Ukravit, a large Ukraine producer of crop protection agents and micronutrient fertilizers boosted production in 2019 by 25%, to 11,000 tonnes. The company told Interfax-Ukraine last week that its share of the Ukrainian crop protection agents and micronutrient fertilizers market in 2019 was around 10%. The company said that this year, Ukravit launched the seventh production facility in Cherkasy with an area of 1,300 square meters, which allowed to increase production by 1,100 tonnes compared to 2018, to 11,000 tonnes. Investment in the project exceeded $3 million.
According to the report, in 2019, the company also began to switch to direct sales and currently has 12 regional sales offices throughout Ukraine.
In addition, Ukravit expands the workshop for the production of plastic containers and storage facilities, renews its fleet.
The company this year began the construction of a plant manufacturing crop protection agents and micronutrient fertilizers in Uzbekistan, but has not yet disclosed project details.
Ukravit was founded in 1999. It is engaged in production and sale of pesticides, fertilizers, means for destruction of rodents and household insects.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation has selected 15 technology startups that will represent Ukraine at Startup Grind Global 2020, the tenth global conference of entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley. According to the organizers, the results of the competition have demonstrated great potential for the development of Ukraine as a technological IT center.
“The competition made it possible to select the most interesting and promising Ukrainian startups. The experience of the Competitive Economy of Ukraine [CEU] program in supporting Ukrainian startups in global technological events testifies to the interest of foreign investors in the products of Ukrainian startups,”, USAID CEU Program Deputy Chief Olesya Zaluska told reporters during a pitch in Kyiv last week.
Following the results of the competition, a list of startups-finalists who will be included in the Ukrainian delegation was compiled:
1. Let`s Enhance – Improving Image Quality with Machine Learning;
2. Replay.io – A multi-channel sales platform that automates contacts using emails, calls and tasks;
3. Legal Nodes – A global marketplace for the technology business, with the help of which the founder or legal adviser of a technology company can contact a lawyer that is most relevant to legal needs and financial capabilities;
4. Poptop – The leading marketplace for booking performers of various kinds and locations for events in real time;
5. Delfast – Electric bicycles;
6. Animal ID – Service for the identification of animals;
7. Kray Technology – A drone that helps to increase crop yields and reduce the amount of fertilizer in the agricultural sector;
8. Costless – A personal shopping assistant who helps to make smart decisions, saving money, time and energy. It provides agencies, brands and retailers with real-time analytics, forecasts of changes in prices and volumes of consumption, information on consumer behavior;
9. AxDraft – Helps to draw up legal documents 10 times faster, avoiding mistakes and increasing the efficiency of the legal department by 25%, delegating part of the legal work to “non-lawyers” without risks;
10. Effa – An environment-friendly toothbrush made of paper and environmentally friendly materials as a “green” alternative to disposable plastic brushes;
11. Pix – A backpack with support for animation;
12. Nuka – Creates a convenient way to record. The first product is a waterproof perpetual notebook with the ability to clean sheets. It can be fully synchronized with the nuka mobile application. The second product is an eternal pencil;
13. CamTouch – A complex that allows you to turn any flat surface into an interactive one and control it using a laser pointer or a special stylus;
14. ActiveChat – A service for creating virtual assistants;
15. ADAM – 3D bioprinting of organic bone structures.
Startups-winners will receive the right to participate in the conference in the United States, own exhibition booth, promos, PR support from the organizers and reimbursement of financial costs for logistics.
More than 160 Ukrainian startups fought for the right to participate in the conference, of which 25 applicants were selected who presented their products to the jury during the Open Call Pitch Event in Kyiv in the evening on December 19.
“Of the 160 applications received, more than 50 startups are ready to attract foreign investment and bring their products to new markets,” Startup Grind Kyiv Chapter Director Kateryna Dehtyar said.
According to Startup Grind Kyiv Chapter Co-Director Hannah Zenn, Ukrainian startups that are on the delegate list have great potential to attract Seed and A-round investments, find customers among U.S. companies such as Facebook, Deloitte, Target, BMW, CISCO, as well as partners for further growth.
The competition was held jointly with Startup Grind Kyiv (the official representative of the Startup Grind international startup ecosystem) with the support of the USAID CEU Program.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has decided not to finance designing and building the Prydniprovya airport in favor of designing and building the Dnipropetrovsk airport (both are located in Dnipropetrovsk region), according to government resolution No. 1010 dated December 4, 2019 posted on the government’s website.\
“To recognize government resolution No. 536 dated June 19, 2019 approving the procedure for using the funds provided for in the national budget for the design and construction of the Prydniprovya Airport in Dnipropetrovsk region to be invalid,” the document says.
As reported, state-owned enterprise (SOE) Financing of Infrastructure Facilities announced a new tender for the development and examination of the construction of the Dnipropetrovsk airport.
The regional administration and a private investor will work on the airport project as well. Using the government funds, a 3.2 km runway equipped with modern navigation systems, meteorological and light-signaling equipment will be built. The new international terminal and a VIP terminal in a single complex will be built by Ukraine’s DCH industrial and financial group. It is planned that it will have a high throughput – up to 1,000 people per hour.
The total project cost is UAH 4.8 billion.
Recovery in mortgage lending is hindered by a moratorium on taking liens, non-transparency of the primary housing market and the fragility of the right of investors, according to the Financial Stability Report of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
“The market needs to be made, on the one hand, more transparent, and on the other, it needs to be regulated in such a way that banks are comfortable lending to primary housing, ensuring the rights of lenders,” First Deputy Governor of the NBU Kateryna Rozhkova said during the presentation of the regulator’s report in Kyiv on Tuesday.
According to her, the barriers in the current legislation negatively affect the margin level of developers, which reduces the potential development of mortgage lending.
“We are working to amend the law and hope to adopt it as soon as possible in order to make the market more attractive to all players,” Rozhkova said.
“We really believe that the situation with Ukrbud undermines the confidence of customers and investors in this sector. There is no doubt about that. This is one of the reasons why we paid more attention to this issue in our report,” she said.
At the same time, developers surveyed by the NBU predict the intensification of mortgage lending in the next three years.
“Under favorable conditions, next year banks plan to provide 15% more mortgage loans than a year ago,” the NBU said.
Retail trade in comparable prices (both by legal entities and individual entrepreneurs) in Ukraine in January-November 2019 grew by 10.4% year-over-year, the country’s State Statistics Service said on Friday.
In November 2019 alone, retail trade increased by 2.8% from October 2019 and by 12.8% from November 2018.
The highest retail trade growth in January-November 2019 year-over-year was recorded in Kyiv region (by 19.8%), Vinnytsia region (by 18.9%), Ternopil region (by 17.2%), and Luhansk region (by 16.5%).
The State Statistics Service says its report does not include data from temporarily occupied territories, namely the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol and certain districts in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Irish-registered low-cost airline Ryanair (Dublin) is to launch flights from Lviv to Poznan (Poland) from April 1, 2020. Such flights will be operated twice a week – on Wednesdays and Sundays, according to information in the airline’s booking system. The price starts from EUR22.05 (one way).
As reported, with the summer flight schedule to be launched late in March 2020, Ryanair will cease operating flights from Kyiv to Nuremberg (Germany) and Skavsеa (100 km southwest of Stockholm, Sweden).
Ryanair daily carries out more than 2,000 flights to/from 236 airports. In the past financial year, the company transported 130.3 million passengers. Its fleet has 460 Boeing-737 aircraft.
The company entered the Ukrainian market in 2018.
