Sugar production in Ukraine as of October 9, 2018 totaled 420,000 tonnes.
The Ukrtsukor national association of sugar producers said that 37 sugar refineries had been operating as of October 9, which refined 3.38 million tonnes of sugar beets.
As reported, Ukraine officially opened a new sugar refining season on August 31. This year, areas with sugar beet total 280,000 hectares, which is 13% less than last year.
Ukraine exported 560,400 tonnes of sugar in the 2017/18 agricultural year (September-August), which is 27.2% less than in the previous year.
Production of sugar in the 2017/2018 marketing year increased by 6.5%, to 2.14 million tonnes. Some 46 sugar refineries were in operation during that season.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is mulling a project to provide a debt funding of EUR 51.9 million to PJSC Ukrgazvydobuvannia to finance the procurement of workover rigs and a package of energy efficiency investments.
According to a report on the bank’s website, the Board of Directors will discuss the project on December 12, 2018.
According to the document, the loan will benefit from a sovereign guarantee by Ukraine.
Ukrgazvydobuvannia, fully owned by Naftogaz Ukrainy, is the country’s largest gas producer, which provides about 75% of the total gas production in the country.
As reported, the EBRD recently defined operational and strategic priorities in Ukraine for the next five years: privatization and improved governance in the public sector, energy security and energy efficiency.
The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. To date, the bank has made a cumulative commitment of almost EUR 12.1 billion across some 400 projects since the start of its operations in the country in 1993.
Ukrainian grain farmers cannot timely execute contracts for exports of products due to a shortage of locomotives at Ukrzaliznytsia, the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club has reported. “The main problem of PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia, which impedes the efficient transportation of grain, is a shortage of locomotives. Due to a lack of traction, wagons stand idle at stations and elevators, while the turnover of cars of Ukrzaliznytsia’s Transport Logistics Center has increased from five to 11 days over the last two years, private to 13 days,” the report says.
According to the association, delays in the transportation of grain crops lead to a breach of export contracts, while transportation rates are declining, and gross production is rising. According to the union, only 500 out of 2,500 Ukrzaliznytsia locomotives work, while the overhauls of many of them were carried out in the 1990s.
At the same time, the association noted an increase in the number of grain wagons in the country: about 11,500 cars are owned by Ukrzaliznytsia, about 10,000 are private.
According to the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, it’s not worth expecting a speedy improvement in the situation with rail transportation because of a lack of funds at Ukrzaliznytsia for the purchase of locomotives in the near future.
CONTRACTS, EXPORTS, GRAIN FARMERS, LOCOMOTIVES, UKRZALIZNYTSIA
Metro Cash & Carry Ukraine LLC (Kyiv) plans to start opening the Beri-Vezi store with an area of 1,500-2,000 square meters from 2019. The stores will be small wholesale bases for traders, Metro Cash & Carry Ukraine CEO Olivier Langlet has said. “Since we have 25 stores in each regional center of Ukraine, we decided that from 2019 we will continue our expansion in the country and will open satellite stores. These are small shops under the METRO brand, which will provide goods for clients-traders,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday.
According to Langlet, the cost of opening one store of the new format will be EUR 150,000-300,000. These stores are already operating in Lutsk and Ternopil under the METRO Base brand.
The area of the stores of the new format will be 1,500-2,000 square meters, the number of commodity items – no more than 3,000 SKU. The range will include groceries, pastries and beverages.
According to him, the company does not plan to develop large formats like hypermarkets in Ukraine.
“I can’t say now which cities we will probably go to, but we believe that we will open about 15-20 stores of this format… It is better to open more than 20 stores in the regions than one big one, since these are large costs that do not provide return on investment in a short time,” Langlet said.