The share of the illegal cigarette market in Ukraine as of August 2020 increased to 6.9% compared to 6.6% in 2019, CEO of the tobacco company JTI Ukraine Paul Holloway has said, citing a Kantar study.
“This means that in the first eight months of this year, the national budget received UAH 4.5 billion less,” he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.
According to Kantar data, over the entire past year, the share of illegal trade in tobacco products in Ukraine was 6.6%, or 3.5 billion cigarettes. As a result, the national budget received UAH 4.7 billion less.
At the same time, in July 2020, Kantar estimated the volume of the illegal cigarette market in Ukraine at 5%.
As Holloway said, consumers spend about 25% of their income on cigarettes. Consequently, an increase in the price of cigarettes will lead to an increase in the illicit trade in cigarettes.
The CEO of JTI Ukraine said that legal business is losing market share in favor of illegal manufacturers and smugglers. Moreover, 75-80% of the cost of legal cigarettes are taxes, which the manufacturers of illegal cigarettes do not pay.
To fight the illegal tobacco market, the company launched the No Smuggling project, he said.
Acting Head of the State Fiscal Service (SFS) Serhiy Solodchenko said that in the first nine months of 2020, his service seized excisable goods for the amount of UAH 2.034 billion, of which about 36% in monetary terms were tobacco products.
During this period, the tax police seized 11.5 million packages of tobacco products and 164 tonnes of tobacco from illegal circulation for the amount of UAH 730.4 million. In monetary terms, this is almost twice more compared to the same period last year.
Wind Power GSI Volyn LLC intends to build a wind power plant with a capacity of 150 MW in Ivanychi and Volodymyr-Volynsky districts of Volyn region.
According to the website of the unified register of environmental impact assessment, within the framework of the project, it is planned to install 28 wind turbines in the territory of Ivanychi district and 1 wind facility in the territory of Volodymyr-Volynsky district with a capacity of up to 7 MW each. The tower height is up to 166 meters, the rotor diameter is up to 170 meters.
It is also planned to build a high-voltage substation of 35/110 kV with an area of up to 1 hectare with transformer equipment to ensure the reception and transmission of generated electricity from the station to the network. The transmission of electricity generated at the wind farm to the unified state power grid will be carried out through the existing 330 kV Novovolynsk substation of Ukrenergo.
The wind farm is expected to generate about 540,000 MWh of “green” electricity.
According to the data of the Unified state register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, Wind Power GSI Volyn (Lviv) belongs to Greenville closed non-diversified venture corporate investment fund. The ultimate beneficiary is Ivan Torsky, the director general of TKS Development Holding.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 21/10/20
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of October 21
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) in July-September 2020 sold 195,120 tonnes of chicken meat, which is 18% more than a year ago.
MHP said on Wednesday that chicken meat sales grew by 2%, to 523,760 tonnes in January-September 2020.
“Third parties sales amounted to 523,759 tonnes of poultry, which is 2% higher than in 9M 2019, driven mainly by substantial increase in exports in Q3 2020 – 37% year-on-year to 108,472 tonnes due to the increased sales to MENA region predominantly as well as to Africa and CIS,” the company said.
MHP said that overall chicken meat sales volumes in Q3 2020 increased by 18% compared to Q3 2019 and by 14% compared to Q2 2020, driven mainly by the company’s strategy to decrease its poultry stocks accumulated during the preceding periods – in late 2019 and 2020.
In Ukraine, sales of chicken in the third quarter remained at the level of last year – 86,650 tonnes, and in nine months increased by 1%, to 244,740 tonnes, while the export of chicken in the first nine months increased by 3%, to 279,030 tonnes.
Notwithstanding the turbulent times, MHP continued to follow its strategies of both geographic diversification and of a product mix optimization developing partnerships across the MENA, CIS, EU and Africa countries. Total poultry exports in 9M 2020 constituted around 53%, same as in 9M 2019, of total poultry sales volumes.
Prices on the domestic market decreased by 11% year-on-year, mainly for the same reasons as export prices as well as a higher proportion of lower priced frozen chicken sales in Ukraine. The price was $1.36 per kg (VAT not included), and in 9M 2020 it was 9% lower – $1.34 per kg (VAT not included).
The prices fell both on the Ukrainian market by 7% in Q3 2020 and by 11% in 9M 2020 and on the foreign market – by 8% and 9% respectively, mainly driven by the product mix change during H1 2020 (significant decrease in sales of fillet to the EU and increased sales to MENA) and weaker prices on breast fillet in EU as many global competitors experienced reduced demand, which resulted in excess stocks.
Poultry production volumes in Q3 2020 remained relatively stable, decreased by 3%, constituting 181,661 tonnes (Q3 2019: 186,555 tonnes) mainly due to increased share of small birds production (dedicated to MENA region predominantly). In 9M 2020 poultry production volumes were relatively stable and constituted 541,592 tonnes (9M 2019: 540,133 tonnes).
About 60% of attempts to smuggle cigarettes is recorded through ports, in general, tobacco products are most popular among other smuggled goods, First Deputy Head of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Volodymyr Nikiforenko has said.
“More than 60% of smuggling is detected in ports. There are significant consignments of seized cigarettes. For example, one of the recent large consignments detained is estimated at about UAH 80 million,” he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.
According to Nikiforenko, in general, this year the State Border Guard Service suppressed attempts of illegal movement of tobacco products across the border about 750 times, seized 12 million packages of cigarettes.
“During this year, our colleagues and partners, and we interact with law enforcement agencies of countries adjacent to Ukraine, note a 50-67% fall in the volume of smuggling from Ukraine to Europe,” he said.
The first deputy head of the State Border Guard Service added that drones and small aircraft are often used to supply cigarette contraband.
“There are indicative episodes when we detained a plane that launched from Cherkasy region and was moving to the Romanian border. In just one day, it violated the airspace four times. The plane was detained, criminal proceedings are underway,” Nikiforenko said.
With regard to the fight against smuggling of cigarettes, Nikiforenko supported the legislative initiative to return criminal responsibility for smuggling an excisable group of goods.
“We are losing in the influence on the development of the criminal situation in the border zone to our neighbors, where the law enforcement influence on these processes is tougher. This encourages wider population to this illegal activity. Where there is administrative responsibility, our Romanian neighbors can bring to criminal responsibility with serious consequences: for 10 boxes of cigarettes you can get five years in prison. Romanians are less involved in this [smuggling], while in Ukraine many settlements “specialize” in this for years,” Nikiforenko said, adding that only about 2% of cigarettes with a Ukrainian excise label are seized on the border, while the rest is counterfeit and smuggling from other countries.
