The Verkhovna Rada has received a letter of resignation from Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk wrote.
“The statement will be considered at one of the next plenary sessions,” he wrote on his Facebook page, attaching a photo of Kuleba’s statement.
Source: https://interfax.com.ua/
According to EastFruit analysts, the blueberry season in Ukraine in 2024 was unsuccessful for producers. The incredibly early flowering of blueberry plantations, followed by frosts, led to some yield reduction and damage to quality in some regions of the country, but in general, the harvest volume was higher than in 2023. And even though farmers had many problems with harvesting, the supply of berries on the market increased.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing military aggression against Ukraine, farmers also had a lot of problems with blueberry marketing. One of the main problems is the low capacity of the domestic market. Accordingly, domestic prices for blueberries largely depended on the efficiency of exports, which also had certain problems. After all, only a small number of blueberry producers can collect sufficient sales for direct export.
As a result, at the beginning of the season, blueberry prices plummeted to anti-record levels, as we wrote about in this article. We would like to remind you that in this article we will talk about prices only for blueberries of the highest quality, i.e. blueberries that can be sold both on the domestic and foreign markets. And even for these, as you can see in the graph below, prices were also extremely low.
It should be said that in the 2024 season, the early start of the harvest also led to an early end to the massive blueberry harvest. Therefore, for most farmers, the season was already over by mid-August, which allowed blueberry prices to recover somewhat and even exceed the levels of the 2022 season.
Read also: Blueberry sales season in Ukrainian farms will end earlier than usual
Nevertheless, if we take into account the average prices over the months, especially during the peak two months when up to 90% of the harvest is harvested, i.e. July and August, we see that the average price for blueberries in Ukraine in 2024 was the lowest for all years.
The following graph demonstrates the fall in blueberry prices in Ukraine
As you can see, the average wholesale price for premium blueberries in Ukraine during the peak months was 39% lower than the average for the six previous seasons (2018-2023) and 15% lower than in the not so successful season of 2023. At the same time, the sharpest drop in price to the average was observed in July, when the bulk of the blueberry harvest in Ukraine is harvested.
“To assess how significant the decline in blueberry prices is for farmers, several additional factors should be taken into account. Factor No. 1 is inflation, which was very significant even for the US dollar. Thus, every year the price reduction needs to be adjusted by another 4-5 percentage points to get a real comparable figure. The second factor is the growth of plantation productivity in most blueberry producers in Ukraine, which allows for a slight increase in production efficiency and partially compensates for the losses from lower prices. This is because most blueberry plantations in Ukraine are just entering full fruiting. However, it is already clear that a further decline in blueberry prices will make growing blueberries for small farms that do not have the ability to enter foreign markets directly far from as profitable as in 2018-2021, and some will even be at risk of loss,” says Andriy Yarmak, economist at the Investment Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Although the blueberry season cannot yet be considered completely over, as technically in certain seasons Ukraine continues to actively export and sell berries on the domestic market in September and even some volumes in October, in 2024 the situation is such that the interim results of the season will be very close to the final ones.
This year, prices in September and October may well be quite high, because despite the resumption of blueberry production in Peru, massive supplies of blueberries from this country will go to Europe late to the usual time. Nevertheless, blueberry production in Europe and competition in this market from third countries such as Morocco, Georgia and even African countries continue to grow, which will continue to put pressure on prices.
The price of milk in Ukraine has risen by UAH 2, or 15%, since the beginning of July and will continue to rise in September, according to Infagro, an industry analytical agency.
“This scale of price increase is unprecedented for the Ukrainian raw materials market. And this is not the limit of price growth. In September, analysts predict a further increase in milk prices,” the analysts said.
They cited market changes, shortages of raw materials and rising costs due to limited energy supply as the reasons for the significant rise in the price of milk and dairy products.
Experts also noted that in the second half of August, hot weather set in again, which did not allow cattle to recover from the abnormal July heat. Cow productivity did not increase. The seasonal decline in milk production also contributed to the problem. At the same time, demand for raw materials increased, which led to a further significant rise in milk prices. In the last week of August, the problem of energy supply became more acute due to another hostile shelling.
In addition, in July, both the number of cows and milk production decreased significantly. Analysts cited data from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, according to which, as of August 1, 2024, 1 million 255.4 thousand cows were kept in the private and industrial sectors of Ukraine, which is 7% less than a year ago. In agricultural enterprises, the number of cows decreased by 2%, to 380 thousand. The statistics for August are not better, according to the analytical review.
“Given the high cost of raw materials and the influence of other factors, dairy products are becoming more expensive. And if prices for finished dairy products are growing slowly, the cost of exchange goods has increased quite quickly and significantly,” Infagro summarized.
Metinvest Group, as part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front initiative, has built the country’s first underground hospital for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, in coordination with the Vostok Medical Forces, to provide primary medical care and stabilize the condition of warriors after being wounded on the front line, having invested more than UAH 20 million, the group said in a press release on Tuesday
In turn, the Defense Ministry in a statement on its website indicated that the hospital was the first in a large-scale project implemented by the ministry in coordination with the Medical Forces Vostok, and in total it provides for the construction of more than two dozen underground stabpoints.
It is specified that the first facility is located near the front line and is designed to provide medical assistance to Ukrainian defenders in the safest possible conditions. The hospital is built on the basis of six enlarged steel bunkers-“kryivoks” developed by Metinvest, each of which is 7.6 meters long and 2.5 meters in diameter. Ventilation, water supply, drainage and alternative power supply systems have been installed to ensure the functioning of the facility.
Additional security measures have been taken during the installation of the underground hospital, in particular, it is additionally equipped with high-power REB systems and alternative power sources.
“Such underground stabpoints are critically important for preserving the lives of our military… This is the first step in a large-scale project that will strengthen our medical infrastructure and allow to support defenders on the front line even more effectively,” emphasized Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.
“Metinvest” specified that the staffing of the hospital corresponds to the level of field hospitals of the second echelon (Role/Echelon 2) in accordance with NATO standards, and the investment included the cost of not only the construction of the hospital, but also the completion of its equipment.
“A medical hospital at a depth of many meters underground is the most ambitious and complex project we have had to implement since the beginning of the full-scale invasion within the framework of Akhmetov’s Steel Front initiative,” said Metinvest’s Chief Operating Officer Oleksandr Mironenko.
It is noted that the steel underground hospital is not inferior to civilian hospitals in terms of medical equipment. In particular, Metinvest has equipped the hospital with oxygen concentrators, ventilator, cardiac monitors, defibrillators, operating equipment and lighting, sterilizers, patient heating systems, medical furniture for the total amount of more than UAH 7 million.
“This underground hospital is the best of stabilization points. It will allow to provide medical care to more than 100 patients per day, saving hundreds of lives of our heroes. I hope that the number of such facilities will grow,” said Roman Kuzev, acting commander of Medical Forces Vostok.
A new educational institution of the KAN Development educational network, Architectural and Engineering Collegium A+ (AIC+), opened in Kiev on Monday. The collegium is designed for 680 students, the company’s representatives said at the opening of AIC+. The area of the building is 13.1 thousand square meters, the total area of the training center is 3.30 hectares, of which 4 thousand sq. m. – shelter area. The training center is located on the territory of the residential neighborhood “Faina Town” in Kiev.
The company explained that the project is a conceptual educational complex that combines kindergarten, primary, secondary school, specialized lyceum and extracurricular activities in engineering, IT and architecture.
KAN added that $23 million was invested directly in the collegium, while the construction of each school shelter cost almost UAH 65 million.
As of today, KAN Development has invested over $100 million in educational institutions.
AIC+ became the 15th educational institution of the A+ network, where 3 thousand children study in full-day format and 700 teachers teach.
A+ activities began in 2005 at the initiative of Ivanna Nikonova. To date, the A+ educational network consists of three elementary school, two secondary schools, four kindergartens, three children’s clubs, a distance education center, a sports and music school and a wide range of extracurricular studios.
The market of new passenger cars has added 50-60% in 1.5 months amid the government’s initiative to introduce a 15% military tax on car buyers, according to AUTO-Consulting, an information and analytical group.
“It is safe to say that rumors of a 15% additional tax have activated about 4000+ buyers of new cars in 1.5 months. And this added 50-60% to the market. We can’t think of a more effective advertising campaign,” the group said in a statement on its website.
At the same time, in August, AUTO-Consulting recorded a 36 percent increase in sales by August 2023 and a 38 percent increase by July this year – up to 8.3 thousand units, and noted that such a number of cars have not been sold in Ukraine in a month for a long time.
“At the end of July, the beginning of the rush was already recorded, which brought a thousand additional cars to the car market,” the report recalls.
As reported, on July 18, the Cabinet of Ministers submitted to the Rada Bill No. 11416 on amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine, which, in particular, proposed to levy 15% of the military tax on car buyers, which was opposed by a number of car business representatives.
In late August, the finalized draft law no longer contained this provision.
AUTO-Consulting notes that not all dealers were ready for such a sharp jump in sales, but the market leader Toyota confidently kept its pace (up 44.5% compared to July), and Renault managed to move up to second place from third in July with a 76.2% increase in sales. BMW has consolidated its position in the top three, while Skoda, which took fourth place, almost doubled its sales.
“It is interesting that for the second month we have seen an abnormal number of electric vehicles – 16%, and some brands of ‘Chinese imports’ have already registered in the top ten,” the group’s analysts note.
At the same time, they suggest that some of these cars were indeed purchased, but a significant amount was simply registered by dealers to avoid the possible consequences of a 15% rise in price during the introduction of the military tax.
“Therefore, we will see the real volume of “electric trains” by the end of September, when the excitement around the new taxes will disappear,” they summarize.
AUTO-Consulting also emphasizes that not only the threat of the military tax has activated the car market – during the month there were large purchases by corporate clients, many cars were bought by the state, so this is a complex result.
