KYIV. April 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – State enterprise Ukrspyrt in January-March 2016 saw a 4.5-fold rise in exports of its products, to 70,000 decaliters.
The company said in a press release, 174 applications were placed in Ukrainian trade missions of different countries to expand exports geography.
Ukrspyrt has contracts with Georgia, Azerbaijan, Poland and the Dominican Republic. Negotiations with clients from other countries are being held.
Ukrspyrt Deputy Director Serhiy Bleskun said that a large obstacle in developing exports was the fact that the enterprise has been operating without a director for more than one year.
“Foreign clients who need stability and guarantees do not understand how it is possible to do with the state-run enterprise,” he said.
Ukrspyrt is subordinated to the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry.
The main volume of spirit was sold on the domestic market in 2015. Around 150,000 decaliters of ethyl spirit were sold on foreign markets. Exports accounted for 2% of total sales.
KYIV. April 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – State-run enterprise Artyomsol seeks to increase supplies of its products to the EU countries by 15% in 2016, to 425,300 tonnes and open logistics centers in Ukraine and the EU.
“We plan to open logistic centers in Ukraine and the EU. This would help to resolve the problem of delivering cargos from producers to consumers in the shortest terms. It would bring our products closer to end consumers, increase the company’s profit thanks to avoiding intermediaries,” the enterprise said on its website.
A pilot project could be realized in Kyiv in the near term. Artyomsol specialists in March 2016 visited warehouses and industrial premises for placing a logistics center to handle, store and distribute salt on the territories adjacent to the ports of the Danube River in Galati (Romania) and Ruse (Bulgaria).
A representative office in the EU allows the company to take part in European salt procurement tenders.
Artyomsol shipped 367,800 tonnes of salt to the EU in 2015.
Artyomsol is the largest enterprise engaged in the production and sale of salt (NaCl) in Central and Eastern Europe.
DNIPROPETROVSK. April 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The revenue of regional and local budgets in Dnipropetrovsk region has amounted to UAH 3.4 billion since the beginning of the year, which is 23.4% up on the target, Dnipropetrovsk Regional Governor Valentyn Reznychenko said.
“In the three months, the region has managed to outstrip the target by UAH 640 million. Additional funds will be spent on local residents’ needs, namely on roads, water pipelines, hospitals, kindergartens, schools. Our task is to keep the pace of budget revenue excess,” Reznychenko told reporters in Tuesday.
The region’s consolidated budget consists of the regional budget, which is adopted by the regional council, and budgets of the towns, districts and territorial communities.
In particular, the revenue of the regional budget exceeded the target by UAH 44 million, and the revenue in the three months totaled about UAH 677 million. The revenue of the budget of the towns in the region exceeded UAH 2.2 billion, which was UAH 419 million up on the target.
January through March 2016, Dnipropetrovsk region’s districts posted revenue at over UAH 330 million, which was UAH 111 million up on the planned figure. The merged territorial communities managed to double their proceeds compared to the plans: the total income of 15 communities exceeded UAH 144 million.
“The overfulfillment of the budget’s plans is the result of joint work with tax authorities. [These are] legal jobs, transparent payments for land and timely payment of excise duties,” Reznychenko said.
KYIV. April 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Antimonopoly Committee has permitted FI&P Holdings Limited (Cyprus) to indirectly acquire shares in the share capital of Farmak Group N.V. (the Netherlands). This will grant over 50% of the votes in the management body of the company.
The press service of the committee reported that the acquisition will be settled via Farmak Holdings Sarl (Luxembourg).
According to the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market of Ukraine, 25% and 42.5% of shares in public joint-stock company Farmak (Kyiv) as of Q4 2015 belonged to Farmak Group N.V. and 11.27% to Farmak International Holding GmbH (Austria).
Farmak produces up to 200 different medicines.
By 2020, the company plans to boost sales to $1 billion and reduce the share of its sales in Ukraine from 80% to 60% of total sales. The company plans to ensure 10% of its sales on well regulated markets of Eastern Europe and the CIS each.
KYIV. April 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Ministry of Infrastructure in cooperation with the ProZorro e-procurement system (March 2015-March 2016) organized and held 7,980 tenders worth about UAH 1.576 billion, resulting in savings of more than UAH 102 million.
According to the press service of the ministry, when working with government customers it is important to analyze in detail the documentary base of the counterparty and a declared tender, pay particular attention to the legal aspects of cooperation, unite for the sake of the market growth and improving quality. The system keeps track of allies in the name of the AMC, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and new heads of enterprises elected at open competitions.
The ministry also noted that the law on public procurement will come into force from April 1, 2016. The law aims to ensure effective and transparent procurement, create a competitive environment in public procurement, prevent corruption in this area and develop fair competition.
KYIV. April 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Astarta agro-industrial holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, has started the spring sowing campaign. The total area for spring sowing is expected to reach 170,000 ha including forage crops for dairy farming segment.
The company said in a press release on Monday that Astarta’s crop structure will include sugar beet (up to 45,000 ha), corn (44,000 ha) and soybeans (42,000 ha).
According to the company’s report, Astarta in 2015 narrowed sugar beets planted areas by 29%, to 34,000 ha to adjust to the narrowing of the domestic sugar market.
The press service said that as of beginning of April barley sowing campaign was successfully complete, while planting of sugar beet and sunflower is on the way. Soybeans and corn sowing is to follow.
“In contrast to earlier expectations, winter crops are generally in good condition and have healthy yield potential. Despite dry weather during autumn phase of growth, especially in Poltava region, mild winter, rainy March and timely feeding of winter crops with fertilizers in spring provided accelerated dynamic vegetation process,” the holding said.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding, uniting six regional divisions in Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, and Kharkiv regions. They include nine sugar factories, agricultural farms with a land bank of about 245,000 hectares and dairy farms. The holding last year commissioned a plant for processing soybeans in Poltava region (Globyno processing plant).
