According to the OpenDataBot rating, the Aurora chain of stores has become the largest employer in the Poltava region, with 12,536 employees.
The company was founded in 2011. Its head office is located in Poltava. It operates fixed-price stores.
Financial indicators: the company is among the top ten retail chains in Ukraine according to the OpenDataBot Index. Over the past year, the number of employees has increased by 5.7%.
The European Union has decided to reinstate quotas on agricultural imports from Ukraine, which were suspended at the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022 to support Ukrainian farmers. The updated restrictions will come into force on June 6, Bloomberg reported, citing the European Commission.
According to a European Commission representative, the quotas will be a temporary measure. The EU is currently working on revising the deep and comprehensive trade area between the EU and Ukraine. The quotas, available until the end of 2025, will amount to 7/12 of the usual annual volumes.
No member state opposed the decision. Sweden, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, and Lithuania abstained.
Bloomberg recalled that agricultural exports are crucial to Ukraine’s economy, and easy trade with the EU has helped Ukrainian farmers overcome major difficulties, including the temporary loss of their main export route through the Black Sea and production problems caused by landmines and military conscription.
However, the sharp increase in exports of relatively cheap Ukrainian goods to the EU market has sparked resistance from local farmers in countries such as Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. This has provoked a political standoff over protectionist measures between neighboring countries, some of which, such as Poland, were previously strong allies of Ukraine.
Agroholding Agraine has completed its 2025 spring sowing campaign, during which it sowed over 27,000 hectares with spring crops, the company’s press service reported on Facebook.
According to the report, corn took up most of the planned area, with 14,000 hectares, and sunflowers took up over 12,000 hectares.
Thanks to moisture retention and thorough soil preparation, the group of companies achieved optimal moisture at the sowing depth. In addition, this year, farmers chose drought-resistant corn and sunflower hybrids, focusing on stable yields despite the lack of rainfall.
“We reduced the density of corn sowing to better adapt to limited moisture. Thanks to the coordinated work of our teams, we were able to complete sowing ahead of schedule,” said Taras Kornienko, chief agronomist of the agricultural holding.
Agrain is engaged in the cultivation and storage of grain and oilseeds, as well as livestock farming. Before the full-scale Russian invasion, the agricultural holding company comprised 11 agricultural enterprises. It cultivated about 110,000 hectares in the Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Odesa, and Cherkasy regions.
The holding company is owned by SAS Investcompagnie (France).
Agro-industrial holding Astarta, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, reduced its total revenue to EUR 125 million in January-April 2025, down 25% from the same period last year, due to lower sales prices for a number of products and lower sales volumes, the agro-holding’s press service reported.
“EBITDA amounted to EUR27 million compared to EUR29 million in the first quarter of 2024, while profitability by this indicator increased by 4 percentage points to 21%. Exports of products, amounting to EUR73 million, accounted for 59% of total revenue compared to 69% in the first quarter of 2024,” the company said in a report.
At the same time, revenue from the crop production segment decreased by 49% year-on-year to EUR 37 million due to lower sales volumes. Exports accounted for 71% of the segment’s revenue (-20 percentage points year-on-year).
At the same time, in mid-May, Astarta’s enterprises successfully completed the spring sowing campaign. The final crop structure for 2025 is as follows: sugar beet – 34 thousand hectares (-12% y/y), soybeans – 56 thousand hectares (-21% y/y), winter wheat – 46 thousand hectares (-5% y/y), sunflower – 29 thousand hectares (+57% y/y), rapeseed – 11 thousand hectares (-8% y/y), corn – 11 thousand hectares (-5% y/y). ha (−5% y/y), sunflower – 29 thousand ha (+57% y/y), rapeseed – 11 thousand ha (−8% y/y), corn – 14 thousand ha (almost three times more y/y), organic crops – 2 thousand ha (no change y/y).
Revenue from Astarta’s sugar segment decreased by 5% y-o-y to EUR41 million, due to a 12% y-o-y decline in sugar prices and slightly lower sales volumes of by-products. This was partially offset by an 11% y-o-y increase in sugar sales. Sugar exports accounted for 47% of the segment’s revenue (down 4 p.p. y-o-y).
In volume terms, the company’s sugar exports accounted for 46% of total sugar sales, or 36,000 tons (+9% y-o-y). Almost half of this volume was exported by sea. The main export destinations were Libya, Israel, and the UAE, according to the agricultural holding.
Soybean processing at Astarta remained at last year’s level of EUR29 million. Exports accounted for 92% of the total, compared with 88% in the first quarter of 2024. Soybean processing volume amounted to 63,000 tons (+3% y/y).
The agricultural holding’s livestock production in January-April 2025 increased its revenue by 26% y/y to EUR 17 million, which is explained by higher sales prices. Milk sales amounted to 31 thousand tons (+1% y/y). All products were sold on the domestic market. The average livestock population was 29 thousand heads (+6% y/y). Total milk production amounted to 32 thousand tons (+1% y/y).
In January-April of this year, Astarta continued to develop its ecosystem of responsible partnership, in particular the Common Help Ukraine project, established jointly with the Believe in Yourself charitable foundation. According to the agricultural holding, the total value of charitable and humanitarian aid since the launch of the project has exceeded EUR35.3 million.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220,000 hectares, dairy farms with 22,000 head of cattle, an oil extraction plant in Hlobine (Poltava region), seven elevators, and a biogas complex.
In the first nine months of 2024, Astarta increased its net profit by 35.1% compared to the same period in 2023, to EUR75.60 million. The agricultural holding’s revenue grew by 12.6% to EUR441.46 million, and EBITDA by 12.8% to $131.56 million.
REBS business school students visited Alliance Novobud: tour and meeting with the company’s CMO
On May 24, the Alliance Novobud sales office in Brovary became a platform for students of the at the International Institute of Business (IIB) to learn about practical work. Participants in the training program had the opportunity to see how one of the country’s leading developers works from the inside.
The guests were welcomed by the sales office team and Irina Mikhaleva, Marketing Director (CMO) of Alliance Novobud, who is also one of the school’s lecturers. After getting acquainted with the work of the sales department, the guests were given a tour of the company’s residential complexes currently under construction in Brovary.
“Sharing experience and insights with those who are eager for new knowledge and opportunities is extremely important and rewarding,” said Irina Mikhaleva. “After all, these are the people who will shape the real estate market in the future. It is a great honor for me to be among the teachers at the Real Estate Business School. I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in the educational process and be part of the professional growth of a new generation of developers.”
This is not the first time Alliance Novobud has opened its doors to those who want to develop in the real estate sector. We are convinced that high-quality development begins with high-quality education, dialogue, and the exchange of experience.
Alliance Novobud, Real Estate Business School, REBS business school
Passenger traffic across the Ukrainian border from May 17 to 23 increased by 1.6% to 499,000 with the approach of summer, according to data from the State Border Service on Facebook.
According to the data, the outbound flow increased by 0.8% from 252,000 to 254,000, while the inbound flow increased by 2.5% from 239,000 to 245,000.
The number of vehicles that passed through checkpoints this week increased from 123,000 to 125,000, while the flow of vehicles with humanitarian cargo decreased slightly, from 526 to 517.
According to the State Border Service, as of 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, there were queues at the border crossing points (BCPs) “Ustyluh” (25 vehicles), “Krakivets” and “Shehyni” (10 vehicles each) on the border with Poland. As for other sections of the border, there were 10 cars at the Tisa checkpoint on the border with Hungary and 5 at the Uzhhorod checkpoint on the border with Slovakia, while there were no queues at other checkpoints.
The total number of people crossing the border this year is almost the same as last year: during the same seven days, 254,000 people left Ukraine and 239,000 entered, but the flow of cars was lower – 115,000.
At the same time, last year, the summer increase in passenger traffic began in the last week of May and lasted for six weeks in a row.
As reported, from May 10, 2022, the outflow of refugees from Ukraine, which began with the start of the war, was replaced by an influx that lasted until September 23, 2022, and amounted to 409,000 people. However, since the end of September, possibly influenced by news of mobilization in Russia and “pseudo-referendums” in the occupied territories, followed by massive shelling of energy infrastructure, the number of those leaving exceeded the number of those entering. In total, from the end of September 2022 to the first anniversary of the full-scale war, it reached 223,000 people.
During the second year of the full-scale war, the number of border crossings to leave Ukraine, according to the State Border Service, exceeded the number of crossings to enter by 25,000, during the third year by 187,000, and since the beginning of the fourth year by 30,000.
As Deputy Minister of Economy Serhiy Sobolev noted in early March 2023, the return of every 100,000 Ukrainians home results in a 0.5% increase in GDP.
In its April inflation report, the National Bank again estimated the outflow from Ukraine in 2024 at 0.5 million (according to the State Border Service – 0.315 million). In absolute terms, this means an increase in the number of migrants remaining abroad to 6.8 million in 2024. The NBU also maintained its forecast for the outflow in 2025 at 0.2 million.
According to updated data from the UNHCR, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe as of April 17, 2025, was estimated at 6.358 million, and 6.918 million worldwide, which is 15,000 fewer than on March 20.
In Ukraine itself, according to the latest UN data at the end of last year, there were 3.669 million internally displaced persons (IDPs).
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