KYIV. Sept 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Germany is interested in further use of the Ukrainian gas transportation system to meet the needs of Europe, German Ambassador to Ukraine Ernst Reichel told Interfax-Ukraine in an exclusive interview.
“The German government is fully aware of Ukraine’s concerns regarding the Nord Stream 2 project and the foreign policy context behind it. The government will continue to stand for using the Ukrainian gas transportation system to provide gas to the EU member countries, for example, the countries of South-Eastern Europe,” he said.
He said that if the Nord Stream 2 project is implemented, it should fully comply with the demands of European legislation. “If the interested firms decide to implement it finally, Nord Stream 2 should comply with all legal acts on this case, which are applied in the EU to all projects of such nature,” he said.
At that, the diplomat said that it is too early to raise the question of participation of German companies in the management of the Ukrainian gas transportation system. “I believe it is too early to raise the question. Naftogaz is still not disaggregated. The conditions under which the EU firms could participate in one of the separate successor companies of Ukrtransgaz are still unclear,” he said.
“Regarding the overall economic and investment climate in Ukraine, there is still room for improvement, for instance, in the reforms of the activities of judicial bodies and the fight against corruption,” he said.
KYIV. Sept 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman believes that Ukraine and Poland should expand cooperation in infrastructure and transport, as well as in defense sector.
“I think that the strategic objective of our government is to rebuild a very high quality system of relations. And then we can deepen our cooperation in economy,” the prime minister said during a meeting with Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski in Kyiv on Tuesday.
According to Groysman, the two countries can expand cooperation in the field of infrastructure and transport, which will contribute to economic integration.
“We should deepen our bilateral cooperation in the defense sector. We have a good progress here, and we can talk about the results,” he Ukrainian prime minister said.
KYIV. Sept 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Agroliga Group (Kharkiv region) starts building a sunflower seeds crushing plant with a capacity of 170,000 tonnes in Kharkiv region.
According to a posting on the company’s website, the first phase of the plant that would crush 100,000 seeds a year will be launched in September and October 2017.
“The structure of the project financing comprises of the company’s funds and long term loans,” the company said.
Raiffeisen Bank Aval will finance the project.
As of today, general construction plan is fixed, tenders for the supply of equipment, construction and installation works have been carried out.
Agroliga has been working in the Ukrainian agricultural products market since 1992. Its enterprises are engaged in the cultivation of grains, sunflower seeds processing and dairy farming.
The group plans to continue expanding its land bank to 12,300 ha (9,300 ha now) and develop a dairy farm. The group also plans to increase cowherd to 1,400 cows from 1,000 and started producing dairy products. The group plans to produce powder milk and soft cheese.
One of the strategic tasks of the group is development of oilseeds crushing. It is planned to increase the capacities from 55,000 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes in 2015 and to 100,000 tonnes until 2017, accordingly.
KYIV. Sept 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Maglis IT platform for agriculture could be launched by Germany’s BASF chemical concern in Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Brazil in 2017.
“In Europe, we are preparing to launch the platform only in Ukraine and in the Czech Republic. In addition, it will also be launched in Brazil,” Jeff Spencer, an expert on strategic IT solutions for marketing from the BASF plant protection division in the global market said at a BASF global conference in Ludwigshafen (Germany).
According to him, the platform will be free for all market participants. The Maglis platform will provide analytical information to farmers and could be used as support in decision-making to improve the management of crop production, using data for a particular farm and cultivated crop.
The platform has already been in operation in the United States and Canada, it can be utilized both by large and small farms.
“Why have we chosen the Czech Republic and Ukraine in Europe? We are looking at two or three factors. The first one is the structure of the market, the second is the readiness of market participants to adopt new technologies, and the third is the size of farms,” Spencer said.
At the beginning, the Maglis platform will be represented by three products: the Maglis Customer Navigator, Maglis Crop Plan, and Maglis Sustainability.
KYIV. Sept 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB) and American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine have urged the government to urgently solve the problem of restoring registration of new plant protection agents.
“We call to urgently resume the public registration of new plant protection agents and quickly remove systemic problems in this sector that is strategically important for Ukrainian agriculture,” UCAB said in a Monday press release, referring to the address to the government.
The UCAB said that in 2015-2016 regular breaks and large delays in the public registration of plant protection agents were seen, and at present the process has been completely stopped.
According to the report, the above-mentioned problems mainly appear at the stage of approving sanitary requirements and pesticide and agricultural chemicals safe application regulations.
“The procedure for approving sanitary requirements and regulations is not clearly described and regulated. In practice it suddenly was significantly changed in late 2015, which resulted in ambiguous interpretation of the procedure for approving the above-mentioned documents, extra red tape, vagueness in distribution of powers and responsibility between the public agencies, violation of the terms and the full hindering of the process,” the UCAB said.
The association said the situation involving plant protection agents registration is not in line with the deregulation policy announced by the government.
KYIV. Sept 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The attraction of new cargo flows and opportunities of investing into port infrastructure have been discussed by representatives of large South Korean companies POSCO and POSCO Daewoo and top managers of Chornomorsk port (earlier Illichivsk seaport, Odesa region).
The port’s press service reported that at a meeting on September 8 Port Director Serhiy Kryzhanovsky pointed out a unique geographic location of the port, its developed infrastructure and transport hubs, availability of 28 berths and skilled specialists and experience in handling large-capacity fleet.
“Chornomorsk port is one of the largest stevedoring companies in Ukraine. We are ready to expand our cooperation,” he said.
The press service said that representatives of South Korean companies visited the port’s terminals and studied the production facilities. The visitors showed large interest in the port’s experience in handling large-tonnage vessels of capsize type.
POSCO (Pohang Iron and Steel Company) is a multinational steel-making company headquartered in Pohang, South Korea. It is a large global steel producer. Its subsidiary POSCO Daewoo is a leader in trading with grain, coal, materials, steel products, chemical materials and fertilizers.
