Agrotrade has completed the spring sowing of spring crops, for which it has allocated more than 30 thousand hectares, the company’s press service posted on Facebook on Wednesday.
According to the report, favorable weather in early spring allowed Agrotrade to start sowing in March, although it had previously started in April. However, due to precipitation, field work had to be suspended for some time, and when it resumed, more machinery had to be used than planned.
“This year, we focused on using our own equipment in the problem areas near the sites of shelling and active hostilities. This allowed us to work efficiently despite limited working hours and problems with satellite navigation. The delay caused by weather conditions did not have a significant impact and did not cause any economic losses, as we had foreseen the possibility of using additional equipment in advance. As a result, we completed the spring sowing campaign even ahead of schedule,” said Oleksandr Ovsyanyk, Director of the Agricultural Department.
According to him, Agrotrade has planted 12.52 thou hectares of sunflower, 8.27 thou hectares of soybeans, 6.4 thou hectares of corn, 3.75 thou hectares of spring wheat, and 230 thou hectares of industrial hemp for the 2014 harvest. Buckwheat and peanuts were also sown for the first time.
The Agrotrade Group is a vertically integrated holding company with a full agro-industrial cycle (production, processing, storage and trade of agricultural products). It cultivates over 70 thousand hectares of land in Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv regions. Its main crops are sunflower, corn, winter wheat, soybeans and rapeseed. It has its own network of elevators with a simultaneous storage capacity of 570 thousand tons.
The group also produces hybrid seeds of corn and sunflower, barley, and winter wheat. In 2014, a seed plant with a capacity of 20 thousand tons of seeds per year was built on the basis of Kolos seed farm (Kharkiv region). In 2018, Agrotrade launched its own brand Agroseeds on the market.
Vsevolod Kozhemiako is the founder and CEO of Agrotrade.
Registrations of new commercial vehicles (trucks and special vehicles) in May 2024 increased by 18% compared to the same month in 2023 – up to 1127 units, which is also 7% more than in April, Ukravtoprom reports in its telegram channel.
According to the report, the top five brands in the new commercial vehicle market last month were Renault – 305 units, Citroen – 115 units, MAN – 92 units, Ford – 86 units, and Iveco – 53 units. At the same time, the top five did not include Scania, which ranked second in April.
As reported with reference to Ukravtoprom data, in May last year, 955 trucks and special vehicles were sold in Ukraine, compared to 460 in the same month in 2022. The top five leaders were Renault (327 units), Volkswagen (81 units), Mercedes-Benz (66 units), Citroen (66 units), and Peugeot (52 units).
According to the association, in January-May 2024, more than 5 thousand new vehicles joined the Ukrainian fleet of trucks and special vehicles, which is 22% more than in the same period last year.
At the same time, AUTO-Consulting, an information and analytical group, analyzing the segment of trucks with a gross vehicle weight of more than 3.5 tons, noted on its website that in May it sent a positive signal – sales increased by 19% by May 2023, to more than 400 units, which made it possible to move to a small (5%) increase in this market segment in five months.
At the same time, the leader has changed – instead of Scania (as of April), it is MAN with a 21% increase in sales, and Volvo, which increased sales by 71%, took second place. Ford Trucks came in third.
Isuzu, as well as a number of Chinese brands, started to increase sales: Howo, DongFeng, JAC.
AUTO-Consulting also analyzed sales in the business car segment, which has always been a litmus test of sentiment in the economically active part of society.
Thus, according to experts, in May, the volume of deliveries of LCVs (gross vehicle weight up to 3.5 tons) decreased by 2.9% compared to the same month last year, but in January-May the market still shows a 22% increase.
It is noted that there is no sharp increase in demand for electric vans – only six units were purchased in May (compared to two in May 2023), but this is less than 1% of the new LCV market.
Renault became the segment leader with a 38% share.
As reported, in 2023, according to Ukravtoprom, registrations of new commercial vehicles in Ukraine increased by 65% compared to 2022 – to 11.3 thousand units. At the same time, the segment of trucks over 3.5 tons, according to AUTO-Consulting, increased by 56.5% – to 4853 units.
Sales of cheese on the domestic market are becoming more difficult, but cheese makers continue to actively produce it, as they consider cheese making more attractive than the production of exchange dairy products, Infagro news agency reported.
“Sales managers have to constantly work in promotions to get rid of stocks in warehouses. Promotional discounts can be quite significant. Such cheese is already becoming competitive with imported counterparts, which are also massively sold in promotions,” analysts advise and point out that European suppliers are becoming less interested in supplying cheese to Ukraine, and they will not rush to increase volumes in the future.
According to experts, due to difficulties with sales in the domestic market and the devaluation of the hryvnia, cheese exports are becoming even more important for producers. It is especially interesting for exporters to Kazakhstan.
“Production of semi-hard and white cheese may even increase in May. At the same time, many products have been stored in warehouses, and in June the production of such cheese should decrease significantly,” Infagro predicts.
Real GDP percentage changes over previous period in 2014-2023
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
JSC OTP BANK applies various mechanisms to make credit products available and interesting for as many business clients as possible. This was stated by Alla Biniashvili, Member of the Management Board of the Bank, in her speech at the international industry conference Grain Ukraine.
She reminded that since the beginning of the full-scale war, the corporate portfolio of Ukrainian banks has decreased by 20%, so now banking institutions are using various methods to resume lending to the economy.
According to Alla Biniashvili, an important advantage of OTP Bank is its systematic cooperation with international organizations that offer risk-sharing or provide grant programs for business. In particular, with the EBRD, with which the Bank has entered into an unfunded agreement on portfolio risk sharing totaling EUR 120 million, and with the USAID Project “Investments for Business Resilience”, which allowed financing Ukrainian enterprises for more than UAH 500 million at a preferential rate of 7%.
“We carefully study risks as a responsible bank, but at the same time, we understand the current situation and see the conditions in which business operates. And thanks to risk-sharing with the EBRD, we can finance different clients. As part of its cooperation with the USAID Business Resilience Investment Project, the Bank provides loans at preferential rates. So we have opportunities, and this is our distinctive advantage,” emphasized Alla Biniashvili.
She noted that OTP BANK has been actively applying positive international experience throughout its activities, and thanks to cooperation with the International Financial Corporation (IFC), in 2017 created a unique scoring project called Agro Factory. “Back then, we studied the pains and fears of small companies, in particular, they wanted to receive decisions quickly, submit a minimum package of documents, etc. We met all their requirements within Agro Fabrika. We make decisions within a business day and disburse funds within a week at the most, because after all, providing financing is a dance for two, and there is a need to obtain certain documents. For agricultural producers, we offer loans of up to UAH 5 million without any collateral at all, and up to UAH 20 million secured by financial agricultural receipts,” said the member of the Bank’s Management Board.
She emphasized that OTP BANK successfully cooperates with well-known international and Ukrainian partner companies, including manufacturers of seeds, plant protection products, fertilizers, etc. within the Agro Factory project. “If a bank customer buys goods from them, they compensate us for the difference in interest rate, so we can provide a very interesting loan offer at 0.1%, which is difficult to find on the market in the usual way. Agrarian business is in the center of our attention, and 50% of loans in the total loan portfolio of OTP Bank are financing of the agricultural industry,” she said.
The area under sugar beet has increased by almost 20% to 250 thousand hectares during the war, which has become a good diversification option for farmers who have switched from growing grain to this crop, said Yana Kavushevska, acting chairman of the board of the National Association of Sugar Producers Ukrtsukor.
“During the war, the industry demonstrated resilience and became an island of salvation for some farmers who managed to switch from growing grain to sugar beet in time,” she said at Grain Ukraine in Kyiv.
According to Kavushevska, in 2020, 216 thou hectares were planted with sugar beet in Ukraine. However, for two years in a row, the country has been allocating 250 thou hectares for this crop, which indicates an increase of almost 20%. This is due to the areas planted by independent farmers and agricultural companies that have made a conscious choice in favor of sugar beet and saw it as a profit opportunity.
The acting chairman of the board of Ukrtsukor explained the success of the industry by the favorable situation on the world market, where sugar prices have been among the highest since 2006. In addition, it was easier for Ukrainian producers to export sugar than grain.
“There were logistical problems. Of course, sugar producers, like grain producers, are interested in keeping the ports of Greater Odesa open and working properly. But exports by land were also quite active,” she stated.
Another positive factor for the revitalization of the Ukrainian sugar industry, according to the representative of the industry association, is duty-free trade with the EU, which Ukrainian producers have actively used and increased exports.
Speaking about the imposition of restrictions on Ukrainian sugar by the EU, Kavushevska noted that Ukrainian producers have resumed exporting sugar not only to the EU, but also to the Black Sea and West Africa.
“As of May, Ukraine exported 65% of sugar to the European Union, and 35% went to countries where our sugar is also in demand. In fact, in May, Ukraine set a record for monthly sugar exports: within 30 days, we exported 108 thousand tons of sugar,” the representative of the association emphasized.
Ms. Kavushevska also noted that sugar prices are currently being corrected on the global market. She admitted that the financial results for Ukrainian producers may not be as good as before. However, for the third year in a row, sugar beet will remain among the top three most profitable crops for Ukrainian farmers, which is a good alternative to grain.
The head of Ukrtsukr also emphasized the importance of cooperation with specialized European sugar producer associations, pointed out the need to integrate Ukrainian products into the EU and reminded that the industry counts on the support of the state and its trade representatives who will negotiate the revision of autonomous trade measures and the association agreement.
