On November 19, 2023, in Kyiv, from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., at the InterContinental Hotel (Velika Zhytomyrska St., 2A), the 8th International Forum of Winemakers and Sommeliers will be held, as part of which will be held:
– Jubilee XX All-Ukrainian Sommelier Competition “Master Sommelier – 2022-2023”,
– VII All-Ukrainian Cavist Competition “Best Cavist of Ukraine – 2022-2023”,
– “Round table” of winemakers and sommeliers as part of the “Evening of winemakers”,
– Open tastings and presentations of wines, spirits, cheeses and other products for all event guests.
Organizers:
– All-Ukrainian Association of Winemakers and Sommeliers,
– Association of winemakers of Ukraine,
– The first sommelier school “Master Class” in Ukraine.
General Partner – TM “Vinos dela Luz”
General Information Partner – Information Agency “Interfax Ukraine”.
Partners: TM “Big Wines”, “SV plus”, “Poli1898”, “Delamain”, “AELRED”, “Eyguebelle”, “ACHA”, “Purity”, “Zinka”, “Voda.ua”, “Sigarny Dim” “Fortuna”, APSVT, Hotel “InterContinental”.
Media Partners – “Club of Experts“, “OPEN for BUSINESS“, magazine “Kyiv Diplomatic”,
The guests of these events will be the heads of companies importing alcoholic beverages, heads of the restaurant segment, sommeliers, winemakers, heads of wine companies and wine boutiques, representatives of business structures, mass media and TV, connoisseurs and wine lovers.
CLUB OF EXPERTS, InterContinental, international forum, SOMMELIERS, WINEMAKERS
President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky received letters of credence from the new Ambassador of Turkey Mustafa Levent Bilgen, Ambassador of the Czech Republic Radek Pech, Ambassador of Luxembourg Ronald Dofing, who began their work in Ukraine.
As reported on the website of the head of the Ukrainian state on Friday, the ceremony took place on the territory of the Sofia of Kiev national reserve.
During the conversation with Mustafa Levent Bilgen, Turkey’s active participation in the Peace Formula meetings at the level of national security advisers and its willingness to lead the implementation of the food security clause of the Formula were highly appreciated.
“The upcoming joint steps to ensure the operation of the “grain corridors”, the implementation of the global humanitarian initiative “Grain from Ukraine” and the priority areas of Ukrainian-Turkish security cooperation were discussed separately. The head of state noted Turkey’s important position regarding the further promotion of Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations,” the statement says. message.
During a conversation with the Ambassador of the Czech Republic, an exchange of views took place on interaction between states in the defense sector and strengthening cooperation in the military-industrial complex
“The President thanked the Czech Republic for its support of the Ukrainian peace formula and expressed hope for the further active involvement of Prague in its practical implementation and preparation of the Global Peace Summit. Special attention was paid to the issues of European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine and the importance of the Czech Republic’s support for the development of our country on the path to the EU and NATO “, reports the press service of the head of state.
During a conversation with Ronald Dauphing, the President thanked Luxembourg for participating in a meeting at the level of national security advisers on the implementation of the Ukrainian peace formula.
“The importance of Luxembourg’s support for the decision to begin negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU during the December meeting of the European Council was noted. The head of state noted the need to develop a mechanism that would allow the use of Russian assets frozen by Luxembourg to restore Ukraine,” the message says.
Astarta Agro Holding, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, will resume construction of an additional deep soybean processing line at its Globinsky Processing Plant (GPP, Poltava region) in the fourth quarter of this year, which will allow it to produce up to 100,000 tons of concentrated soy protein per year.
“The project was announced in 2021 at a cost of $50 million, and now it is estimated at about $60 million, taking into account inflation,” said Yulia Bereshchenko, Business Development and Investor Relations Director of the group of companies, at a conference call with investors and analysts based on the company’s results for the first nine months of 2023.
According to her, the investments will be spread over three years – this year and the next two, and the project will be financed mainly from free cash flow.
As reported, Astarta announced the start of construction of this line in mid-September 2021. The GPP itself was commissioned in early 2014, with a design processing capacity of 230 thousand tons per year, and will remain at this level. The plant is capable of producing about 160 thousand tons of high-protein soybean meal, 40 thousand tons of soybean oil, and 9 thousand tons of granulated shell annually. The enterprise also includes storage facilities for finished products and an elevator with a capacity of 42 thousand tons, as well as the necessary engineering, road and rail communications. Before the war, more than 80% of GPP’s output was exported to the EU, the Middle East and the Far East. Most of the soybeans for processing are grown by the agricultural companies of the agricultural holding.
In the fall of 2021, Bereshchennko indicated that the construction of an additional line for deep soybean processing at the GPP would double EBITDA in the soybean segment and increase revenue.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220,000 hectares and dairy farms with 22,000 cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In the third quarter of 2023, the agricultural holding earned EUR1.24 million in net profit, down 27.7 times compared to the same period in 2022. Astarta’s revenue decreased by 14.4% to EUR104.75 million, gross profit by 2.7 times to EUR26.96 million, operating profit by 7.6 times to EUR6.79 million, and EBITDA by 42.7% to EUR97.25 million.
Due to significantly better performance in the first half of this year compared to the first half of last year, in the first 9 months of 2023, net profit decreased by 9.8% to EUR 55.97 million, while revenue increased by 14.8% to EUR 392.00 million. The company’s gross profit increased by 3.0% to EUR 151.91 million, while operating profit decreased by 15.9% to EUR 79.91 million and EBITDA by 10.8% to EUR 116.63 million.
In the 2022-2023 marketing year (MY), Ukrprominvest-Agro Group exported more than 120 thousand tons of sugar to the European Union, the group’s press service reported on Facebook.
“The quality of our products, excellent transaction support services, speed in decision-making, a variety of options for packaging and shipment of products, a responsible approach to work at every stage are the factors that have become the key to the success of Ukrprominvest-Agro in the export market in 2022/23 marketing year. We plan to further develop this area and maintain our leadership among sugar exporters in Ukraine in the current marketing year,” the press service quoted Artem Semenenko, Director of the company’s Commercial Department, as saying.
“Ukrprominvest-Agro is engaged in the cultivation of crops, production of sugar, flour, meat and dairy farming. The group’s land bank exceeds 116.5 thousand hectares and is located mainly in regions that have not been invaded by the Russian occupiers.
The total number of cattle of the agricultural holding is 6.3 thousand, pigs – 12 thousand. The total elevator storage capacity of the group is 120 thousand tons. The group’s sugar business is represented by two sugar factories in Vinnytsia region. It supplies grain processing products to Moldova, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Israel, Palestine, Angola, Lebanon, Syria, and Vietnam.
Ukrprominvest-Agro comprises Agroprodinvest Group LLC, PJSC Podillya Production Complex, LLC Zorya Podillya Production Complex, LLC Vinnytsia Bakery No. 2, AF Dniproagrolan, AF Ivankivtsi, LLC Mas-Agro, LLC Pravoberezhne, and LLC Progress-NT.
The owner of the agricultural holding since December 2019 is the son of the former President of Ukraine Oleksiy Poroshenko.
In January-October this year, Ukraine increased exports of ferroalloys in physical terms by 15.1% year-on-year to 334,008 thousand tons.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service, exports of ferroalloys decreased by 42% to $288.958 million in monetary terms.
The main exports were to Poland (53.65% of supplies in monetary terms), Turkey (13.47%) and the Netherlands (8.67%).
In addition, in the period under review, Ukraine imported 6.790 thousand tons of these products, which is 61.2% less than in January-October 2022. In monetary terms, imports decreased by 58.5% to $27.192 million.
Imports were carried out mainly from India (22.13%), Armenia (18.14%) and China (16.52%).
As reported, in 2022, Ukraine reduced exports of ferroalloys in physical terms by 47.7% compared to the previous year – to 349,560 thousand tons, in monetary terms by 46% – to $ 564,136 million. At the same time, the main deliveries were made to Poland (53.25% of exports in monetary terms), the Netherlands (13.13%) and Romania (5.66%).
In addition, last year Ukraine imported 20.546 thousand tons of these products, which is 65.5% less than in 2021. In monetary terms, imports decreased by 59.1% to $72.705 million. Imports were carried out mainly from Norway (22.67%), China (15.60%) and Kazakhstan (14.10%).
The business of the Stakhanov and Zaporizhzhia Ferroalloy Plants (SZF and ZZF) was organized by PrivatBank (Kyiv) before the nationalization of the financial institution. Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant is controlled by EastOne Group, established in the fall of 2007 as a result of the restructuring of Interpipe Group, and Privat Group.
The volume of imports to Ukraine in January-October 2023 amounted to $52.17 billion, which is 18.2%, or $8.03 billion, more than in the same period a year earlier.
At the same time, the volume of Ukrainian exports decreased by 19.1%, or $7.03 billion, to $29.83 billion, according to the website of the State Customs Service.
The negative balance for the first 10 months of this year amounted to $22.34 billion, which is 3.1 times more than in the same period last year.
According to the State Customs Service, exports of goods fell by 18.1% to $27.1 billion in the first nine months of the year, while imports increased by 18.9% to $46.6 billion, and the negative balance of trade in goods increased by 3.2 times to $19.5 billion.
It is specified that over the first 10 months of this year, imports from the EU increased by 23.5% to $26.71 billion, while exports decreased by 15.8% to $19.45 billion.
At the same time, imports from the CIS countries fell 4.2 times to $1.03 billion in January-October this year compared to the same period last year, while exports from Ukraine to these countries fell 36.4% to $1.33 billion, making trade with these countries surplus, whereas before the war it was traditionally deficit.
Finally, imports from other countries increased by 34% to $24.42 billion over 10 months of this year, while imports decreased by 22.4% to $9.04 billion.
“At the same time, taxable imports amounted to $43.4 billion, which is 83% of the total volume of imported goods. The tax burden per 1 kg of taxable imports in January-October 2023 amounted to $0.49 per kg, which is 44% more than in the same period in 2022,” the release said.
According to the State Customs Service, the countries from which Ukraine imported the most goods were: China – $8.4 billion ($6.6 billion in 10 months of 2022), Poland – $5.5 billion ($4.4 billion) and Germany – $4.1 billion ($3.7 billion).
Most of Ukraine’s goods were exported to Poland – $4.1 billion ($5.7 billion), Romania – $3.3 billion ($3.0 billion), and Turkey – $2.0 billion ($2.4 billion).
In January-October 2023, 65% of the total volume of imported goods was machinery, equipment and transport – $16 billion (UAH 115.2 billion, or 31% of customs revenues, was paid to the budget during customs clearance), chemical products – $9.3 billion (UAH 63.6 billion, or 17%), fuel and energy products – $8.7 billion (UAH 79.3 billion, or 21%).
It is specified that imports of machinery, equipment and transport increased by 30%, chemical products – by 17%, while fuel and energy products decreased by 18%.
The top three most exported goods from Ukraine are: food products – $17.7 billion (down 4%), metals and metal products – $3.3 billion (down 19%), machinery, equipment and transport – $2.5 billion (down 30%).
The State Customs Service added that UAH 500.7 million was paid to the budget during customs clearance of exports of goods subject to export duties.
The State Customs Service also reported that in 10 months of 2023, customs authorities detected violations of customs rules worth UAH 7.6 billion.
