The first British-Ukrainian Maritime Industries Forum is taking place in Odesa. Deputy Ambassador of Britain to Ukraine Helen Fazey told reporters during the briefing British business sees great opportunities for developing export and import capacities of Ukraine and its economy as a whole. “We are here because we see that this is an extremely great opportunity … British companies have tremendous experience in these matters: from port designing to financial and legal issues and security issues. I am pleased to see a large number of British companies at this forum, and I hope that this will lead to close cooperation of British companies with Ukrainian ports,” she said.
Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan, in turn, noted that the seaports of Ukraine are the most attractive asset for concession investments in Ukraine.
He added that in May-June this year the State Property Fund of Ukraine would hold a tender for the “container part of Chornomorsk port,” and this will start the development of Ukrainian ports in a concession format.
The net profit of PrJSC Artwinery (Donetsk region) increased by 7.1 times in 2017 compared to 2016, to UAH 66.72 million.
According to the announcement of an annual shareholders’ meeting scheduled for April 24, its assets for the past year decreased by 6.4%, to UAH 632.19 million.
The current liabilities of Artwinery decreased by 27.7%, to UAH 287.3 million.
Total debtor indebtedness decreased by 48.9% compared to 2016, to UAH 145.1 million.
Artwinery is one of the largest producers of sparkling wine with a traditional bottle method in Eastern Europe. The plant’s capacity is 25 million bottles per year. The company’s trademarks are Krim, Artyomovskoye, Krimart, Charte and Soloking. Export deliveries cover more than 20 countries of the world.
The share of own trademarks in Ukraine in 2017 was 11.7% in terms of sales, while in Europe as a whole, according to data for 2016, it was 31.4% and was constantly growing.
According to a study by Nielsen, one of the limitations that networks face is the brand’s productive capacity.
“Sometimes it is difficult for networks to find a partner ready to produce a private label in the required amount. In most cases, brands are ready and have necessary production capacity. The dilemma is whether to produce a competing brand in the brand portfolio. Therefore it is important to develop small and medium-sized producers who are interested in production of own trademarks for networks,” the director for work with retail chains at Nielsen in Ukraine, Yuriy Lischuk, said.
In Ukraine, the main reason for the readiness of consumers to give preference to the own trademark of networks, according to the study, is the price: consumers believe that own brands are cheaper than the brand of manufacturers.
At the same time, in 2017 the number of buyers who believe private labels provides the best ratio of price and quality fell to 24% from 36%.
The main popular goods of own trademarks are grocery (rice, flour, sugar, etc.) – 78%, dairy products account for 70%, canned and packaged food products for 68%, house cleaning products for 60%, and paper products (toilet paper, napkins, etc.) for 59%.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has issued a $5 million loan to Dniprovska agro-industrial group of companies, one of the largest producers of poultry goods in Ukraine, for building a biogas plant. According to information on the bank’s website, the biogas plant will use chicken manure from farms. It is expected that the plant will help optimize energy supply and reduce operating costs.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $5.85 million.
Dniprovska agro-industrial group of companies deals with poultry farming, plant growing and industrial crops processing. The group includes Dniprovsky poultry farm (Dnipropetrovsk region), Zaporizhia poultry farm LLC, Agroproinvest-08 LLC (both based in Zaporizhia region) and other enterprises.
The group manufactures products under the trademarks Dniprovski Kurchata and Znatna Kurka. It delivers products to the markets of the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Oceania under the Ulas and Katkut brand.
The group cultivates more than 15,000 hectares of leased land in Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions. The main crops are grains, legumes and oilseeds. It also produces sunflower and soybean oil, sunflower and soy meal.
Ireland’s low cost airline Ryanair plans to launch flights to Ukraine as second attempt in October 2018. The airline intends to launch flights on 15 routes from Kyiv and Lviv. According to the Lowcostavia.com.ua portal, the Ryanair mobile application provided a possibility of searching for flights from Lviv and Kyiv and later it disappeared.
The portal said that the application had new destinations from Kyiv to Barcelona, Bratislava, Wroclaw, Warsaw, Krakow, Poznan, Gdansk, Vilnius, Stockholm and London and from Lviv to Krakow, Warsaw, Dusseldorf, Memmingen and London. The frequency of flights is from two to four a week. The tickets could appear for sale on Friday, March 23.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Union (EU) are extending their support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine to EUR 1.15 billion, the EBRD has said in a press release.
A total of almost EUR 1.1 billion is provided in credit lines and trade finance under the EU4Business programme and EUR 58.3 million in EU grants.
The first phase of the SME program foresaw EUR 380 million financing by the EBRD and EUR 19.4 of EU grants.
“We are pleased to announce the extension of our successful programme of access to finance supporting reforms important for the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area to function. The EU4Business-EBRD Credit line has allowed SMEs in sectors such as manufacturing, retail, agriculture and food processing, transport, services and health care to improve their products, strengthen their export potential and adopt EU standards and technical norms,” Deputy Director-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Commission Katarína Mathernová said at a high-level conference in Tbilisi on Wednesday.
As reported, the EBRD in 2017 invested EUR 800 million in Ukraine, which is 37% more than a year ago.
