The bus operator FlixBus will launch a new international line from Chernivtsi to Wroclaw, Poland from June 4, the company said on Wednesday.
According to the company, the new line received the number 3232, its full route: Chernivtsi – Kolomyia – Ivano-Frankivsk – Lviv – Krakow – Katowice – Wroclaw.
Krakow and Wroclaw are major transport hubs for FlixBus. From them, buses can reach more than 100 European cities, the company said in the press release.
The company announced that two previously suspended international FlixBus lines are also being relaunched. These are N3222 Kyiv – Warsaw – Szczecin (will start running again from June 3) and 3241 Chernivtsi – Warsaw (from June 4).
Their routes: – N3222: Kyiv – Zhytomyr – Rivne – Lutsk – Lublin – Warsaw – Lodz – Poznan – Gorzow Wielkopolski – Szczecin; and 3241: Chernivtsi – Kolomyia – Ivano-Frankivsk – Lviv – Lublin – Warsaw.
All three of these lines will initially operate three times a week, but will increase in frequency over time.
So, as early as June 28, the Kyiv – Szczecin line will begin to run four times a week, and Chernivtsi – Warsaw and Chernivtsi – Wroclaw – five times a week. Branded green buses FlixBus are assigned to these lines.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 27/05/21
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of May 27
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Ukrainian banks’ cash exchange rates on 27/05/21
Source: Interfax-Ukraine
The number pig farms in Ukraine as of January 1, 2021 decreased by 7.4% compared to January 1, 2020, to 1,440, while the number of pigs in the industrial sector increased by 9.6%, to 3.68 million, the Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders said, citing the data of the State Statistics Service.
According to the association, the intensity of the reduction of pig farms in 2020 decreased less than the average in 2015-2019, since during that period 9-13% of operators left the industry annually.
The association noted the increase in livestock capacity by farms with a livestock of more than 10,000 pigs. In this segment, the livestock for the year increased by more than 300,000, to 2.34 million animals. At the same time, by January 1, 2021, more than 65% of the industrial pig population was “concentrated” at 77 production sites.
Operators with a livestock of 5,000-10,000 animals also showed positive dynamics, the number of animals they had in 2020 increased by 12.8%.
“The share of pig farms with a livestock of less than 5,000 animals has been declining most of all over the past years. Therefore, so far, 144 largest enterprises provide the increase in the capacity of the industrial sector. This means that domestic pig breeding, like the global one, continues to develop through enlargement,” the association analysts said.
The Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders is a non-profit voluntary organization established in 2011. The association unites 38 farms, the breeding stock of which is 39% of the national volume. The main goal of the association is to protect the rights and interests of enterprises in the pig industry and achieve world production standards.
The share of illegal tobacco products in the Ukrainian market in February 2021 amounted to 12.8% versus 5.8% in February 2020, the figure is the highest since 2011 and is mainly due to the growth of illegal sales of cigarettes and Duty Free products intended for export.
Such data were published by the research institute Kantar Ukraine by order of the ten largest Ukrainian manufacturers of tobacco products.
According to researchers, 62% of illegally sold tobacco products in the country have a mark of production at Vynnyky Tobacco Factory (Vynnyky, Lviv region) and are labeled as export or Duty Free products not intended for sale in Ukraine. The share of unidentified manufacturers is 23%, and United Tobaco LLC (Zhovti Vody, Dnipropetrovsk region) – 15%.
The most common brands of this group of illegal products are the Compliment brand marked as Duty Free – with a share of 50%, as well as those intended for export, but sold in Ukraine, Marshall (14%), Jin Ling (9%), Marvel and Urta (6% each). The total share of the named brands in this product group is 84%.
Kantar noted that 42% of smuggled cigarettes are products of Grodno Tobacco Factory (Belarus), and 20% are products of Moldovan factories. The most common smuggled brands are Credo, Queen, Ritm, Oris, NZ and Armeyskiye (Moldova).
The study showed that 63% of illegal products are distributed in six regions of Ukraine. Most of all – in Kharkiv (14%), Donetsk and Odesa (13%), Dnipropetrovsk (9%), Mykolaiv (7%) and Khmelnytsky (6%) regions.
According to Kantar, the share of illegal products sold through legal trade channels continues to grow: in February 2021, some 36% of illegal products were distributed through stalls, 29% – shops, 23% – open markets, and 9% – street trading.
Researchers estimated state budget’s losses from unpaid taxes at UAH 11.8 billion over 2021.
