Ukraine will temporarily refrain from exporting grain and sunflower to Poland until the new season in order to solve the problem of overstocking the Polish market and protests of Polish farmers, the Polish Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reported, citing Ukrainian Minister of Agricultural Policy and Food Nicholas Solski.
“We all understand who is to blame for this situation, but we must solve the problem. Therefore, Ukraine will refrain from exporting wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflowers to Poland (until the new season),” the Polish agency quoted Solsky from a joint press conference on Friday with his Polish colleague Robert Telus at the border with Ukraine in Dorohusk.
“The Ukrainian side made a proposal to very much limit for some time, and at the moment even stop the flow of grain to Poland,” Telus said, in turn.
As reported, April 5, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky at a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Warsaw said that the parties have found a way out of the problem of Ukrainian grain exports to Poland.
“We discussed the issues of our farmers – Polish and Ukrainian. We have found a way out. I believe that in the coming days, weeks we will finally solve all the issues, because there cannot be any difficulties between such close partners and real friends as Poland and Ukraine,” Zelenski said.
Earlier, the governments of Poland and Romania announced their intention to ask the European Commission to develop mechanisms that would help avoid price dumping to the detriment of local farmers.
Polish farmers threatened to disrupt the events during Zelenski’s visit to Warsaw, and Polish Minister of Agricultural Policy Henryk Kowalczyk resigned.
If the international community had been able to “push” Russia to increase ship inspections in the Bosporus, Ukraine would have been able to reduce the flow of grain traffic through European countries, Solsky said then, in turn.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko signed a decree authorizing the start of the process of resumption of electricity exports in conditions of a surplus of generating capacity.
“The Ukrainian energy system has been operating without consumer restrictions with a capacity surplus for almost two months now. We achieved this result thanks to the titanic work of power engineers, our international partners, helping to restore the system. The most difficult winter is over. The next step is to open the export of electricity, which will attract additional financial resources for the necessary reconstruction of the destroyed and repair of the damaged energy infrastructure, “- said Galushchenko, as quoted in a message of the Ministry of Energy in Telegram channel late Friday night.
At the same time, the energy minister stressed that meeting the power needs of Ukrainian consumers is a priority.
“The export of electricity will work under the condition of providing the resource to Ukrainian consumers and may be terminated in the event of a change in the situation,” the minister assured.
As reported, export of electric power, which began last June, was stopped by order of the Ministry of Energy since October 11 after the beginning of massive attacks of Russian invaders on the energy system of Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Energy, the export of electricity to Moldova and EU countries during this time amounted to 2.6 billion kWh. Exporters of electricity directed 80% of the income from exports to maintain tariffs for the population within the framework of special obligations. As a result, according to calculations of the ministry, 2.8 billion hryvnias were allocated for this purpose.
The allowed European network of transmission system operators ENTSO-E capacity for exports is 400 MW, Ukraine on its part seeks to increase this capacity by several times.
Vilis (Rivne), one of the largest pasta producers in Ukraine, launched a new line for the production of instant pasta, the head of Rivne regional state administration Vitaly Koval said.
“For the manufacture of noodles, the company uses only Ukrainian products, many of which are Rivne products. And this is exactly the philosophy of added value, when grain grown in the Rivne region is processed in the Rivne region. And then the finished product is “exported” not only to Ukraine but also to different countries of the world,” Koval wrote on Facebook.
Construction of the enterprise was launched in October 2021. To launch the new line “Vilis” attracted UAH 50 million under the program “Affordable credits 5-7-9″. The enterprise plans to produce 6 thousand tons of instant noodles per year.
Vilis” is one of the largest Ukrainian producers of pasta and jam. The company was founded in 1996 and in 1998 it opened its first pasta production line. The company owns Vilis, Makarella, Italino, Viverelli, and also packs products under Private Label of a number of retail chains, in particular, Premiya, Povna Chasha, Nash Krai, Pervy Ryad, Clever and others. Products are sold within the country and exported to dozens of countries. PE “Willis” has its own logistics department and technology park.
The authorized capital of “Vilis” in the amount of 27,5 million UAH is divided between its head Viktor Zhabchik (60%), Sergiy Zhabchik (20%) and Irina Plesetskoy (20%).
According to opendatabot, earnings of “Vilis” in 2022 increased 2,4 times – up to 232,44 million UAH, net profit – 3,4 times, up to 14,56 million UAH.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at a meeting on Friday roughly doubled the fee for excise tax stamps for alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and liquids used in electronic cigarettes to cover costs associated with their production, storage and sale, the Finance Ministry said.
According to its release, the stamp for alcoholic beverages went up from 16 kopecks to 35 kopecks, for tobacco, electronically heated tobacco products (TIEN) and liquids used in e-cigarettes – from 9 kopecks to about 16 kopecks.
The cost of the excise tax stamp has not changed since 2014, the Ministry of Finance pointed out.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada in January 2023 adopted in the first reading of the Eurointegration bills № 8286 and № 8287 on the introduction of electronic excise stamps for alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and liquids used in e-cigarettes. These legislative initiatives are implemented to ensure control over the turnover of excisable products.
The auction house expects to gain $ 2-4 million for the sneakers, which played Jordan in one of the games of the final of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1998, and $ 100-200 thousand for the shirt in which Pele made his debut for the “New York Cosmos” in 1975.
The basketball player’s sneakers could become the most expensive in history, surpassing the $1.8 million Air Yeezy rapper Kanye West sold for in 2021.
In addition, with an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000, a warm-up jersey of basketball player Kobe Bryant is up for auction. He wore it on the day of the game, where he scored 81 points (the second highest score in NBA history).
In addition, at the auction Victoriam you can buy things tennis players Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer and basketball with the autographs of Bryant and the former U.S. president Barack Obama.
The auction ends April 11.
The association of enterprises “Ukrmetallurgprom” considers it necessary to temporarily ban the export of scrap ferrous metals to provide metallurgical enterprises with strategically important raw materials in the conditions of the ongoing war.
“If scrap metal will remain in the country – more than 500 thousand people will have a job, and the country will have millions of foreign exchange earnings from the export of steel. At the same time, the military also benefits – because metallurgists help the fighters a lot, buying for them equipment and cars, and even producing body armor. Nobody benefits from the export of scrap metal. So now the authorities should be proactive and temporarily ban exports until the situation stabilizes and stops threatening national economic security,” wrote Ukrmetallurgprom President Oleksandr Kalenkov in his column on the Interfax-Ukraine website.
According to him, since the beginning of the war Ukraine’s mining and metallurgical complex has been experiencing the worst crisis since independence. A large part of the enterprises have been seized or destroyed by the occupiers, while others are trying to work under constant shelling and partial loss of capacity. The blockade of sea ports has led to the fact that the geography of customers has almost halved, and with it the volume of supply of products.
Nevertheless, enterprises are trying to hold on and even increase production, because they realize the level of responsibility entrusted to them. More than half a million Ukrainians work in the metallurgical and allied industries, and MMC’s share in Ukraine’s GDP is over 10%.
“But the reality throws up new challenges every time. One of them was the shortage of scrap metal, without which it is impossible to increase the metallurgical production”, – said the head of the association.
He named the reasons for the deficit: the occupation of the eastern regions, where traditionally significant volumes of raw materials have been procured (the volume of this raw materials has decreased by almost 80%). At the same time the export of scrap metal has increased sharply: only in the first two months of 2023 about 25 thousand tons were exported, which is almost 60% more than in November-December 2022.
“Given the growth rate of the export indicator, at the end of the year we may see a figure of 250 or even 300-400 thousand tons of exports – and this is absolutely unacceptable for a market that can barely collect about 1 million tons of scrap metal per year. After all, the industry will require more than a million – even in conditions of incomplete resumption of production,” wrote the president of Ukrmetallurgprom.
“Now the situation with the shortage has worsened and began to lead to temporary, but so far, production stoppages. However, the issue must be resolved. And the volume of production instead of growing, will fall to a minimum. This, in turn, will provoke a spiral of new problems not only for the industry, but also for the economy – because, let me remind you, even in the toughest year of 2021 the MMC enterprises paid to the budgets over 42 billion gon. And this is exactly the funds, for which Ukraine can build up its military potential and win on the battlefield”, stated Kalenkov.
He added that Ukraine, losing money because of the drop in production, does not earn anything from scrap metal export – the raw material is exported via the European Union, where a favorable export duty of EUR3 is applied, and from there it is redirected to the actual customers. To export raw material directly to customers would cost EUR 180 export duties and the Ukrainian budget lost already EUR 350 mln on it. Not surprisingly, the State Bureau of Reconstruction and Development has already taken an interest in the export schemes and has already launched an investigation.
As Mr. Kalenkov explained, 1 ton of scrap metal processed by the president of Ukrmetallurgprom into steel gives 10 times more to the budget than the export duty payable to the EU – about $300 per ton. Therefore, the question whether to export raw materials or leave them in the country for processing, should not be – the benefits are obvious, he summarizes.
As reported in the middle of 2021, Ukrmetallurgprom asked to ban the export of scrap until the end of 2023. With a corresponding request Ukrmetallurgprom appealed to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal in a letter dated July 8, 2021.
According to the Ukrainian Association of Secondary Metals (UAVtormet), the export of scrap metal in January-February 2023 amounted to 24.8 thousand tons compared to 7.1 thousand tons in January-February 2022 (an increase of 3.5 times).
