Ukraine boosted exports of grain and leguminous crops 11.5% in the 2018/2019 agricultural year (July-June) so far (by January 2, 2019) to 23.098 million tonnes, as compared with the same period last year.
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food, 10.47 million tonnes of wheat, 3.15 million tonnes of barley, and 9.11 million tonnes of corn were exported.
Flour exports stood at 122,008 tonnes.
It was reported, citing the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food, that Ukraine exported 39.4 million tonnes of grain in the 2017/2018 agricultural year. Grain exports in the 2018/2019 agricultural year are projected at 47.2 million tonnes.
The State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine has regenerated 43,700 ha of forests in 2018 with 40,000 ha of clear logging in 2017, the agency has reported on its website.
According to the agency, 1,900 ha of trees planted in 2018 are new forests.
“The volume of forest renewal over the past five years amounted to 251,000 hectares, which is 11% more than the area of clear logging (227,000 hectares),” the State Forest Resources Agency said.
At the same time, the agency said that there is a tendency that the area of degraded plants is expanding, therefore, in the future, an increase in the timber harvesting volume is possible. At the same time, the State Agency is initiating a transition from clear logging to gradual and selective logging systems.
“In recent years, in the Carpathian region, gradual and selective logging systems were used more widely, reaching about 60% of the area,” the agency said.
It indicates that the data are given for forests at the disposal of the State Forest Resources Agency – 7.6 million hectares, or 73% of the Forest Fund of Ukraine.
Data on forests in the temporarily occupied territories of the country is not available.
Ukraine in January-November 2018 increased electricity exports by 19.8% (by 931.2 million kWh) compared to the same period in 2017, to 5.639 billion kWh, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry has told Interfax-Ukraine.
The supply of electricity from the Burshtyn TPP energy island towards Hungary, Slovakia and Romania increased by 21.9% (by 625.2 million kWh), to 3.474 billion kWh.
Export of electricity to Poland increased by 65.5% (by 424.6 million kWh), to 1.291 billion kWh.
Electricity supplies to Moldova amounted to 873.8 million kWh, which is 19% (204.8 million kWh) less than in January-November 2017.
Ukrainian electricity was not exported to Belarus and Russia in January-November 2017 and January-November 2018.
At the same time, in November 2018, export of Ukrainian electricity amounted to 589.2 million kWh, which is 2.3 times more than in November 2017 (258.6 million kWh).
In addition, Ukraine in January-November 2018 imported 28.507 million kWh of electricity.
The Foxtrot. Household Appliances network, developed by the Foxtrot group of companies (Kyiv), is working on a new online platform and wants to increase its share of online sales to at least 20%, Head of the Foxtrot Group and Head of the supervisory board of the Foxtrot. Household Appliances network Valeriy Makovetsky has said.
“The company has decided to invest large amounts of money in a modern online platform, one of the leaders in this segment in the world – SAP. This is quite large investment that will help us restructure the sales technology, the communication interface with consumers, and we hope we will be able to strengthen our position online. We are planning to increase sales in this segment at least twice,” Makovetsky said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He did not name the amount of investment in the development of the new online platform, but said that now the share of online sales of the Foxtrot network is about 10%.
According to Makovetsky, the company sees great prospects for the development of multi-channel sales.
“I have to say that Foxtrot also develops multi-channel sales: a consumer can purchase goods on our website, in the nearest store, or order delivery right to the door – from the website or a store using an electronic catalog, also receiving expert advice. I see that the same model is being developed by Comfy and Eldorado. We understand the great prospects of this market,” he said.
According to Foxtrot, the number of visits of the online store in 2017 reached 6.5 million users during peak months.
Foxtrot. Household Appliances network has 162 supermarkets in 90 cities of Ukraine with a retail area of 153,000 square meters.
Ukrzaliznytsia in 2019 will start talks with Estonia’s Eesti Raudtee railway company on extension of the Kyiv-Riga train to Tallinn.
It was planned to start the talks in December, although they were postponed. Now representatives of Eesti Raudtee and Ukrzaliznytsia are to meet on January 17, 2019, Spokesperson of Eesti Raudtee Monika Lilles said.
The weekly Kyiv-Minsk-Vilnius-Riga train was launched on September 28, 2018. At the end of Nov, Ukrzaliznytsia said that then the train was running at about zero cost effectiveness. However, given the “low season” and only the recent launch, Ukrzaliznytsia considered the launch of this train successful.
According to the company, after eight trips the train carried 2,100 passengers, of which 1,000 – to/from Lithuania and 950 – to/from Latvia.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has approved the application of the international bank account number (IBAN) in Ukraine starting from 2019, the central bank has reported on its website.
The decision is outlined in NBU Board resolution No. 162 dated January 28, 2018 on the introduction of IBAN.
According to the new standard, the valid account numbers for clients will be supplemented with the country code and the bank code. According to the NBU, it will simplify the identification of the payer and the recipient of funds, as well as the bank of Ukraine, which settles payments, it will allow avoiding errors in the account details by reducing the details in the settlement documents, and will accelerate the transfer of funds.
As the National Bank said, from April 1, 2019, banks will open new IBAN accounts to customers, and banks will change their current account numbers from April 1 through October 31, 2019, in accordance with the requirements of the new standard, while maintaining the current number of analytical accounting. In the period from April 1 through October 31, 2019, bank customers can indicate both a valid account number and a bank code, and a number in the IBAN standard in the details of payment documents.
In addition, the use of IBAN will become mandatory for customers of all banks of Ukraine in the implementation of money transfers, both in national and in foreign currencies, including cross border transfers. That is, all transfers will be carried out exclusively using IBAN.
According to the National Bank, the application of the new standard will harmonize the Ukrainian payment space with the European one, and will contribute to the further planned modernization of the Electronic Payment System of the central bank.
The use of IBAN in the future will also make it possible to use QR codes that will contain information on IBAN, to simplify the payment of bills and exchange with payment information.
