The Ukrainian beer market has stopped falling and stabilized first in the nine years, Carlsberg Ukraine Director General Yevhen Shevchenko has said.
“According to our internal assessment, the Ukrainian beer market for the first time in nine years has stopped its decline and stabilized. The facilities of Carlsberg Ukraine are not loaded in full, so we focus not only on the beer market, but also on the development of cider and non-alcoholic portfolio – kvass and other drinks,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, the general director said that the company’s production capacities are sufficient for all categories of goods.
Shevchenko said that there has been a trend towards the growth of premium and super-premium segments in the past three years, but still about 70% of the market is occupied by medium- and low-price segments of beer.
“Carlsberg plans to develop all brands of the portfolio, meeting the demand. This year the company has already managed to launch two new products: Robert Doms Golden Ale and Lvivske Kneippa Zhyve, and also offered Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc in a new format – matte can of 0.33 liter,” the general director said, adding that “the company will be limited to the release of only these products in 2018.”
Cereal Planet Plc has acquired 100% of shares in Olymp LLC, according to a posting on the website of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE).
According to the report, Cereal Ukraine LLC decided to terminate its operations via the reorganization and joining Olymp LLC. The merger is to take place in H1 2018.
According to a posting on the website of Cereal Planet Group, on February 19, 2018 the company acquired corporate rights of Olymp LLC, becoming the sole owner of the company.
Cereal Planet exports cereals to more than 50 countries (China, India, Germany, Italy, UAE, Poland, Turkey and other countries).
The company’s owners are Anatoliy and Oleksandr Vlasenko (with stakes of 33.53% and 29.93%), Oleksandr Slavhorodsky (29.93%) and Ihor Dobruskin (5.5%).
Ukrainian farmers have the full amount of mineral fertilizers required for carrying out spring field works and the expansion of safeguard measures for the import of mineral fertilizers would not create an artificial shortage of fertilizers, Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv has said.
“As of today, the market of mineral fertilizers is fully saturated for the spring field work, which was confirmed by the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food, profile associations and producers. Last year, with the efforts of the government, Verkhovna Rada deputies and associations, we launched the fertilizer producing enterprises, but they have not yet loaded their facilities in full. I’m talking about the Odesa Port-Side Plant, Sumykhimprom, Severodonetsk Azot, Cherkasy Azot and others,” he said, responding to a question from Interfax-Ukraine at a press briefing in Tuesday.
The first deputy prime minister also said that 12 safeguard trade measures are in effect with regard to the import of mineral fertilizers from the Russian Federation, including 10 anti-dumping measures, as well as countervailing and special measures.
According to Kubiv, there is no artificial shortage of mineral fertilizers for spring works, but there are questions to the group of fertilizers used in autumn works.
“Now we have a big request to the deputies that in the autumn we would settle this issue not by a resolution, but at the legislative level,” he said.
Kubiv said that the decision of the Interagency Commission on International Trade to expand the effect of anti-dumping measures on the import of ammonium nitrate from Russia to Ukraine with an increase in duties on the import of mineral fertilizers from Russia to 42.96%, made on March 26, was unanimous.
Marcopolo Commodities S.A. grain trader (Switzerland) has decided to open its representative office in Ukraine by July 2018 in order to improve the efficiency of work of the Black Sea market. “To maximize the efficiency of work of the Black Sea market, the management decided to establish a local representative office. It is planned by the new season to open a Ukrainian office, whose tasks include purchase of grain and processed products and delivery under the CPT terms for subsequent sale to end users under FOB/CIF terms,” director of the company’s analytics department Olena Neroba told Interfax-Ukraine.
The company plans to reach 1 million tonnes of supplies per season. The company intends to purchase goods directly from manufacturers. “We understand that the availability of our own infrastructure will create additional competitive advantages. And we are aimed at long-term cooperation with the Black Sea region and rely on Ukraine,” she said.
Marcopolo Commodities S.A. plans to open an office not only in Ukraine, but also in Madrid to make it easier to work with the south of Europe and in Singapore to enter the Asian market. The Swiss company Marcopolo Commodities S.A. was founded in 2015. It is engaged in trade in grains, oilseeds, processed products and biofuel. The owner and head of the company is Gonzalo de Lusarreta.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved the signing of an agreement with the German State Development Bank (KfW, Germany) on raising EUR 9 million of financial support for the development of social infrastructure. “The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on March 28 adopted the resolution on signing a financial and project agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, represented by the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Social Investment Fund, and KfW for the amount of EUR 9 million,” the press service of the Ministry of Social Policy said.
It is noted that the implementation of the act will allow obtaining aid from the German government in the framework of bilateral cooperation within the “Restoration in the east of Ukraine” project.
The agreement on free trade area (FTA) between Ukraine and Israel foresees the annulment of import duties for 80% of industrial goods from Ukraine to Israel and some agricultural products from the moment when the document takes force, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Trade Representative of Ukraine Natalia Mykolska has said. “At the same time, import duties will be abolished within a range of quotas for a number of agricultural products, and there will be a gradual cancellation of import duties during the transitional periods – three, five and seven years. After these terms end, the duties will be leveled to nil,” she said at a press briefing after a government meeting on Wednesday.
According to Mykolska, a certain category of goods falls under partial liberalization. At the same time, jewelry is excluded from the list of goods to which the document applies.
“After the agreement comes into force, Ukrainian producers can export their goods to the Israeli market without taxes. Why is it so important? Because Israel is a fairly closed market with high import duty rates, particularly for agricultural products, for example, for some meat the bound import duty rate exceeds 280%,” she said.
In turn, Ukraine opens 70% of the industrial goods market for Israeli producers and also abolishes duties on a number of agricultural products immediately after the FTA agreement enters into force, for some products – within three or five years. In particular, Ukraine will partially reduce tariffs for certain seasonal vegetables and fruits from Israel, the trade representative said, responding to a question from Interfax-Ukraine.
“However, this list is not exhaustive. The FTA agreement is a long-term document,” First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv said. At the same time, he said that Ukraine in the near future will start negotiations about the FTA with a new country, but he did not specify which state it is.
