Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

UKRAINE HARVESTS 6.2 MLN TONNES OF GRAIN BY JULY 6

Ukraine by July 6 harvested 6.2 million tonnes of early grain and legumes from 2.09 million hectares (22% of the planned area) with a yield of 2.96 tonnes per hectare.
In particular, farmers harvested 3.77 million tonnes of winter wheat from 1.26 million hectares (20% of the forecast) with a yield of 3 tonnes per hectare, 4,900 tonnes of spring wheat from 1,900 hectares (1%) with a yield of 2.51 tonnes per hectare, Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food said on Friday.
Some 2.11 million tonnes of winter barley was harvested from 631,500 hectares (76%) with a yield of 3.35 tonnes per hectare, 138,900 tonnes of spring barley from 73,900 hectares (5%) with a yield of 1.88 tonnes per hectares, and 171,500 tonnes of peas from 126,800 hectares (30%) with a yield of 1.35 tonnes per hectare.
In addition, 22 regions continue winter rapeseed harvesting: they have already threshed 756,300 tonnes of rapeseeds from 353,400 hectares (36% to the forecast) with a yield of 2.14 tonnes per hectare.
As of July 6, the harvesting campaign was under way in almost all regions of Ukraine, except for Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions.
The ministry predicts Ukraine will harvest over 60 million tonnes of grain in 2018. Last year, some 61.3 million tonnes of grain was gathered.

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BORSCHAHIVKA PHARMACEUTICAL PLANT TO INVEST UAH 176 MLN IN PRODUCTION OF PILLS AND CAPSULES

JSC Research and Industrial Center Borschahivka chemical and pharmaceutical plant plans by the end of 2018 to invest UAH 176 million, including in the completion of the upgrade of the new production line. “We invested UAH 76.9 million in development in 2017. Until the end of 2018, we intend to invest UAH 176 million in the production update. This money will go, including, to complete the construction of a new site for the production of pills and capsules, the launch of which is scheduled for 2019,” Director General of the plant Yulia Zdarevska told Interfax-Ukraine.
She said that the capacity of the new workshop will be 500 million pills and capsules, which will increase the total production capacity of these dosage forms by 27%.
Zdarevska also said that in the fourth quarter of 2020, the plant plans to put into operation a finished goods warehouse for 5,000 pallet positions.
In addition, the company plans to reconstruct the department of sterile antibiotics and a site for the production of medicines in vials, and intends to expand the capacity of the production site of lyophilic preparations.
“The renovation of equipment is only one of the components of the development of the plant in general. The purchase of new equipment and software is necessary, because we plan to expand production and output new products both to the domestic market and to foreign ones,” the plant’s director general said.
In addition, she recalled the company’s plans to expand the geography of exports and establish relations with foreign partners, invest in the development and conduct of research.
Currently, the plant’s medicines are manufactured in five main workshops, each of which fully complies with GMP standards, and production lines are equipped with modern high-tech equipment from leading European companies.

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CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS FORESEEN IN UKRAINIAN LEGISLATION, BUT NOT WIDELY USED YET – LAWYERS

Class actions lawsuits are foreseen in Ukrainian legislation, although their tools are not regulated, and practice is not spread, according to lawyers polled by Interfax-Ukraine. Lawyer from Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners (EPAP) Ukraine law firm Yuriy Nekliayev said that class actions lawsuits are rather popular in legal practice of western countries. Court rulings on class actions lawsuits could synchronously defend the interests of a large circle of persons, which allows decreasing loading on courts and observing the balance between defending the public and personal interest.
The lawyer said that the main feature of class actions lawsuits is that if it is satisfied, the court decision will be binding for all members of the group who potentially incurred losses from the defendant’s actions, even if such persons did not take direct part in the lawsuit.
At the same time, he drew attention to the factor of choosing a representative who would act in court in the interests of the “injured” group of persons, since the possibility of satisfying the claim, which applies to a wide range of persons, largely depends on the professionalism and qualifications of the representative.
“In Ukraine, unfortunately, the category of class actions lawsuits is not clearly regulated by law, and therefore is not widely spread,” he said.
Nekliayev said that these claims can be filed, in particular, against tour operators/airlines.
He pointed out the unsettled state of this legal category as “a class action” in Ukraine, while the legislator introduced other procedural possibilities that allow for more rapid hearing of court cases. For example, the Ukrainian courts can unite a homogeneous case in one proceeding, if the basis for such lawsuits are the same circumstances (legal relationship) or they are closely related.
“Consumers of services, including tourism and air transportation services, have the opportunity of defending their rights by merging into nongovernmental organizations and submitting relevant lawsuits to the court by applying to already existing nongovernmental organizations to protect the rights of a certain group of consumers of goods or services, and personally applying to the court to reimburse the losses caused by a tour operator/air carrier and moral damage,” the lawyer said.

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UKRAINIAN ECONOMY MINISTER CREATES WORKING GROUP TO SETTLE SITUATION ON TOURISM MARKET

First Deputy Prime Minister and Economic Development and Trade Minister Stepan Kubiv has ordered to create a working group for drafting legislation amendments in the sphere of tourism and settling the situation on this market. The press service of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine reported on Thursday that on July 4, a meeting headed by Kubiv was held to settle the situation in Ukraine due to commercial conflict between tour operators and airlines.
“At the same time, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, within the framework of the current legislation, is deprived of effective instruments of influence on the players of the tourism market, so Kubiv instructed to create a working group that will draft proposals to amend the current legislation,” the press service said.
In particular, it is planned to strengthen licensing requirements for tour-operator activity, create an effective mechanism for realizing the civil liability of the tour operator to tourists, increase the amount of financial support for tour operators, establish the administrative responsibility of tour operators for violating legislation in the sphere of tourism and other things.
As it was reported, on June 30, massive delays and cancellations of charter flights began, as a result of which about 1,500 citizens of Ukraine were “stuck” in Tunisia, Albania and Georgia.
As the Bravo airline reported, the problem with the delivery of passengers and cancellation of flights arose due to a debt of the tour operator Oasis in the amount of UAH 25 million.
At the same time, Oasis called this information unreliable and laid the responsibility for disruption of flights to the airline.

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SMART MARITIME GROUP BELIEVES COURT DECISIONS TO DECLARE CHORNOMORSKY SHIPYARD BANKRUPT IS EVIDENCE OF DESTRUCTIVE POSITION OF PGO

Smart Maritime Group (SMG) of Smart-Holding considers the decision of the business court in Mykolaiv region about declaring Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard (Mykolaiv), part of SMG, bankrupt a consequence of the destructive position of the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO). SMG is preparing a petition to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on the issue, the press service of SMG reported on Thursday. Explaining their position, SMG recalled: since July 2017, at the request of the PGO investigators in the investigation of the case “about the alleged failure to fulfill investment obligations in the privatization of the Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard in 2003-2012,” all property of the enterprise and the shares issued by it are seized.
This circumstance made it impossible to implement the readjustment plan of the Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard, which includes, inter alia, the sale of the shipyard’s non-production assets to meet creditors’ claims. However, the readjustment head Oleksandr Ostapenko in June personally appealed to Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko with a request to remove the arrest for the readjustment measures, which expired on July 1, the SMG said.
At the same time, the press service said that the working group set up under the Ministry of Defense to solve the problematic issues of the state corvette program, implemented with the participation of the Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard, as a promising option for separating a new enterprise from the PJSC and transferring all the responsibilities for the project to it. “The relevant measures were included in the readjustment plan and approved by a court decision binding its execution on the entire territory of Ukraine from the moment of its entry into force,” the press service said.
“Thus, the position of the prosecutor’s office led to the liquidation of the leading enterprise of the military shipbuilding of Ukraine and losses to the national budget. Some 74 million UAH of advance payments will be lost on contracts with nonresidents,” the press service said.
However, the recognition of the Chornomorsky Shipbuilding Yard as a bankrupt and its liquidation call into question the probability of implementing the state Corvette program: “The built corvette hull will be included in the liquidation mass for further implementation,” the press service said.
The company prepared an appeal to the SBU with a request “to deal with the anti-state position of representatives of the PGO,” the press service said.

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UKRAINE THE SECOND EXPORT MARKET FOR GEORGIAN WINES; 4.191 MLN BOTTLES SOLD (11% OF THE TOTAL)

Georgia exported 38.2 million bottles of wine from grapes (0.75-liter bottles) in January-June 2018, 21% more than in 2017, the Agriculture Ministry’s National Wine Agency reported. Russia was the leading importer of Georgian wine in the period, boosting imports 24.4% to 24.022 million bottles or 62.9% of the total. Other major importers included Ukraine – 4.191 million bottles (11% of the total), China – 2.976 million (7.8%), Kazakhstan – 1.652 million (4.3%) and Poland 1.164 million (4.1%).
A total of 190 Georgian companies exported wine in the six months, 18 more than a year earlier. Exports to countries in Europe and Asia, and to the U.S. and other countries, increased substantially. Georgia also exported 8.4 million bottles of brandy (0.5-liter bottles), 23% more than in H1 2017, to 20 countries. Revenue rose 6% to $17 million. Overall exports of wine, brandy and other products – chacha, other alcoholic beverages, wine materials and brandy spirits – were worth $148.3 million, 21.5% more. Georgia exported wine to 48 countries in H1 2018, up from 44 in the same period last year. Revenue from the exports rose 28% to $90 million.

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