Chanta Mount LLC (Novi Petrivtsi, Vyshgorod district, Kyiv region) has received UAH 8 million in non-refundable grant aid from the state for the New Level processing plant, which will help it resume production of frozen bread, the press service of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine reports.
According to the report, in March 2022, the bakery was damaged by shelling by the Russian occupiers. The bread production line was almost completely destroyed, and the croissant production line was partially destroyed: six shells hit the premises. The damage was estimated at more than EUR 5 million. Before the war, the plant employed 140 people, now it has about 40.
“The bread production line was destroyed by Russian troops with Grad rockets on March 16, 2022. The epicenter of the explosion was in the part where we freeze and pack bread. (…) Only because there was a curfew, our people were not injured. We immediately realized that we could not cope with the recovery alone, so we needed to look for grant opportunities,” the press service quoted the bakery’s director, Elena Taranenko, as saying.
The company’s management has applied for participation in the government’s program of non-refundable grants for processing enterprises from the Ministry of Economy and will receive the maximum amount of UAH 8 million.
“We have to make our contribution of UAH 4 million. The grant money will be used to buy freezing and refrigeration equipment,” said Taranenko.
In addition, to launch the bread production line, it is necessary to equip the packaging department and build a warehouse for finished products. This will require EUR 2 million.
In the spring of 2024, the bakery plans to resume full production and supply frozen bread to ATB, Silpo, Fora, Novus, METRO, Auchan, Epicenter, and Varus supermarkets.
Meanwhile, the croissant production line is reportedly already in operation. The frozen croissants are sold to national retail chains, bakeries, cafes, supermarkets, and for export. So far, up to 1.5-2 tons are baked daily, but the potential capacity is over 400 kg/hour.
The Ministry of Economy reminded that the government’s e-Work project includes grant programs aimed at stimulating entrepreneurship and job creation. Microgrants are issued for starting or developing your own business, including processing enterprises, planting a garden, vineyard, or greenhouse. Both existing entrepreneurs and people with no business experience can apply for a grant.
In 2022, Chanta Mount LLC received UAH 26.441 million in revenue, while a year earlier it received UAH 181.4 million, and the loss increased to UAH 94.409 million from UAH 3.1 million in 2021.
According to Opendatabot, Chanta Mount LLC was registered in 2018, and the ultimate beneficiary is Olena Chernysheva. The company’s authorized capital is UAH 23.7 million.
Ukraine has reduced the rate of rapeseed exports by 1.8 times – to 220,000 tons per month against the norm of 350,000-400,000 tons, according to the analytical cooperative “Pusk”, established within the framework of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Rada (VAR).
“We have a decrease in the export rate for rapeseed. Ukraine needs to export 350,000-400,000 tons monthly, but exports exceed 220,000 tons. For September, Ukrainian rapeseed is contracted on forwards with delivery to Romania, Lithuania, Germany exclusively by road and rail. At small river ports forwards are not arranged, only spot market works there. Rapeseed supply is low”, – analysts note.
According to their data, processors gradually pull up the level of purchase prices to 14 thousand UAH/ton, in some regions price tags are 14.2 thousand UAH/ton. Large batches – 2-3 thousand tons of rapeseed – are exported to the EU, which forces domestic processors to raise prices.
One of the factors of price growth on rapeseed, according to analysts, is the news from Canada – the key world producer of canola, about the decrease in the volume of gross harvest.
“According to the USDA report, there was a decrease in the forecast of rapeseed harvest from Canada by 1 million tons. But we can expect further declines in the forecast due to weather conditions. The volume of oilseed production in Canada will determine further price trends in the global market,” the WAR explained.
In the coming week, the conditional prices at small river ports may rise to $380-390/tonne, purchase prices of processors – up to UAH 14.4 thousand/tonne, experts predict.
US inflation is slowing but still remains too high, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (FRB) Governor Neel Kashkari said.
“The question that concerns me is whether we have done enough to bring inflation back to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target or whether we need to do more,” Kashkari said during an event on Tuesday.
“Inflation is slowing. We’ve made progress and good progress. I’m happy with that. But it’s still too high,” Market Watch quoted Kashkari as saying.
The pace of U.S. consumer price growth accelerated to an annualized rate of 3.2% in July, up from 3% in June.
The head of the Minneapolis FRB has a vote on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this year.
The Fed raised the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 5.25-5.5% in July, a 22-year high. Judging by the quotations of futures on the rate level, traders expect it to remain at the same level following the results of the September FOMC meeting.
The nationalized Sens Bank (Kyiv, formerly Alfa-Bank) plans to join government loan programs, Rostislav Dyuk, deputy chairman of the financial institution’s supervisory board, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“Last year, the bank reduced its assets to comply with certain NBU restrictions. But we have a strong base of loyal customers and expect them to return. Plus, now, as a state-owned bank, Sens Bank will be able to provide its customers with access to government lending programs,” Dyuk said.
Olena Zubchenko, acting chairman of the board, added that the bank plans to become a partner of the 5-7-9 program.
“We would like to join the eHouse program as well. But as for the mortgage program, we see the bank’s team that used to do something else. We will analyze how to launch it (the housing lending program), the main thing is that we managed to retain specialists,” the bank’s CEO said.
Zubchenko also sees e-commerce, gaming and other digital areas of the economy as promising areas of development.
“We will evaluate how and on what terms we will join these areas of financial sector development. Since we represent the interests of both retail and corporate business, this will remain the focus of our development,” she said.
As reported, the Chairman of the Board of Sense Bank (Kyiv, formerly Alfa-Bank) Dmitry Kuzmin, who was appointed to this position three weeks ago during the nationalization of the bank, resigned by mutual consent for personal reasons. On August 14, the Supervisory Board accepted his resignation and appointed Kuzmin’s deputy, Olena Zubchenko, who worked at the Ministry of Finance before the bank’s nationalization, as acting chairman of the board.
During a press conference, Shevki Adzhuner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Sens Bank, clarified that Zubchenko “will act as the head of the bank for no more than six months.” According to him, the head of the bank will be elected in a competition, as well as several other positions of the bank’s management board, including CFO and COO.
Sens Bank ranks 11th among 65 operating banks in Ukraine in terms of assets (about 3.4% of the banking system’s total assets of UAH 96.637 billion). It was nationalized in the twentieth of July under a specially adopted law as a systemically important bank with majority shareholders from Alfa Group, which was subject to sanctions.
In the second quarter of 2023, the bank opened two new branches, expanding its network to 140 units across the country.
In July 2023, the Export Credit Agency (ECA) set a new milestone in supporting Ukrainian exporters by insuring their obligations under loans issued for the execution of foreign economic contracts totaling UAH 1.035 billion. According to the ECA website, the amount of financing provided amounted to UAH 85.9 million.
Among the insured loans in July 2023, almost UAH 80 million were portfolio loans. The largest of them were issued in Kyiv (UAH 20 million), Ivano-Frankivsk (UAH 19.9 million), and Dnipro (UAH 19.4 million) regions.
It is also noted that as of August 1, 2023, the ECA supported exports of more than UAH 6.2 billion by insuring loan agreements in the amount of UAH 815.4 million.
The leaders in terms of the amount of insured loans are Oschadbank (UAH 256.3 million), Ukrgasbank (UAH 229 million) and Raiffeisen Bank (UAH 210 million). They are also the first in terms of the volume of supported exports (UAH 3.22 billion, UAH 1.51 billion and UAH 0.6 billion, respectively).
PJSC Export Credit Agency is a government-authorized agency that supports and promotes the export of Ukrainian goods (works, services). The ECA protects Ukrainian exporters from the risk of non-payment and financial losses associated with the fulfillment of foreign trade contracts.
The US non-profit organization Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) in partnership with the Howard Buffett Foundation (HGBF) will replace windows in houses affected by Russian shelling across Ukraine, planning to install more than 80,000 windows by the end of the year.
According to the press release, by the end of July the program had already installed 16.7 thousand new windows in private and apartment buildings, schools, and hospitals.
According to GEM, windows worth $1 million have been installed in apartment houses and schools in Kyiv region, and $500 thousand in houses in Kherson region damaged after the Kakhovskaya HPP was blown up by the occupants.
GEM and HGBF representatives are working on the ground in Dnipro, Odessa, Lviv. Sumy, Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhzhya and Pokrovsk, working with local military administrations, the press release said.
GEM was founded in 2011 as a global disaster response service. In Ukraine, the organization is engaged in reconstruction projects and provides humanitarian aid to war-affected regions. GEM cooperates with 152 local and Ukrainian organizations.
