The supply chain company Czarnikow (the UK) has signed a representative agreement with the Ukrainian company Entrypoint, created by the ex-managers of Astarta, to finance, procure and supply food ingredients and packaging for companies in Ukraine, Entrypoint said in a press release.
“This partnership is built on Entrypoint’s long standing history in the food and beverage industry in Ukraine, and surrounding markets, together with Czarnikow’s global presence, supply chain capabilities, financing and sourcing,” William Rook, Czarnikow Director and Head of Ingredients, said.
Mykola Kovalski, the co-founder of Entrypoint, has collaborated with Czarnikow in the past through his work with leading Ukrainian food and energy businesses. He was Business Development Manager at Astarta Group, Ukraine’s leading sugar producer.
“As consumer demand across the region is becoming more exquisite and diverse, Entrypoint will be instrumental in connecting Czarnikow with reliable end buyers,” he said.
“Having signed an agency agreement with Entrypoint Group, a business intelligence consultancy in Ukraine, Czarnikow will be leveraging its global platform to competitively source, ship and finance food ingredients and packaging to Ukraine and the surrounding markets of Moldova, Georgia and Belarus,” the report says.
“Best known for its 160 years of experience in the global sugar market, in recent years Czarnikow has expanded its product offering to include food ingredients and packaging such as dairy, sweeteners, fruit and PET. These products have brought new opportunities both with longstanding, established clients and new potential markets. To make the most of new opportunities, Czarnikow is working with individuals with local on-the-ground understanding of specific regions,” according to the press release.
Entrypoint provides transaction and risk advisory services with a regional focus on Ukraine, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
The mobile network operator Kyivstar has begun to use a digital graphic signature on the screen to connect contract subscribers to its network in its branded stores, as well as in national and regional multi-brand electronics networks.
The operator’s press service said on Monday that the introduction of the digital graphic signature is an opportunity to speed up service and use a more environmentally friendly way of document flow that does not require paper consumption.
“Subscribers and store employees do not need to spend time preparing and printing paper documents. As a result, now it takes only about 5 minutes to sign mobile phone contracts,” the press service said.
Kyivstar said that the digital graphic signature is a handwritten signature of an individual on the tablet screen, linked to the contract, and is confirmed by a qualified electronic signature of the operator.
The functionality became possible thanks to the introduction of Jet, the new application for service and sales in Kyivstar branded stores and multi-brand electronics networks.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal has said that almost 550,000 jobs were saved thanks to government business support programs.
“The key role here was played by the partial unemployment program, according to which state support for business amounted to more than UAH 3 billion,” Shmyhal wrote on Facebook.
According to him, thanks to state support in 2020, more than 600,000 Ukrainians were employed.
The Lekhim group of pharmaceutical companies has signed an agreement to supply 5 million doses of CoronaVac vaccine against COVID-19 produced by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech in the first half of 2021, the company said in a press release on its website.
“Lekhim Group and Sinovac Biotech, which are partners, have reached an agreement in negotiations that lasted for 10 months on cooperation in the distribution and localization of production in Ukraine of the vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus for a period of five years,” the press release reads.
According to the report, Lekhim is the official and exclusive supplier of CoronaVac vaccine in Ukraine.
The release recalls that in addition to the sale of the CoronaVac vaccine, cooperation involves the organization of production of finished dosage forms of vaccines (including CoronaVac) from 2022 in Ukraine (Lekhim-Kharkiv), and from 2025 it is planned to organize a full production cycle of the main list of vaccines.
Sinovac Biotech is a Chinese vaccine producing company founded in Beijing in 2001 with a capacity of 300 to 500 million doses of six types of vaccines for humans and animals per year. Sinovac’s main products are vaccines against hepatitis A (prequalified by the WHO) and B, influenza, mumps, chickenpox, which are registered and approved for vaccination in 34 countries around the world.
CoronaVac is an inactivated vaccine. It uses a traditional vaccine mechanism in which a non-living virus that cannot replicate in human cells is used to activate the immune system. Phase 3 trials of the Chinese vaccine have already taken place in Brazil and Indonesia. Tests are ongoing in Turkey and Chile.
Prices in the Ukrainian industry in December 2020 increased by 14.5% compared to December 2019, the State Statistics Service has reported.
As previously reported, in 2019 the growth in prices of industrial producers amounted to 7.4%, in 2018 to 14.2%, in 2017 to 16.5%, in 2016 to 35.7%, and 2015 to 25.4%.
The service clarified that within Ukraine the prices of industrial producers in December 2020 compared to December 2019 increased by 9.7%, for supplies outside the country by 36.1%.
Prices in the Ukrainian industry in December, compared to the previous month of 2020, increased by 1.8% after growing in November by 2%, in October by 3.8%, in September by 1.7%.
At the same time, the State Statistics Service indicates that the average annual decline in prices in industry in 2020 (January-December to January-December of the previous year) amounted to 1.6%, while in the previous years, prices increased, in particular, in 2019 by 4.1%, in 2018 by 17.4%, in 2017 by 26.4%, in 2016 by 20.5%, and 2015 by 36%.
Prices in extracting industry in December 2020 (compared to December 2019) increased by 29.5%, due to an increase in prices in the extraction of metal ores by 44.6%, oil and gas by 28.6%, and in production of coal they decreased by 7.3%.
In processing industry, prices rose by 15.7%. In sugar production they grew by 59.6%, production of bread and bakery products by 9.9%, meat products by 2.9%, dairy products by 6.5%, beverages by 2.6%.
In addition, prices in metallurgy in December 2020 from December 2019 rose by 25.2%, in production of intermediate consumption goods by 21.9%, in chemical industry by 20.9%, in production of non-durable goods by 18.7%, woodworking by 10.5%, pharmaceutical production by 10.4%, mechanical engineering by 2.1%.
In the supply of electricity, gas and conditioned air, prices increased by 3.9%, in production of coke by 1.8%.
Olvia specialized seaport handled 3.91 million tonnes of cargo in 2020, which is 813,180 tonnes or 26.3% more than in 2019.
According to the information on the website of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, in the terms of shipment, the distribution of cargo took place as follows: export amounted to 3.53 million tonnes (more by 23.9% compared to 2019), import to 303,370 tonnes (41.2% more), coastal cargo to 70,210 tonnes, and transit cargo to 2,940 tonnes.
In 12 months of 2020, progress was achieved in the processing of bulk cargo 3.54 million tonnes, which is 34.1% more than in 2019.
“It should be noted that the largest contribution to the cargo handling was made by the Ukrainian agricultural sector, because 1.83 million tonnes of grain cargo was handled, which is 48.5% more than last year,” the association said.
In addition, in 2020, Olvia seaport handled 758,630 tonnes (more by 3%) of construction cargo, other bulk cargo 675,280 tonnes (more by 29.7%), as well as ferrous metals 322,410 tonnes and coal 232,480 tonnes.
The cargo handling of the Olvia seaport operators in 2020 was distributed as follows: EVT Grain LLC 2.22 million tonnes, and the state-owned enterprise Stevedoring Company Olvia 1.69 million tonnes.
In December 2020, in general, 258,490 tonnes of cargo were handled in the seaport water area, of which export cargo amounted to 258,160 tonnes, imported and coastal cargo to 110 tonnes and 230 tonnes, respectively.
The number of ship calls since the beginning of the year amounted to 270, including 16 during December.
