around 0°C, and during the day, 1-5°C.
In Kyiv on September 29, there will be rain, with an easterly wind of 5-10 m/s, nighttime temperatures of 7-9°C, and daytime temperatures of 10-12°C.
