The European Parliament on Tuesday voted to liberalize Moldova’s agricultural exports to the European Union, MEP Siegfried Muresan, who co-chairs the committee for cooperation with Moldova, said.
Under the EP resolution, export quotas will be doubled for a year for seven goods to which tariff quotas still apply. They include tomatoes, garlic, table grapes, apples, cherries, plums, and grape juice. Moldova used to export plums and grapes in large quantities to Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
The decision was made because the situation in Ukraine “has strongly affected Moldovan farmers, who are no longer able to export their goods to the East,” Muresan said.
The EU is already Moldova’s biggest trading partner, accounting for almost two-thirds of total exports, he said.
In June, the Silpo supermarket chain recorded a fourfold increase in sales of salt, 3.5 times soda, three times vinegar, and twice as much sugar as compared to June last year, the retailer’s press service reported.
As noted in the release, the excitement for these categories of goods was caused by a chain reaction after the news about the suspension of the work of the Artemsol enterprise in the Donetsk region. In particular, despite the fact that simultaneously with the suspension of the Silpo enterprise, sufficient volumes of salt were brought to Ukraine from Poland, Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria, the demand for salt quadrupled, and the very possibility of its shortage triggered an increase in demand for other social goods.
In June, sales of soda increased by 2.5 times, which Silpo delivers mainly from Turkey.
Certain interruptions in the supply of vinegar were observed in early June. There are two large vinegar producers in Ukraine, they depend on the supply of acetic acid from abroad, but they managed to establish supplies and stabilize the situation.
The sale of sugar has doubled. The supermarket chain coped with the increased demand by increasing the supplies of Ukrainian sugar producers.
The Silpo chain, which is part of the Fozzy Group, consists of 325 supermarkets in 60 cities of Ukraine and four Le Silpo deli markets in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkov and Odessa.
Fozzy Group is one of the largest Ukrainian retailers with more than 690 outlets throughout the country. The company develops retail chains of various formats: Silpo supermarkets, Fozzy Cash & Carry wholesale hypermarkets, Fora convenience stores, Thrash! discounters, Bila Romashka pharmaceutical supermarkets, Ringoo personal electronics stores.
According to Opendatabot, the founder of Silpo-Food LLC is PJSC Closed Non-Diversified Venture Corporate Investment Fund Retail Capital (100%, Kyiv), Vladimir Kostelman is the ultimate beneficiary.
According to the results of January-September 2021, Silpo’s trade turnover amounted to UAH 42.1 billion. “Club of Experts” has previously analyzed the shortage of salt in Ukraine and the impact of salt on the human body. For more details, see the video on the YouTube channel of the “Club of Experts” at the link
Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov during the forum in Lugano (Switzerland) on Tuesday, July 5, presented a number of planned projects for the development of the country’s railway export infrastructure.
According to the information in the presentation that Kubrakov presented, in particular, among the projects: construction of new and modernization of existing railway lines (both 1435 and 1520 mm) in the direction of the border with the EU and the seaports of the Danube; modernization of rolling stock for freight traffic; modernization of equipment for changing the gauge.
The total cost of these projects is $1.5 billion.
The access of producers of mineral and mountain water to glass bottles for bottling water has become much more difficult due to the shortage of glass containers throughout Europe, it was caused by the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine and the subsequent reduction in its production in both countries.
In this situation, AT Market LLC (Kyiv), which is engaged in bottling high-mountain Carpathian water under the Voda UA brand, plans to start producing water in Tetrapak packaging next month, the owner and founder of the company, Dmitry Nikiforov, told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.
“Now all the factories are standing, so many of our and some European manufacturers have stopped producing water in “glass”, and are limited only to plastic. We, for our part, understand that all our manufacturers will run out of bottles in the foreseeable future, and in early August we will offer the market an alternative to glass is Tetrapak eco-packaging with a volume of 0.33 liters,” Nikiforov said.
He recalled that the situation with the availability of glass containers for producers of mineral and high mountain waters remains difficult throughout Europe, because a significant part of the bottles were produced in Ukraine and Russia.
Earlier, Nikiforov said in an interview with the agency that AT Market can produce glass containers for bottling water under the Voda UA trademark only at the Vetropack plant in Gostomel (Kyiv region), since the necessary presses remained at the plant that was under Russian occupation for some time -forms. In May, the head of the company noted that the batch of bottles produced before the war on the order of AT Market was not damaged, and it could be picked up within a month.
“Unfortunately, the plant will not be launched in Gostomel. We bought the remaining bottles that survived, and that’s all for now,” Nikiforov stated.
At the same time, he stressed that the AT Market water bottling plant, located in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, is now working in two shifts.
Voda UA is a group of companies engaged in the extraction of Carpathian high-mountain waters under the trademarks Voda UA, “Goryanka”, “Karpatskaya dzherelna vysokogirna”.
DRINKING WATER, HORECA, MINERAL WATER, TETRAPAK, VODA UA, НИКИФОРОВ
Since July 5, Australia has marked tariffs on Ukrainian imports of goods, in addition to alcohol, fuel and tobacco, as a support package for a year, according to the website of the Australian Department of Trade and Tourism.
As indicated by the agency, we are talking about reducing tariffs from 5% to zero for a period of 12 months for a number of goods that are produced or produced in Ukraine. At the same time, it is clarified that duties equivalent to excises remain in force, for example, those that apply to fuel, alcohol and tobacco products.
According to the report, such measures from Australia and other states support the economy of Ukraine and expand its trading opportunities, and they are also important for Ukraine’s recovery in the near and long term.
According to the report, in 2021, Ukrainian exports to Australia amounted to $122 million.
A UNESCO technical delegation will visit Kyiv this week, said Assistant Director General of UNESCO for Priority Africa and External Relations Firmin Eduard Matoko.
“We are planning to send a technical mission to Kyiv with the government of Ukraine this week to further assess the needs and expectations of the Ukrainian authorities and determine the forms of our participation. UNESCO expresses its readiness, together with all partners, to provide technical support in our areas of competence and support the plan for the restoration and development of Ukraine “, Matoko said at a conference on the restoration of Ukraine in Lugano on Tuesday.
He noted that UNESCO regularly monitors the impact of the war on cultural sites, damage to educational institutions, and also the safety of journalists and media workers.
“We protect cultural heritage with satellite monitoring and equipment to protect and stabilize objects,” Matoko said.
According to him, UNESCO is also mobilizing support to ensure continuity of learning for all citizens of Ukraine, supporting online learning in and outside Ukraine, as well as the integration of refugees – students and teachers – into host countries.
He added that since the beginning of the war, UNESCO has been able to mobilize about $5 million for agreements with donor countries in these areas.
