Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki assured on Wednesday that Warsaw does not intend to open borders for agricultural products from Ukraine. “We are protecting our agriculture, so we are not opening the borders for agricultural goods from Ukraine,” Polish Radio quoted him as saying Wednesday.
“The war in Ukraine is having an increasingly serious impact on the agricultural market, and this has a negative impact on Poles, so we have imposed an embargo on goods from Ukraine,” Morawiecki said.
He admitted that “in a couple of months, the EU intends to reopen the borders for grain imports from Ukraine.”
“We do not agree to this, we will not open the borders and we will not allow destabilization of our economy. We are obliged to protect Polish interests and our agriculture,” the Polish Prime Minister emphasized.
Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telusz said that the meeting of agricultural ministers reached an agreement and signed a petition to extend the ban on imports of four grains from Ukraine until the end of 2023.
“The restriction of grain imports from Ukraine has not affected transit. In February, corn transit amounted to 114,000 tons and in June 260,000 tons. Therefore, the European Commission’s decision to open the borders on September 15 is not meaningfully justified,” the Polish Agriculture Ministry quoted Telusz as saying on Twitter.
According to the Polish minister, the ministers of Ukraine and Moldova were invited to the meeting of agricultural ministers in Warsaw, but they could not come for objective reasons. The Polish minister expressed hope for a meeting in the future.
“We want to help Ukraine in transit. We know that this war is a war that we have to win,” Telusz said and added that it will be won when solutions will be “implemented that will help us in this.”
Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, in agreement with the European Commission (EC), have banned imports of wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower seeds from Ukraine since May 2.
Problems for agricultural producers from a number of European countries associated with the surplus of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products in the markets of Eastern Europe began in the first months of 2023. In many respects, they were provoked by the temporary abolition of customs duties on imports of grain and oilseeds from Ukraine by the EU. Due to this measure by Brussels, imports of agricultural products from Ukraine to the border states increased significantly.
Ukrainian products, in particular, grain, sunflower, eggs, poultry meat, sugar, apples and apple juice, berries, flour, honey and pasta in unprecedented quantities began to settle on the shelves in these countries, which led to a sharp drop in prices and hit hard the farmers in these countries.
Meanwhile, as First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Trade Yulia Sviridenko said on Wednesday at a meeting with the European Business Association (EBA), Ukraine is categorically against the extension of the EU’s discriminatory ban on the supply of a number of agro-commodities to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania after September 15.
According to her, the ban on exports of wheat, barley, rapeseed and sunflower seeds to the above five countries is “discriminatory on the part of the nearest neighbors, especially when Ukraine has an enemy at sea.”
Asked what would happen if the ban was still extended, the first deputy prime minister said that in such a case Ukraine would be forced to consider mirror measures.
“I would not like to say out loud and believe that this is a realistic step, but we think that some mirror measures can be applied,” Sviridenko said.
Insurance group “TAS” (Kiev) for the first six months of 2023 paid insurance indemnities in the amount of UAH 611.19 million – by 35.6% more than in the first six months of last year, according to the insurer’s website.
According to its data, payments under hull insurance contracts for the specified period increased by 52.2% – up to UAH 188.16 million, which is 30.79% of the total amount of payments for this period.
At the same time, the share of CMTPL insurance in the portfolio of payments amounted to 38.24% (UAH 233.69 million) – by 25.5% more than in the corresponding period last year. Even more – by 78,6% – payments under “Green Card” have grown – up to UAH 106,38 mln, which is 17,41% of the total volume of payments of the group.
In turn, under contracts of voluntary medical insurance SG “TAS” in January – June paid UAH 63,58 mln, which is 10,4% of the total amount of indemnities paid during the reporting period and by 5,3% exceeds the corresponding indicator for six months last year.
In the first half of the year TAS IG paid UAH 4.38 mln under property insurance contracts, and UAH 15 mln under other insurance contracts.
Oschadbank has increased the loan portfolio of the agribusiness and agricultural trade sector by 91% since the beginning of 2022 and doubled the number of clients, the state bank said on Wednesday.
“As of today, Oschadbank occupies about 14% of the market of working loans of the agrarian sector,” the press release said.
According to Yuriy Katsion, deputy head of the bank’s board responsible for corporate business, such a rapid increase is caused by the objective need of businesses to attract external financing, which is related to losses caused by the war and the unpreparedness of many commercial banks and international organizations, unlike the state bank, to lend during the war without insurance guarantees.
Katsion also stressed the importance of state support for the agricultural sector during a full-scale war, particularly through the introduction of state guarantees, the “Affordable Loans 5-7-9%” program, and support for exporters through ECAs.
According to Oschadbank, the agribusiness sector leads in lending from the banking sector: the volume of working loans as of April 1, 2023 exceeds UAH 144 billion, or 31.2% of the total loan portfolio. Wholesale trade (21.6%) and energy (10.5%) follow.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of June 1, 2023, Oschadbank ranked 2nd in terms of assets (UAH 313.65 billion) among 65 banks operating in the country, and as of midtin this year had the largest number of branches in the country – 1183.
Stock indices of the largest countries of Western Europe in the course of trading on Wednesday show a positive mood on the data on weakening inflation in the UK and the eurozone.
The composite index of the largest European companies Stoxx Europe 600 increased by 0.4% to 462.45 points by 12:02 Q2.
German indicator DAX from the market opening rose by 0.2%, French CAC 40 – by 0.6%, British FTSE 100 – by 1.5% (to the maximum for a month). Italian FTSE MIB and Spanish IBEX 35 added 0.15% each.
Consumer prices in the UK in June rose by 7.9% in annualized terms – this is the minimum rise since March 2022. Inflation thus slowed from 8.7% in May.
The consensus forecast cited by Trading Economics had called for inflation to weaken to 8.2% in June.
Consumer price growth in Britain in monthly terms slowed to 0.1% in June from 0.7% in May. Analysts had expected an increase of 0.4%.
Consumer prices in the euro zone rose at a 5.5% annualized rate in June, according to final data. This is the weakest rise since January last year. Inflation was 6.1% in May.
The June figure matched both the preliminary estimate and the average forecast of experts.
Dutch manufacturer of chip equipment ASML Holding NV reduced net profit by 1% in the second quarter, but improved its revenue growth forecast for the current year. Quotes of the company’s shares are up 0.5%.
The price of securities Kering SA soared by almost 6%. The French holding company, which owns famous fashion brands, announced the departure of Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri, who held the post since 2015. The brand will be led on an interim basis by group managing director Jean-François Palus.
Swedish access control systems maker Assa Abloy increased its second-quarter net profit by 13.3% to 3.57 billion kronor ($349 million) and revenue by 17% to 34.47 billion kronor. Analysts polled by FactSet had on average forecast 4.13 billion crowns and 33.68 billion crowns, respectively. The company’s shares are up 0.2%.
Stock prices of oil producers are also rising: BP Plc and Shell – by 1.1%, TotalEnergies – by 0.5%.
Meanwhile, the value of Volvo is down 1.7%. The Swedish truck maker reported a 5% rise in deliveries in the April-June quarter, but new orders fell 10%.
Antofagasta shares are down 1.1%. The company increased copper production by 2.5% in the second quarter relative to January-March to 149.6 thousand tons. However, the forecast for the whole current year was lowered to 640-670 thousand tons from previously expected 670-710 thousand tons.
USAID’s Economic Support for Ukraine project has purchased weighing equipment for weighing railroad and road transport and transferred it to one of the largest operators in Ukraine’s grain market, JV Nibulon LLC (Mykolaiv), the grain trader’s press service reported.
“Providing Nibulon’s elevators with modern weighing equipment will speed up weighing of road and rail transport, provide automation and restore previously cut off capacity to the Izmail investment project. Thanks to this, we expect to restore the capacity of supply chains and speed up operations on acceptance and shipment of grain products. Additional weighing complexes will increase the turnover in conditions of increased load on land transportation”, – said the director on interaction with authorities and issues of sustainable development of “Nibulon” Mikhail Rizak.
According to the company, the weighing equipment will be used at four elevators of the company – in Mykolayiv, Poltava and Cherkasy regions.
With the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, Nibulon was forced to reorient its export chains and compensate for the lack of river navigation on the international inland waterway E-40. The priority was the investment project of the river port in Izmail and strengthening the logistic potential of the company in the use of land routes, recalled the press service of the grain trader.
Currently, Nibulon uses combined routes that combine transportation by truck and transshipment by rail with subsequent transshipment to water transport in Izmail.
USAID’s assistance to agroexporters is part of the Agricultural Sustainability Initiative in Ukraine, which is implemented by the U.S. Agency for International Development. It aims to help Ukraine increase its capacity to produce, store, transport and export grain.
JV Nibulon LLC was established in 1991. Before the Russian military invasion, the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and complexes for receiving agricultural crops, capacity for one-time storage of 2.25 million tons of agricultural products, a fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugboats), and owned the Nikolaev shipyard.
“Nibulon” before the war cultivated 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries.
The grain trader exported the maximum 5.64 million tons of agricultural products in 2021, reaching record shipments to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, in the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
Nibulon’s losses from the full-scale military invasion of the Russian Federation reached $400 mln. Currently, the grain trader is operating at 30% of its capacity, has created a special unit for demining agricultural land and started production of the first vessel for demining international waterways at its shipyards in Mykolayiv.
The grain trader recently raised EUR27m from the Danish Export Investment Fund (EIFO) to increase the capacity of the Bessarabsky branch in Izmail, where an elevator and a flour mill will be built.
Bratislava Mayor Mateusz Vallo has offered Kiev assistance in attracting world experts in consulting in the restoration of infrastructure, development of the transportation system, said Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko after a meeting with his Slovak counterpart.
“Our cities are linked by twinning relations… We agreed on further assistance from Bratislava, in particular in setting up a rehabilitation center for the military, which Kiev is creating. We also discussed the future restoration of Ukraine and Kyiv,” Klitschko wrote in Telegram on Tuesday evening.
Also, according to him, Bratislava will soon hand over 25 city buses to Kiev as aid. Now they are being prepared for shipment, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said.
