Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

Price of Ukrainian peas will not be lower than $325 per 1 ton – forecast

The price of Ukrainian peas in the season-2024 will be at least $325 per 1 ton, said Antonina Skliarenko, the head of the Community of Pulses Producers and Consumers of Ukraine.

The association reminded that recently the Indian government announced the extension of the duty-free import of yellow peas to the country until October 3 this year. This decision was caused by serious weather problems, which negatively affected the yield of crops grown in the country and led to the development of a deficit in the domestic market.

“The global demand for Ukrainian yellow peas will remain stable until the end of the year, and prices will grow. Prices for the 2024 harvest of Ukrainian peas are expected to reach at least $325 per ton,” Skliarenko predicts.

According to her, Ukrainian farmers have already expanded the area under this pulses crop in anticipation of rising demand and prices on the global market. According to official data, 161 thou hectares of peas were planted in Ukraine, but the actual acreage is higher.

“The upcoming season promises to be successful for pea producers, as the global demand for the pulses grown at favorable prices will be met,” the head of the association is confident.

Verkhovna Rada speaker signs order to allow journalists into parliament building

Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk has signed a decree on the admission of journalists to the parliament building under martial law.

According to the press service of the Verkhovna Rada, the decree allows media representatives to cover the activities of parliament directly in the premises of the legislative body.

The order approves the regulation “On accreditation of media at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the ninth convocation for the period of martial law in Ukraine”.

Stefanchuk and the head of the parliamentary staff Vyacheslav Shtuchny met with journalists and informed them about the peculiarities of media work in the press center of the Verkhovna Rada, in particular, about actions during the announcement of an air alert. The media representatives were shown the simplest shelter of the parliament building, where they will be obliged to go down during an air alert.

Stefanchuk said that despite the restrictions during martial law, it is important for journalists to be able to cover the activities of the legislative body. He also informed that given the need to comply with security requirements, a maximum of 30 people can work in the press center.

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Denmark allocates new aid package of €33.5 mln to Ukraine

The Danish government is allocating a new humanitarian aid package for Ukraine in the amount of DKK 250 million (€33.5 million), which, in particular, provides for the protection of the most vulnerable groups, the press service of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports.

“…With this new support package, we aim to provide urgent and vital humanitarian assistance and protection to the most vulnerable groups,” said Danish Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy Dan Jorgensen.

The package provides basic emergency assistance such as food, medicine, water and shelter for Ukrainians in the most affected areas of the Russian aggression, with a special focus on protecting the most vulnerable people in Ukraine.

“The support package also contributes to efforts to prevent, mitigate and respond to the particular risks faced by women and girls, including the risk of sexual and gender-based violence, and contributes to the provision of, for example, psychosocial support and maternal health care,” the statement said.

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40% of state-owned companies were unprofitable in 2023

At the same time, only a quarter of state-owned companies submit financial statements to the State Statistics Service

Almost 800 state and state-owned companies submitted financial statements in 2023, according to the State Statistics Service. Every year, 40% of these companies are unprofitable. It is worth noting that only a quarter of public sector companies comply with the law and submit their financial statements to the State Statistics Service.

789 state and state-owned enterprises submitted financial reports in 2023. This is only a quarter of all state-owned companies in Ukraine in 2024. Only 475 companies reported on their financial success in 2021.
“In contrast to private business, state-owned enterprises have significant advantages – in addition to being state-owned, such companies are often monopolists. That is, if managed properly, they have every opportunity to be even more profitable than private businesses.
However, according to the State Statistics Service’s financial statements, almost half of SOEs are unprofitable even under such conditions. We have created the Register of State-Owned Companies to make it easier to compare their financial performance and see which state-owned property is working as inefficiently as possible,” comments Oleksiy Ivankin, Head of the Open Data Base.
“We monitor the efficiency of state-owned enterprises on the page Register of State-Owned Enterprises.

On average, 40% of state-owned enterprises that have submitted reports are unprofitable. For example, last year, out of 789 companies, 313 suffered losses (39.7%), and in 2022, out of 797 companies, 389 were unprofitable. In 2021, 30.9% of those who reported their financial situation were unprofitable.

Boryspil Airport suffered the largest losses last year, amounting to UAH 1.4 billion. Dobropilliavuhillya-Vydobutok is the leader in terms of loss growth, which increased almost 12 times, from UAH 122 million to almost UAH 1.4 billion over the year.

Despite a significant number of loss-making companies, there are also those that are increasing their turnover. For example, Ukrspetsexport’s turnover grew by almost a third over the year, to UAH 32 billion. And Pavlohrad Chemical Plant has increased its turnover by 2.6 times to UAH 8.2 billion since the start of the full-scale war.
Despite the high turnover, the leaders in terms of profit are completely different enterprises. The most profitable state-owned enterprise in the country is the Forests of Ukraine, with UAH 2.8 billion. The Chornomorsk trade port demonstrated the largest increase in profits: its profits increased 26 times over the year, from UAH 37.2 million to UAH 986 million.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/state-companies-2024

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Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers proposes to ratify Free Trade Agreement with Turkey

The Cabinet of Ministers proposes that the Verkhovna Rada ratify the Free Trade Agreement between Ukraine and Turkey, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

“Improving working conditions for Ukrainian entrepreneurs means expanding export opportunities. Today the government will approve and submit to the parliament a bill on ratification of the Free Trade Agreement between Ukraine and Turkey,” Shmyhal said at a government meeting on Tuesday.

According to the prime minister, duties on a significant number of Ukrainian goods, including 93% of industrial goods, will be canceled.

“Turkey is among our top five trading partners. Therefore, the Agreement creates new opportunities for Ukrainian business,” Shmyhal emphasized.

According to the Ministry of Economy, the Agreement provides for the abolition of import duties on about 93.4% of industrial goods and 7.6% of agricultural goods from Ukraine. After the end of the transition period of 3-7 years, Turkey will cancel import duties for another 1.5% of industrial goods and 28.5% of agricultural goods.

Ukraine, for its part, will cancel import duties on about 56% of industrial goods and 11.5% of agricultural goods.

After the expiration of the transition periods (2-5 years for industrial goods, 2-10 years for agricultural goods), Ukraine will abolish import duties for another 43.2% of industrial goods and 53.7% of agricultural goods.

In general, the Ministry of Economy added, the provisions of the Agreement cover trade in goods and services, the application of the provisions of the Pan-Euro-Med Convention to determine the origin of goods, intellectual property rights, the application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures, the abolition of technical barriers to trade, e-commerce, customs cooperation, the commercial presence of enterprises, and the application of safeguard measures.

After ratification by the parliaments of the countries, the Agreement will enter into force 2 months after the last party receives confirmation of the completion of domestic procedures.

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Businessman Kolomoisky is accused of organizing contract killing

Law enforcement officers have served Ihor Kolomoisky with another suspicion of organizing a contract killing, the Prosecutor General’s Office reports.

“Under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor General’s Office, a well-known businessman suspected of legalizing fraudulently obtained property was served with a notice of suspicion of committing another crime related to the organization of a contract killing (Part 4 of Article 27, Part 2 of Article 15, paragraphs 11, 12, Part 2 of Article 115 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine),” the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement on its Telegram channel on Wednesday.

It is reported that according to the investigation, the suspect, “acting on motives of personal revenge, ordered the murder of the director of a law firm for failure to fulfill the requirements for canceling and invalidating the decisions of the general meeting of shareholders of an open joint-stock company. To realize his criminal intentions, the suspect involved members of a gang that “specialized” in committing serious and especially serious crimes, including physical violence against competitors.”

The gang members attacked the director of a law firm, punching and stabbing him in the vital organs. “At the same time, this crime was not brought to an end for reasons that did not depend on the will of the gang members,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement.

According to MP of the VIII convocation Serhiy Leshchenko, it is “about Kolomoisky’s suspicion of an attempt on the life of lawyer Serhiy Karpenko for refusing to follow instructions in a corporate dispute over the Dniprospetsstal enterprise (Zaporizhzhia).”

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, prosecutors and investigators are currently carrying out urgent investigative and procedural actions aimed at exposing all persons involved in the crime. The suspect is in custody.

The pre-trial investigation in the criminal proceedings is ongoing and is being carried out by investigators of the Main Department of the National Police of Ukraine with the operational support of the Criminal Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine.