KYIV. Jan 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The next round of negotiations between Ukraine and Turkey on signing a free trade area (FTA) agreement will be held in spring this year, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Trade Representative of Ukraine Natalia Mykolska has said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.
“We had a video conference with the Turkish negotiating team. There will be another one in the near future. We expect the next round of negotiations to be held in spring,” she said.
According to her, the last round of Ukraine’s negotiations with Israel on the issue of a FTA agreement was quite intense. The parties have advanced in negotiating the text of the agreement in part of tariff talks.
“If there was a great period of time between the last round and this one, the next rounds will be planned in a shorter term. We will negotiate until the deal is profitable for Ukraine and meets our interests,” Mykolska said.
KYIV. Jan 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Exports of organic products from Ukraine in 2016 increased by 2.5 times, to 165,000 tonnes, compared to 2015, director of the Organic Standard certification agency Serhiy Halashevsky has said during the First International Congress Organic Ukraine 2017.
“Organic producers last year exported more than 165,000 tonnes of produce abroad. This is more than EUR40 million,” he said.
According to Halashevsky, 67,000 tonnes worth EUR21 million were exported in 2015.
Currently Ukraine has certified according to organic standards the production of marrow squash, onion, rhubarb, pepper, lavender, sage, rose, rosemary, coriander, sour cream, butter, meat, eggs, mushrooms, nuts, grains and others.
Ukraine imports organic products mainly from EU countries.
As reported, the Organic Ukraine union of certified organic producers predicts that the number of certified land under organic production in Ukraine in 2017 could increase by 10%, to 450,000 ha.
KYIV. Jan 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public joint-stock company Agrarian Fund has fined a contract to supply 10,000 tonnes of flour to Angola, Board Chairman Andriy Radchenko has said in an interview with Dengi.ua publication.
“This year we signed a large contract with Angola to supply 10,000 tonnes of flour. We have starting implementing it,” he said.
He said that this is a pilot batch. If everything is good, the contract could be expanded in the range of goods and their volume.
In 2016, Agrarian Fund sold 240,000 tonnes of flour. The company’s market share grew to 12.2% compared to 11.8% in 2015.
Late 2016 the company launched sales of packaged flour (2 kg) under the Agrarian Fund brand.
“Revenue of the Agrarian fund in 2016 totaled UAH 2.14 billion. The projected net profit is UAH 48.5 million. Our financial target was met by 101%,” Radchenko said.
In 2016 the company sent UAH 1.5 billion to finance farmers and signed 190 contracts to buy 500,000 tonnes of wheat, rye and buckwheat.
KYIV. Jan 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian-Arab Business Council recently created has initiated the creation of a bank in Ukraine, the founders of which could be large Arab businessmen.
Council President Sheikh Imad Abu Al-Rub gave the information at a first meeting of the Council on Thursday with participation of Ukrainian and Arab business circles, the press service of the Construction Academy of Ukraine that took part in the meeting.
“We have an idea to create a bank in Ukraine with 100% Arab capital. This would facilitate the entrance of many Arab companies to the Ukrainian market,” he said.
Sheikh Imad Abu Al-Rub said that during negotiations representatives of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and the Ukrainian government preliminarily backed the idea.
He said that at its first meetings the Ukrainian-Arab Business Council is solving tactic tasks – shaping the agenda and establishing contacts between Ukrainian and Arab business circles.
Its core goal is to promote the attraction of at least $100 billion of investment to Ukraine.
“Arab companies would like to invest in agriculture, processing industry and large investment projects. Ukraine is a very rich country, rich of resources and people,” he said.
He said that Ukraine is to pass laws protecting foreign investment, stamp out corruption in the judicial system and facilitate visa issue for business circles.
In turn, Vice President of the Construction Academy of Ukraine Viktor Leschynsky who took part in the meeting confirmed that now Arab companies are actively looking for a possibility of investing in many economic sectors of Ukraine, including industry and construction.
“For example, the Construction Academy of Ukraine is to act the key expert body in appraising construction projects aimed at attracting investment from Arab countries,” he said.
He said that first negotiations regarding construction of grain terminals, elevators and flour mills were held.
“I also heard that Arab businessmen showed their interest in a possibility of building roads on the concession terms, chemical and steel companies. They have a large potential,” he said.
KYIV. Jan 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Municipal institution Mykolaiv Development Agency has designed 16 business projects to attract investors to the city, Agency Director Vasyl Hoshovsky has said.
“These are turn-key businesses ready to be introduced as investment projects. Today we have drawn up 16 projects. The main thing is that we have worked out a scheme how we can design these projects and we will work on it in the future,” Hoshovsky said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv on Thursday.
He said that first 16 business cases are first linked to those spheres of business which are of top priority for Mykolaiv today and which have advantages compared to other cities and regions of Ukraine.
“These are projects with investments from $1 million to around $50 million. The key spheres are small-size shipbuilding, agricultural product processing and agroindustrial complex. A project to build a class A shopping and leisure center is also proposed. This is one of the largest projects in the business cases,” Hoshovsky said.
He said that the website Invest in Mykolaiv was designed for potential investors. The website is being tested and will be launched soon. Investors will be able to see land parcels on the city’s map that will be put up for auction. The parcels can be used for construction and municipally-owned facilities. They will be put up for sale or leasing.
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said that city authorities have shaped the first version of the investment map of the city intended to show competitive advantages of Mykolaiv to potential investors.
“This is a first tool of this level in Mykolaiv. It makes clear the things we have not only for residents of the city, but for people who are looking for territories for investment,” Senkevych said.
He said that in 2016 private investment in Mykolaiv totaled $320 million. Most of it was sent to develop the port zone of the city and construction of terminals.
Senkevych said that in 2017 investment in the city could fall, as there are no large projects that would be launched soon.
“There is the internal investor – the company Nibulon. It seeks to invest in its fleet expansion and starts river communications… I think that the zone adjacent to the port near rivers will start developing,” he said.
KYIV. Jan 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Pfeifer & Langen (Germany) has closed a deal on the acquisition of six sugar factories in Ternopil region, previously owned by T-Tsukor holding.
“We’ve purchased six T-Tsukor factories: Borschiv, Buchach, Zbarazh, Kozova, Lanivtsi and Khorostkiv sugar factories (Ternopil region),” Director of Radekhiv Sugar LLC Vitaliy Sikorsky told Interfax-Ukraine.
The financial partner of the transaction was Bank Pivdennyi.
As reported, T-Tsukor, which owned the abovementioned six plants in Ternopil region and Horodenka plant in Ivano-Frankivsk region, was controlled by the Huta family.
Until 2014 T-Tsukor sugar holding had been one of three leaders in sugar production in Ukraine, but in 2014 the factories were standing idle.
Pfeifer&Langen is the largest European producer of sugar. The company, in particular, owns sugar factories in Germany, Poland, Romania, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine. In Ukraine, it owns Radekhiv sugar factory (Lviv region) and Chortkiv sugar factory (Ternopil region).
