KYIV. June 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The corn seed processing plant of Monsanto, a large global seed producer, could be launched in August 2018, according to a posting on the website of Zhytomyr Regional Administration.
“A new seed plant which will produce high-quality corn seeds will be opened in Zhytomyr region in 2018. The plant will be better than the similar plant in the United States – the sorting line will dividing corn into five types,” the administration said.
The seed plant will be located in Pochuiky, Popilnia district. Its construction was started in 2014.
The plant is being built observing all environment protection requirements on the basis of the existing seed plant.
A total of 200-300 jobs will be created.
As reported, in January 2017, Monsanto Seeds LLC was permitted to acquire assets of Ukraine private agricultural enterprise (Pochuiky, Zhytomyr region), part of Eridon company – a land parcel and facilities for corn seed processing.
KYIV. June 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine as of June 9, 2017 used 100% tariff quotas on supply of honey, corn, sugar, barley cereal, wheat, preserved tomatoes, grape and apple juices to the European Union (EU).
According to a posting on the website of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, 97.69% of quotas on supply of malt to the European Union, 91.5% of barley quota, 50% of butter quota, 50% of poultry quota, 28.44% of oats quota, 28.02% of other sugar-contained products quota and 23.18% of starch quota were used.
In addition, 18.42% of additional poultry quota, 13.64% of milk powder quota, 7.25% of egg quota, 1.18% of ethanol quota and 0.27% of milk, cream and condensed milk quota were used.
As reported, the European Parliament has supported the proposal of the European Commission to increase tariff quotas for honey, corn, barley, oats, cereals and processed grain, grape juice from Ukraine. At the same time, the European Commission’s proposal to raise quotas for Ukrainian wheat, tomatoes and urea was not supported by the deputies.
In September 2016, the European Commission proposed to increase the annual tariff rate quotas for some goods from Ukraine: maize by 650,000 tonnes, wheat by 100,000 tonnes, barley by 350,000 tonnes, cereal and processed grain by 7,800 tonnes, oats by 4,000 tonnes, honey by 3,000 tonnes, grape juice by 500 tonnes and preserved tomatoes by 5,000 tonnes.
According to the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, Ukraine can supply 36 goods to the EU without tariffs within the limits of the approved volumes of tariff quotas. In particular, the quotas for beef supplies amount to 12,000 tonnes, pork – 40,000 tonnes, milk, yoghurts, fermented milk products – 8,000 tonnes, milk powder – 1,500 tonnes, butter – 1,500 tonnes, egg products – 1,500 tonnes, eggs – 3,000 tonnes. For wheat, quotas were determined at a rate of 950,000 tonnes, barley – 250,000 tonnes, maize – 400,000 tonnes, sugar – 20,000 tonnes, honey – 5,000 tonnes, processed tomatoes – 10,000 tonnes, grape and apple juice – 10,000 tonnes, oats – 4,000 tonnes, garlic – 500 tonnes.
KYIV. June 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Sejm of Poland on Thursday passed a new bill related to popularization of employment and labor market institutions, amending the law on temporary employment of foreigners, the Polish Radio has reported.
According to the publication, the legislative amendments introduce the fee (PLN 30) for the registration of applications of employers who want to hire foreigners.
The bill concerns foreigners who are carrying out long-term works in Poland. These are citizens of Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Russia who will be able to use the relaxed labor market access rules.
According to the amendments to the law, along with job permits issued by governors of regions for the period of up to three years, the permits for seasonal work will be issued by district heads (for the period of up to eight months during a calendar year).
The register of hired foreigners will be created.
KYIV. June 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian-based Antonov Airlines, one of the world’s leading operators of the heavy transport An-124-100 Ruslan aircraft, and French Bollore Logistics are expanding cooperation in the field of freight transportation by air.
The parties signed a contract at the 52nd International Paris Air Show Le Bourget 2017 to use the Antonov Airlines fleet for transportation of oversize and overweight cargo by order from Bollore.
The Ukrainian news outlet, Ukr.Media, said on Thursday that under the signed contract, the French company chartered one Ruslan aircraft for a year for the transportation of satellites and other oversized equipment.
According to open sources, Antonov Airlines in February 2017 transported a 155-tonne transformer from Brazil to Chile by order from Bollore, engaging the world’s largest transport airlifter, An-225 Mriya.
Antonov Airlines is an air transport division of Kyiv-based Antonov enterprise, a leading Ukrainian developer and manufacturer of aircraft. It is part of state-owned Ukroboronprom Concern since 2016.
For many years, the airlines’ fleet has been actively involved in the international market for commercial air transportation of oversize cargo. The company’s success stories also include strategic airlift operations under the NATO Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS) program.
Antonov Airlines has seven An-124-100 Ruslan aircraft with a lifting capacity of 150 tonnes, the An-225 Mriya with a lifting capacity of 250 tonnes, one multi-purpose An-74T (10 tonnes), one An-22 Antei (60 tonnes), and one An-26 (5.5 tonnes).
The 52nd International Paris Air Show Le Bourget 2017 is being held on June 19-25.
KYIV. June 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian Sawmills with Swedish investment (Kostopil, Rivne region) this year plans to start building one more wood processing plant in Rivne region. The plant will produce pine saw goods for production of furniture, millwork and construction materials.
The company told Interfax-Ukraine that the plant with a capacity of 250 cubic meters will be built in Sarny district. The investment could reach EUR 20 million.
“After the launch of our plant in Kostopil in the near term, the investors are ready to start implementing the investment project in Sarny. We plant that construction will start this year. It will take around two years. Local construction companies will be involved,” the company said.
Pine saw logs of local forestry enterprises will be used as raw materials. Earlier before the introduction of the moratorium on exports of unprocessed round timber it was exported.
“Now Ukrainian Sawmills will process our wood inside the country, creating finished goods and added value,” the company.
The agreement with local authorities of Sarny to allocate a land parcel has been signed. The company said that 65 new jobs will be created, as well as 300 affiliated jobs.
The company said that the plant will be environment friendly, fully automated and producing no waste.
Finnish, German and Swedish equipment will be installed.
Bark left after processing will be used as fuel for boilers, chips and flakes will be supplied to pellet or wood chipboard producers located not far from the plant.
The products will be certified by FSC (Forest Stewardship Council).
The first wood processing plant with a capacity of 300,000 cubic meters a year was built in Kostopil. Investment totaled EUR 25 million and 150 jobs has been created. It is planned to export over 80% of the products.
KYIV June 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Refunds of value added tax (VAT) in the first half of 2017 will amount to about UAH 57.9 billion, which is 60.4%, or UAH 28.1 billion, up on the first half of 2016.
This forecast was given by Director of the Ukrainian State Fiscal Service’s corporate taxation department Olena Antipova.
VAT refunds in January-May amounted to UAH 47.9 billion with VAT reimbursement applications placed for UAH 48.1 billion, she said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday. VAT refunds paid in April-May alone totaled UAH 21 billion with applications for UAH 19.8 billion.
Some 97% of the reimbursement in April-May was handled within 30 days due to the launch of the electronic tax register on April 1, 2017, she said.
