In 2024, USAID’s Agricultural and Rural Development Program (USAID Agro) supported 1200 Ukrainian agricultural producers who were able to receive over UAH 1.14 billion through a number of financial instruments, the program’s press service reported on Facebook.
“With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, it became clear that farmers need financial products offered by the non-banking sector more than ever: commodity lending, leasing (including leaseback and factoring), and agricultural installments,” the statement said.
USAID Agro said that in 2024, farmers received more than UAH 1 billion in commodity loans for the purchase of seeds, fertilizers and plant protection products with deferred payment until harvest from seven partner organizations – Adama Ukraine LLC, Ukravit LLC, Zakhid Agribusiness LLC, Makosh LLC, Agroresurs LLC, Himagro LLC, and Agro Arena LLC. Farmers could pay off the loan in cash or grain. In most cases, no hard collateral was required.
In 2024, agrarians also received UAH 44 million in financing through WEAGRO, a specialized online service from Activitis, a financial company. Without direct interaction with the financial company, farmers received an installment decision within 30 minutes and payment under the contract within two hours.
In addition, USAID Agro supported the Digital Leasing in Three Clicks in Three Days platform from ESKA Capital, which financed farmers for almost UAH 100 million as part of a joint project.
“The uniqueness of this initiative is the leasing of equipment for up to 15 years, leaseback, financing for farmers bordering the combat zone; as well as the absence of bureaucratic obstacles and the ability to draw up contracts online,” the program reminded.
USAID Agro promised to support these projects in 2025 and prepare two more for launch. These are the development of secondary circulation of commodity loans, as well as financing of agricultural producers through agricultural notes.
In 2024, Ukraine and Egypt increased their trade in agricultural products to $1.4 billion, up 32% from a year earlier, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Vitalii Koval said following a meeting with the newly appointed Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to Ukraine Barakat Ali Elleiti.
The Minister clarified that the main Ukrainian exports were corn, wheat, soybeans, and vegetable oil. In turn, Ukraine imports citrus fruits, potatoes, nuts, etc. from Egypt.
“The parties discussed the potential for increasing Ukrainian-Egyptian cooperation in the field of agriculture, as well as the issue of reducing the deferral of payments to Ukrainian exporters for the delivered goods, the abolition of some trade restrictions and customs duties, and the possibility of creating a Ukrainian food hub in Egypt,” he wrote on Telegram.
According to Koval, cooperation between Ukraine and Egypt should be mutually beneficial for both countries.
The parties agreed to set up a joint working group to develop a roadmap to address current issues.
Approximately 57% of residents of Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark, support the idea of becoming part of the United States, according to a poll by Patriot Polling, cited by The Hill on Monday. According to the poll, about 37% of the island’s residents opposed the possible accession to the United States, while slightly more than 5% of respondents were unable to answer.
The survey involved 416 people, while the population of Greenland is almost 57 thousand people.
This is the first time that the Patriot Polling Center has conducted a survey outside the United States. The survey was conducted during the visit to Greenland last week by Donald Trump Jr, the son of US President-elect Donald Trump.
Earlier, Trump expressed a desire to include Greenland in the United States, as it would be in Washington’s national interests. At the same time, he did not rule out the possibility that he might use military force to achieve this goal. This caused concern in Denmark and other European countries. The Greenlandic authorities have emphasized that they are seeking independence from Copenhagen in the future, but not to become part of the United States.
There is already a US military base in Greenland. The island is considered a central link in ensuring the security of the Arctic, a starting point for sea routes through the waters of the region, and a territory where rare earth metals and other resources are found. Western media note that the island has reserves of graphite, copper, zinc, gold, diamonds, iron ore, titanium, vanadium, and uranium, and that exploration work has not been fully carried out.
In 2024, Ukrainian companies increased their exports of ferrous scrap by 60.7% compared to 2023, up to 293,190 thousand tons from 182,465 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS), 31,612 thousand tons of scrap were exported in December, 34,608 thousand tons in November, 24,549 thousand tons in October, 24,767 thousand tons in September, 28,287 thousand tons in August, 28,567 thousand tons in August, and 28,567 thousand tons in September. tons, September – 28,549 thousand tons, September – 24,767 thousand tons, August – 28,425 thousand tons, July – 24,702 thousand tons, June – 22,161 thousand tons, May – 14,952 thousand tons, April – 26,153 thousand tons, March – 20,907 thousand tons, February – 23,194 thousand tons, January – 17,160 thousand tons.
In monetary terms, scrap metal exports increased by 73.2% to $91.311 million from $52.723 million over the year.
Scrap metal exports in 2024 were mainly to Poland (81.80%), Greece (13.75%) and Germany (3.19%).
For the whole of last year, the country imported 104 tons of scrap metal worth $110 thousand, while in 2023 it imported 1,075 thousand tons worth $411 thousand. Imports were carried out mainly from Turkey (64.55% in monetary terms), the British Virgin Islands (16.36%) and Panama (8.18%).
As reported, in 2023, Ukraine’s scrap collection company increased the export of scrap metal from the country by 3.4 times compared to the previous year – up to 182,485 thousand tons from 53,557 thousand tons. In monetary terms, exports increased 2.74 times to $52.723 million from $19.271 million.
Earlier, Ukrmetallurgprom President Oleksandr Kalenkov stated in an op-ed on the Interfax-Ukraine website that scrap metal is exported through the European Union, which has a preferential export duty of EUR3 per ton, and from there the raw materials are redirected to real customers. He pointed out that exporting raw materials directly to customers would cost EUR180 in export duties, and the Ukrainian budget has already lost UAH 350 million.
The head of Ukrmetallurgprom called for a temporary ban on the export of ferrous scrap to provide steelmakers with strategically important raw materials during the war. He also clarified that a ton of scrap metal processed into steel brings in ten times more to the budget than the EU export duty, which is about $300 per ton.
In 2022, Ukraine reduced exports of ferrous scrap by 11.5 times compared to the previous year, to 53,557 thousand tons, and in monetary terms, it decreased by 12.4 times, to $19.271 million.
Trade turnover through sea checkpoints in 2024 increased by 28.2% to 97.91 million tons, while by land it decreased by 8.1% to 64.3 million tons, the State Customs Service reported.
It added that, in addition, 26.1 million tons of goods were transported across the state border through pipelines and 6237.5 GWh of electricity through power lines, which is 8.1% less and 2.9 times more than in 2023, respectively.
According to the State Customs Service, the import of goods increased by 10.3% to 30.1 million tons, while exports increased by 10.9% to 132.1 million tons.
It is noted that the number of sea vessels crossing the customs border last year increased by 14.1% to 10.4 thousand, river vessels – by 3% to 34.4 thousand, while motor vehicles decreased by 6.8% to 7 million 670.2 thousand, and railroad cars – by 8.2% to 1 million 277.4 thousand.
In addition, the State Customs Service reports 0.2 thousand aircraft compared to 0.1 thousand in 2023.
The agency clarified that overland trade turnover increased only through the border with Poland – by 1%, to 32.83%, while through the Slovak and Romanian borders it decreased by 12% and 12.2% – to 13.36 million tons and 9.26 million tons, respectively, and through the Hungarian and Moldovan borders – fell by 22.1% and 26.5% – to 4.57 million tons and 4.27 million tons, respectively.
As for the number of vehicles crossing the border, it decreased at all borders last year: the lowest was with Moldova – by 3.4% to 1.44 million, with Poland – by 7.3% to 4.32 million, with Romania – by 7.4% to 1.51 million, with Slovakia – by 8.7% to 0.84 million, and with Hungary – by 10% to 0.90 million.
As previously reported by the State Customs Service, in monetary terms, exports of goods from Ukraine in 2024 increased by 18.5% to $41.6 billion, while imports increased by 11.3% to $70.7 billion.
Ukraine increased imports of lead and lead products by 2.4 times to $2.391 million (December: $1.193 million). Exports of lead decreased by 22.9% to $11.401 million (December: $583 thousand).
Lead is currently mainly used in the production of lead-acid batteries for the automotive industry. In addition, lead is used to make bullets and some alloys.
