Mriya agroholding is mulling the possibility of creating a separate seed business, which would allow not only covering the needs of the holding, but also planting and selling own seeds to other companies, the company has said in a press release. “The work in this field has already begun: the seed factory of the company in Khorostkiv, starting from last year, provides services of bringing the seed material to the sowing conditions (cleaning and calibration) for companies engaged in the sale of seeds,” the agroholding said.
The capacity of the seed plant reaches 300 tonnes of grain seeds per day. It is equipped with two parallel lines and ensures the quality of seeds of more than 99% in terms of the purity of the material.
Mriya is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding founded in 1992 by the Huta family. Today, its land bank is 180,000 ha in Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Lviv and Rivne regions.
Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) could acquire the French poultry producer Doux Group, the French edition Challenge’s has reported. According to the publication, the holding on March 9, 2018 filed documents to the industry restructuring committee of France (ComitЁ¦ InterministЁ¦riel de Restructuration Industrielle) for the restoration of Doux Group suffering economic difficulties. The committee does not make any decisions. At the same time, it contributes to the development of the best plan for the rehabilitation of enterprises, as well as search for buyers.
According to the edition, MHP estimates the amount of required investments to restore the group at EUR150 million, while requiring that at least EUR70 million be compensated at the expense of state subsidies.
In addition, the MHP plan offers the reduction of up to 550 jobs.
According to the website of Doux, the group’s enterprises employ more than 2,300 people. At the same time, it says at present the number of workers is about 1,200.
Epicenter K and Nova Linia, the networks of construction materials hypermarkets, part of Epicenter group of companies, occupy a leading position in the retail construction materials market in Kyiv and Kyiv region.
According to an annual report from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) for 2017, the share of the Epicenter K trading network in the market of Kyiv is 53%, that of Nova Linia some 1.6%. The French network Leroy Merlin ranks second in the capital with 9.3%.
Epicenter also dominates in Kyiv region: the share of Epicenter K is 29.3%, that of Nova Linia some 29.8%.
“Despite the significant number of players in this regional market, market power [in 2017] belonged to one economic entity Epicenter K LLC and Nova Linia LLC. The availability of market power does not violate the legislation on protection of economic competition. The committee has not revealed any signs of violations in the actions [of Epicenter],” the AMC report says.
As reported, Epicenter acquired the Nova Linia network of construction hypermarkets in October 2013.
Epicenter K LLC was established in 2003. Its first hypermarket opened in Kyiv in December 2003.
Ukraine imported 150,577 tonnes of crude oil (according to foreign economic activity code 2709 – petrol, diesel fuel, fuel oil, jet fuel, etc.) worth $80.272 million in January-February 2018, respectively 32% and 54.3% more than in the same period in 2017, the State Fiscal Service has reported.
Ukraine imported $41.757 million worth of oil in February alone.
Imports for the two months of 2018 included crude oil worth $77.587 million from Azerbaijan, $1.844 million from Iran, $295,000 from Hungary and $546,000 from other countries.
Ukraine did not export oil or crude oil in January-February.
Ukraine imported 1.04 million tonnes of petroleum products (foreign economic code 2710 – petrol, diesel fuel, fuel oil, jet fuel, etc.) in January-February 2018 worth $646.651 million. Russia supplied petroleum products worth $257.085 million (39.76% of the total), Belarus $240.383 million (37.17%), Lithuania $62.709 million (9.7%) and other countries $86.473 million (13.37%).
Imports of petroleum products were down 9.8% in natural terms and up 11% in monetary terms.
Ukraine exported 48,633 tonnes of petroleum products worth $29.489 million in January-February, of which $7.94 million to Latvia, $5.346 million to Lithuania, $3.934 million to Hungary, and $12.269 million to other countries.
Imports of coal and anthracite (foreign economic code 2701) rose to 4.015 million tonnes in January-February 2018, a 63% year-on-year increase, worth $516.656 million, 44.5% more.
Ukraine imported coal worth $340.05 million from Russia (58.85% of the total), $149.508 million from the U.S. (28.94%), $48.365 million from Canada (9.36%), and $14.733 million from other countries (2.85%).
Ukraine exported 43,338 tonnes of coal worth $7.8 million in the two months of 2018, including $4.597 million to Russia, $3.201 million to Slovakia, and $2,000 to Hungary.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in March improved its forecast for wheat exports from Ukraine in the 2017/2018 marketing year (MY, July-June) by 200,000 tonnes compared to the forecast in February, to 17.2 million tonnes.
According to a report on the website of the U.S. agency, the forecast for corn exports for the 2017/2018 MY did not change and remained at the level of 20 million tonnes.
In general, USDA predicts grain crop in Ukraine in 2018 at the level of 61.05 million tonnes, including 26.98 million tonnes of wheat and 24.12 million tonnes of maize.
According to the forecasts of the U.S. department, grain exports in the 2017/2018 MY will amount to 42.31 million tonnes.
As reported, with reference to data from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, grain and flour exports in the 2016/2017 MY amounted to 44.44 million tonnes.
Exports of wheat amounted to 17.531 million tonnes (592,000 tonnes more from the previous MY), maize to 20.703 million tonnes (3.294 million tonnes more), barley to 5.354 million tonnes (941,000 tonnes more), rye to 11,400 tonnes (7,000 tonnes less), other grains to 304,000 tonnes (61,000 tonnes more), and flour to 402,900 tonnes (54,000 tonnes more).
