The fruit and berry harvest in 2018 could exceed the last year figure by 10-30%, Chairman of the Ukrsadprom association Dmytro Kroshka has said. “With favorable weather conditions, gross harvest of pomaceous, drupaceous fruit, berries and nuts in industrial farms could reach the average figure of the past years – 400,000-500,000 tonnes. The 2018 harvest could exceed the last year figure by 10-30%,” he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday. Weather is the main risk factor. Kroshka said that this year blooming this year is quick due to high temperatures and some fruit and berries are ripening quickly. In addition, simultaneous expansion of depredators, the high likelihood of hail and not enough moisture in soil (twice less) would also affect the volume of the harvest.
Director of the Berry Nursery Brusviana Liliana Dmytriyeva said that the Ukrainian market is specific. In particular, the share of berries planted at farms is from one third to one fifth, while the rest is planted in households.
“At present, the leader in planted areas in Ukraine is black currant – around 50% of all areas of agricultural companies. Strawberry occupies 20-24% of the market and raspberry – 13-14%. Areas with blackberry occupy 13% of total areas, according to the State Statistics Service, while other sources said that it is 24%,” Dmytriyeva said.She also said that areas with sea-buckthorn, honeysuckle and alpine strawberry are swelling. Leaders in production of berries of all types are Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions, in production by agricultural companies – Vinnytsia, Volyn, Zhytomyr and Khmelnytsky regions. She said that the largest number of companies planting berries was created in these regions.
The new type of business is being developed in Ukraine: planting of berries “in tunnels.” “This allows preventing the influence of some cold factors and having early harvest. Berries “from tunnels” are more expensive than those planted in fields, but it allows placing Ukrainian products to the shelves of retail stores for a longer period of time,” the director of the Berry Nursery Brusviana said. The experts do not expect a significant reduction in prices in the market and among the main factors that may affect them, are: a significant increase in the area under berries, a rise in the price of crop protection products and fertilizers by almost 30% compared to 2017, as well as exports.
“The presence of competition, on one hand, should reduce the price, but on the other hand: there are natural negative factors that will affect the harvest. Most enterprises were not oriented to “fresh” or to domestic markets, so a significant increase in areas would not entail increased competition in the domestic market,”, Dmytriyeva said.
As for the supply of Ukrainian products abroad, Europe remains the most popular market.
“The most expensive and popular market is Europe, in particular, Great Britain, Germany, but to get to this market you need to incur certain costs for both fresh berries and frozen ones. Many enterprises plan to do this, but not everyone is ready,” she said.
In addition, Ukraine is also interested in the market of the Middle East. The market of neighboring countries, in particular, Belarus, is traditional.
In turn, the chairman of Ukrsadprom said that this marketing year, Ukraine exported apples to one of the new markets – the UAE.
The shipbuilding and ship repair industries of Ukraine have good prospects for development due to cheaper metal, labor and electricity. “Of course, in order to develop shipbuilding, we need investments. It is difficult to assess the volume of such investments now. In any case, it is not about ten million dollars. At the same time, we see interest in shipbuilding and developing the industry in our country. The fact is that despite military actions in the east of the country, we have the cheapest metal in the region if to compare with Turkey or Romania, which are the closest competitors of Ukrainian shipbuilders and ship repairmen,” chairman of the Verkhovna Rada subcommittee for maritime and river transport Oleksandr Urbansky said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, he noted that the cheapness of workforce has the opposite effect: young professionals leave the country.
He added that the factories now need resources that would allow them to raise wages of such employees by $300-400, which would make labor migration unprofitable. At the same time, enterprises are ready to invest in the training and development of even very young specialists. But business also expects actions from the state. First of all, the matter concerns relevant amendments in the legislation.
The expert stressed that the adoption of the draft law on inland water transport will become a catalyst for the development of shipbuilding in Ukraine.
Ovostar Union, one of the leading producers of eggs and egg goods in Ukraine, received $7.3 million of net profit in January-March 2018, which is 1.7 times more than in the same period in 2017. According to the company’s report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange’s website, Ovostar’s revenue increased 1.7-fold, to $33.9 million, due to an increase in sales and prices. Export sales for the reporting period doubled and reached $14.4 million compared to the same period in 2017, while the share of exports in total revenue was 43%.
The gross profit of the company for January-March 2017 increased by 1.9 times, to $11.2 million, while gross margin was 33%. Operating profit doubled to $8.8 million, EBITDA rose by 1.9 times, to $9.5 million, and EBITDA margin stood at 28%. Net operating cash flow for the period amounted to $14.9 million.
“Adhering to the strategy of export markets development, in the first quarter of 2018 the group continued raising its export share, paying special attention to the EU market, which led to a significant increase in revenues from foreign customers,” company director general Borys Belikov said.
The issues of deepening cooperation in the economic sphere have been discussed in Kyiv by Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway Audun Halvorsen and Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze. Halvorsen noted that Norwegian investors had positively assessed the development of the business environment in Ukraine and optimistic expectations of investors should be supported by confidence, since the most important characteristic of the country for investment is predictability, the government portal reported on Tuesday.
Several positive business cases are immediately a signal for other investors, the first pave the way for the next, added the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway. According to him, Norwegian investors are most interested in the energy sector of Ukraine, in particular, in investing in “green” energy and energy efficiency.
Halvorsen also said that Norway would actively participate in the International Conference on Reforms in Ukraine, which will be held in Copenhagen on June 27, and is also ready to further deepen cooperation with Ukraine in various areas of bilateral relations.
In turn, Klympush-Tsintsadze noted that Norway’s support for Ukraine is concrete and practical, and such relations are the basis for further deepening of bilateral relations.
The sides also briefly discussed the visit to Ukraine of Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide planned for the second half of the year, as well as the visit of the newly appointed President of the Norwegian Storting, Tone Wilhelmensen Troen, scheduled for September.
Agrofusion, the largest Ukrainian vertically integrated producer of tomato paste, intends in the current year to launch a tomato powder factory in Snihurivka (Mykolaiv region), company financial director Ivan Sakal has said. “We are building a factory for production of tomato powder in Snihurivka this year. This is a very popular product. Now we are discussing this with international financial institutions. We hope to start building the fourth tomato processing plant in three years. Four plants to produce tomato paste is probably the best number,” he told Interfax-Ukraine after the opening of the Business Integrity Week in Kyiv.
Sakal said the company is considering the possibility of investing UAH 2 billion in the fourth tomato processing plant.
“The volume of funds the company invests in development this year is being discussed with our financial partners. I think investment will amount to UAH 1.2-1.3 billion,” he said.
At the same time, according to Sakal, the company increased plans for processing tomatoes to 750,000 tonnes, whereas earlier Agrofusion planned to grow and process 630,000 tonnes of tomatoes. Agrofusion is a vertically integrated group of companies producing tomato paste (under the Inagro trademark) in Ukraine. It was founded by businessman Serhiy Sypko in 2007.
Ukrainian Flour Company LLC (Cherkasy region) plans to open four representative offices in the Central African Republic, Chad, Cameroon and Benin, the company’s press service has reported. “Now our company is working on the creation of four full-fledged representative offices in various countries of Africa. We are now at the stage of negotiations with the government and commercial organizations of these countries. Simultaneously we are agreeing all documents and licenses necessary to carry out the activities of Ukrainian Flour Company in each country,” the press service said.
The company said the pilot shipments of products have already been sent to consumers in these countries. The total volume of these trial shipments is 400 containers or 10,000 tonnes.
Representative offices are set up to ensure the fulfillment of the company’s export plans, a high level of customer service, including the financial efficiency of export operations, increasing commercial load and foreign exchange earnings, conducting marketing research in the international flour market, organizing and conducting commercial and promotional activities in the territories of other countries.
Ukrainian Flour Company was established in 2017. It produces goods under the trademark Korolivske Boroshno. It exports flour to China, Moldova, Israel, Palestine, the Philippines, Angola, Georgia, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and other countries.
AFRICAN REPUBLIC, BENIN, CAMEROON, CHAD, FLOUR COMPANY, REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES
