Ukraine and the People’s Republic of China have agreed on the terms of exporting Ukrainian honey to China, and now Ukrainian honey producers can supply their products to the country, the press service of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection reported.
“Thanks to the coordinated work of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as with the support of the Embassy of Ukraine in the People’s Republic of China, all stages of approval of the certificate for honey exports to China have been completed. The procedure for opening the honey market in China, which began in 2019, has been officially completed and the market is open to domestic exporters,” the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection said on Thursday.
According to the head of the service, Serhiy Tkachuk, this is the first export market that the agency opened in 2024.
“A lot of work has been done, many meetings and negotiations have been held, and the state control system in Ukraine has been audited. We plan not to stop, but to continue working to ensure the uninterrupted export of Ukrainian products in order to strengthen economic stability and increase jobs in our country,” Tkachuk emphasized.
The approved form of the health certificate for the export of honey from Ukraine to China is available on the official web portal of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection in the section “International Cooperation” under the heading “Certificates for export from Ukraine”.
The agency also advised potential honey exporters to familiarize themselves with the guidelines for state veterinary inspectors of Ukraine and market operators who intend to export honey to China.
“The Chinese market is very promising for the export of Ukrainian products and its opening for Ukrainian honey significantly expands opportunities for domestic producers,” the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection expressed confidence.
The !Fest holding is preparing to open a new bar called Drunken Cherry in London, England.
The holding has created a profile of the new bar on Intagram, where it has posted two posts: an advertisement against the backdrop of the Tower Bridge, as well as the terms of the competition to attend the opening of the bar.
According to specialized media, the staff and team of the London bar will consist mainly of Ukrainians who speak English well and “have in-depth knowledge of cherries.”
The UK will be the tenth country to open P’yana Vyshnia establishments, and London will be the fortieth city to launch the chain. P’yana Vyshnia also operates in Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Moldova and the Baltic States.
Emotions Holding !Fest was founded in 2007. It develops a network of creative restaurants, cafes and shops in Ukraine. It is owned by Andriy Khudo, Yuriy Nazaruk and Dmitry Gerasimov.
Difficult wartime has affected both the purchasing power of Ukrainians and their behavioral habits. Due to frequent air raids, people prefer to make large-scale weekly purchases, but they prefer to see basic products of the economy segment and preferably of domestic production in their shopping carts. Toilet paper is always among the most necessary purchases. And how can you not make a mistake in choosing it?
Saving money can be expensive
Almost every consumer has experienced the disappointment of buying an ordinary roll of toilet paper at least once in their lives. A wrapper that couldn’t withstand transportation even in a hand-held shopping bag, a paper web that was not intact, pieces of waste paper left over from poor recycling, skin staining from using a colored product – and this is just a partial list of troubles that a buyer can get when purchasing a cheap product of dubious quality. But it’s not just about negative emotions from a bad purchase, as such paper can cause serious health problems for the user. Allergies, dermatitis, and even infections are the consequences of using low-quality toilet paper that require long and expensive treatment.
It is no coincidence that Obukhov 65 is a popular brand, as the Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill (KCPK) of the Austrian Pulp Mill Holding, where this toilet paper is manufactured, carefully monitors the safety of the most popular product.
An interesting fact: Today, about 1 million rolls of Obukhov 65 are produced daily at the plant.
The company has an integrated quality management system in place, and independent audits are conducted annually, including food safety audits, so the plant guarantees the safety of all its products. Compliance with European and national requirements is confirmed by the relevant certificates, and the waste paper processed into the base paper, the original product of the plant, undergoes 7 stages of purification.
Brand protection is a matter of honor and health
Kyiv KPK spends a lot of effort and money to protect its product from counterfeiting. After all, it is not only about the company’s reputation, but also about the safety of consumers who have been preferring the proven brand and trusting the manufacturer of Obukhiv 65 for decades.
An interesting fact: In their requests for assistance from Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill, charitable and public organizations, medical and educational institutions, volunteers and the military most often ask for Obukhov 65 toilet paper.
The company is responsible for ensuring that consumers receive a quality product. However, it is the buyer’s responsibility to pay attention to important details that will help him or her recognize the real Obukhov 65 from the fake:
– the wrapper is made of thin label paper with a characteristic rustle, has clear printing, without smudges of paint;
– the label indicates the manufacturer as PJSC “Kyivsky KPK”, depicts a roll with the company’s logo, and has a barcode and QR code that are easily scanned;
– the date of production must be indicated, and it differs by up to a minute on each roll. Usually, counterfeiters, if they do indicate the date, use the same time everywhere;
– the winding of the roll should be sufficiently tight, all rolls should be of the same shape, height and diameter.
Clear benefits at a reasonable price
There is a quite logical explanation for the fact that consumers of sanitary products in the economy segment prefer Obukhov 65 toilet paper, because, in addition to safety and reasonable price, they receive a number of additional benefits:
– Obukhov 65 is made of recycled paper, so by constantly buying these rolls, consumers save trees from being cut down, thus contributing directly to environmental protection and supporting the philosophy of sustainable consumption;
– by choosing the original Obukhov 65, the buyer takes care of his or her wallet, because this paper is economical and not only because of the price. A roll of Obukhov 65 lasts much longer than any other similar product;
– Obukhov 65 is a purely Ukrainian product, so by purchasing it, the consumer supports the domestic manufacturer, thus making a contribution to supporting our country’s economy, which is extremely important in wartime.
Therefore, it is hard to disagree that Obukhov 65 has maintained its reputation as a “people’s brand” for decades, and it is well deserved, as it meets not only modern requirements for sanitary products, but also the most daring expectations of its consumers, not only in Ukraine but also far beyond its borders.
Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill, Obukhov 65, Pulp Mill Holding
Since the beginning of the year, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has shipped more than 700 thousand cubic meters of wood, which is 60% more than in the same period in 2023, said the company’s CEO Yuriy Bolokhovets.
“After a period of stagnation, sales have revived. The stocks have decreased. The volume of contracted timber at the first quarter auctions has already exceeded 2 million cubic meters,” he wrote on Facebook and added that additional auctions will last until March.
According to him, the amount of contracts for the first quarter has already reached almost UAH 4.1 billion and surpassed the figure for unprocessed wood for the same period last year.
At the same time, Mr. Bolokhovets pointed to the rise in timber prices. Currently, its price averages UAH 2.1 thousand per cubic meter. According to the state enterprise’s experts, after the sale of firewood, it will drop to about 1.9 thousand UAH/cubic meter (in the fourth quarter of last year, the average price was 1.75 thousand UAH/cubic meter).
“Two weeks ago, I talked about the difficult situation on the market, the decline in demand due to the blocking of exports through the western borders. I said that despite all the negative forecasts, I was optimistic. Not much time has passed. The anti-crisis measures taken are working,” the CEO said.
Mr. Bolokhovets said that the company has tightened control over contract compliance. If a tree is put up for auction and purchased, the branch manager must ensure that it is harvested and shipped according to the agreed delivery schedule. The entire volume of unsold timber is immediately put up for additional bidding without delay.
“In order to avoid the accumulation of residues and loss of quality, the plan for firewood harvesting is timely adjusted in accordance with the concluded contracts,” the top manager summarized.
As reported, Ukraine launched a forestry reform in 2016. As part of it, the sale of unprocessed timber at electronic auctions has already been introduced. Since 2021, an interactive map of wood processing facilities has been operating in a test mode in a number of regions.
The industry has implemented the Forest in a Smartphone project, which contains a list of logging tickets for timber harvesting and allows you to check the legality of logging on the agency’s online map.
On June 1, 2023, Ukraine launched a pilot for the electronic issuance of logging tickets and certificates of origin of timber. In addition, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has launched a pilot project to procure timber harvesting services through the electronic platform Prozorro.
Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group increased its exports of steel products to Poland by about 16% year-on-year in 2023 to over 800 thousand tons from about 700 thousand tons in 2022.
According to Yulia Mezentseva, Head of Logistics at Metinvest Polska, in an interview with the leading Polish publication Puls Biznesu, the increase in cargo traffic is facilitated by the unblocking of routes, but transshipment in ports and border crossings remain bottlenecks.
It is also noted that despite the war, Metinvest is expanding its operations in the Polish market.
“2023 was slightly better for us than the previous year. There were no more congestion and queues on the Polish railway network, which contributed to an increase in transportation efficiency. Compared to the previous year, we recorded a 16% increase in tonnage. We transported a total of 1.9 million tons through Polish ports and railways, of which about 1.3 million were steel products, 378 thousand were iron ore and 237 thousand were coking coal,” Mezentseva stated.
Out of the total volume of products delivered from Ukraine to Poland, 939 thousand tons were exported to other countries through Polish ports.
“The coal needed for our steel plants in Ukraine was also transshipped in Polish ports,” the manager said.
Some of the goods brought from Ukraine to Poland were delivered by rail or truck to Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia, and other countries.
Mezentseva clarifies that iron ore used to dominate the structure of supplies from Ukraine, but now it is mainly steel products that are imported. According to the country’s Metallurgical Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ukraine is the largest non-EU steel supplier to Poland.
The head of logistics at Metinvest Polska predicts that in 2024, Metinvest will at least maintain and perhaps even slightly increase the volume of supplies of some goods to the Polish market. It assumes that their structure will change, especially the volume of steel imported from Ukraine.
For their part, local producers fear that if demand in Poland starts to grow, Ukrainian steel will flood our market. Przemyslaw Sztuchkowski, president of Cognor, even suggests introducing limits on the supply of steel products from Ukraine to the EU. The idea is to allow free transit through Poland to other countries and to ensure that the volume of imports on the Polish market does not threaten the stable operation of Polish producers.
At the same time, Mezentseva states. “In 2021, 1.2 million tons of our steel products were sold directly to the Polish market, 0.7 million tons in the previous year, and 0.8 million tons in 2023. Due to the war, we have limited opportunities to grow production and supplies,” she notes.
In addition, she draws attention to the problems with the transportation of goods across the Polish-Ukrainian border and transshipment in ports, which impede supplies to our market and transit by sea.
“The Polish-Ukrainian agreement stipulates that six trains a day with steel and ore should pass through the wide gauge at the Medyka border crossing. In practice, three or four are allowed through, as the Polish border and railroad administrations give priority to other transport. Therefore, we often have to wait for a long time at the border, which increases our costs. For every hour of downtime, we have to pay CHF 1.9 per commercial wagon,” says Mezentseva.
She suggests that one of the reasons for the long queues at the border could be the recent protests by Polish carriers and farmers.
“The queue on the Ukrainian side sometimes reached 70 kilometers. In the case of delicate goods that needed to be delivered quickly to customers, we sometimes decided to change modes of transportation and transfer goods from cars to trains to avoid standing in a very long line,” says the manager.
She hopes that the suspension of the protests will facilitate uninterrupted transportation by road and rail. She emphasizes that after crossing the border, transportation through Poland is quite efficient.
“In 2022, we often had to wait on the access roads, but now PKP PLK has significantly improved the capacity of the roads leading to the ports,” says Mezentseva, adding that access to the terminals is almost hassle-free, but there are difficulties with transshipment.
“Bulk cargo, such as iron ore and coal, is transshipped much faster than steel products. Transshipment in Polish ports is four times slower than at Black Sea terminals,” Mezentseva said.
According to her, one of the reasons for this may be the lack of staff at the terminals.
The Metinvest representative also points out that Polish customs regulations do not take into account changes in the weight of bulk cargo during transit. However, they can occur, for example, due to weather conditions. Therefore, employees of transportation and transshipment companies have to spend a lot of time during inspections explaining that coal or ore may weigh a little more in rainy weather. There may also be so-called natural losses during transportation.
“Railroad rules allow a certain percentage of deterioration for different groups of goods. Customs rules, on the other hand, do not allow any losses that are subject to individual inspection by the service. For us, this means significant losses,” emphasizes Mezentseva.
Metinvest Group notes that it is interested in building long-term business relations in the Polish market.
“We are talking about challenges, but we are ready to work out solutions together with the Polish side. We want to simplify procedures and transportation,” adds the Head of Logistics at Metinvest Polska.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies. The group’s enterprises are located mainly in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions.
The main shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage it. Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
Ukraine’s public debt to GDP ratio from 2009 to 2023 (UAH mln)
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
