Ukraine has already harvested more than 100 thousand tons of grain for the 2024 harvest, Acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotskyi said during a national telethon.
“As of the previous Thursday, there were 50 thousand tons. Today we can already talk about more than 100 thousand tons. The main crops that are being harvested are barley – both winter and partially spring – as well as peas and wheat,” he said.
According to the acting minister, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy forecasts the harvest of grains and legumes at 56 million tons this year.
“This is a preliminary forecast. Naturally, we will have a clearer figure later. But this is a good indicator given the fact that the country is, unfortunately, in the third year of a full-scale invasion,” Vysotsky emphasized.
He stated that grain crops have seen a reduction in production areas due to the change in crop rotation. At the same time, the area under oilseeds has been expanded.
“If we are talking about rapeseed, sunflower, soybeans, this year we expect to produce more than 20 million tons, possibly even up to 22 million tons,” the acting Minister said.
He added that oilseeds have lower yields per hectare, but their price is higher than grain. This will allow Ukrainian farmers to get harvest figures no less than in previous years.
“Ukrainian farmers are harvesting 80% of the agricultural area, as 18-20% of the farmland is temporarily under occupation. At the same time, all agricultural land under the control of Ukraine is fully sown,” the acting Minister of Agrarian Policy summarized.
The agricultural holding Continental Farmers Group has started the first wave of harvesting winter crops, which are grown on 89.5 thou hectares, the press service of the agricultural holding reports.
According to the report, in the season-2024, the agroholding’s winter wheat area is 43.2 thou hectares, winter rapeseed – 33.4 thou hectares, winter barley – 12.9 thou hectares.
Continental started the harvest with threshing of winter barley in the Lviv cluster, followed by the harvest in the Galych, Bukovyna and Tsentr clusters. Once barley harvesting is complete, winter rapeseed threshing will begin in the first ten days of July. Winter wheat harvesting is expected to start in mid-July, the agricultural holding said.
According to Konstantin Shityuk, COO of Continental Farmers Group, due to the peculiarities of this spring and the extended vegetation of winter crops, the agricultural holding expected a very early start of the harvest. However, the situation was changed by a prolonged drought in May, and only in early June did farmers across the western region receive sufficient rainfall to normalize the duration of crop development.
“We still started barley harvesting much earlier than average: the June rainfall had little impact on its development. However, winter rape and winter wheat harvesting will start as usual in July. We were preparing for this year’s harvesting campaign with great seriousness given the significant uncertainties associated with the possibility of truck traffic, movement of equipment, changes in mobilization legislation, etc. There were difficulties in the supply of spare parts and disruptions in logistics, but in general, we managed to prepare the equipment, secure resources and get 100% ready for the start in the spring,” explained Shityuk.
The agricultural holding noted that Continental’s elevator facilities are equipped with generators to ensure uninterrupted operation during power outages and are fully prepared to receive early crops. The agricultural holding is also fully provided with the necessary machinery for harvesting: the share of leased units has not increased compared to previous years and is about 15%.
“The only issue that could negatively affect the harvesting campaign is the provision of trucks for harvesting, as most carriers do not belong to the critical infrastructure sector,” Continental summarized.
Mriya Agroholding and CFG, united under the name Continental Farmers Group, have been operating as a single business since November 2018, when Mriya entered into an agreement with international investor Salic UK to sell its assets.
Salic was founded in 2012. Its sole shareholder is the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which invests in agricultural and livestock production.
Ukraine, despite low prices on the global market, increased exports of most dairy products in May, both compared to April this year and compared to May 2023, Infagro, an industry information and analytical agency, reported.
According to experts, the reason for this is a significant increase in processing volumes against the backdrop of much weaker domestic sales growth than last year. Among the main commodity items, Ukraine exports the least amount of butter and cheese products. Exports of spreads, casein, and whey powder increased significantly compared to May last year.
At the same time, imports of dairy products (butter, rennet cheese, processed cheese) declined in May. Contrary to expectations, imports of cheese stopped growing. This is due to the upward trend in prices for milk and dairy products in Europe and, in particular, in Poland, the main supplier of this product to Ukraine, analysts explained.
“In June, exports of dairy products will increase further, while imports are likely to decline,” Infagro predicts.
As reported, in January-March 2024, Ukraine increased exports of dairy products by more than 40%. At the same time, imports decreased, but analysts urge domestic producers to pursue a reasonable pricing policy in order not to lose their positions in the domestic market.
Germany has strengthened the combat capability of brigade-type border guard detachments by providing 41 large vehicles, namely Mercedes Arocs trucks, the press service of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reports in a telegram channel.
“I and the entire State Border Guard Service are sincerely grateful to the Federal Government of Germany, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany, represented by Minister Annalena Burbock, for this initiative and real support of Ukraine and the border guard service,” said the head of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Serhiy Deineko.
The trucks were solemnly handed over by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Germany to Ukraine Martin Jaeger. They will help improve logistics at the front.
Which brands are in the greatest demand?
A record 20.8 thousand electric cars were imported to Ukraine in 5 months of 2024. Despite the power outage, the demand for electric cars has grown 2.1 times over the year.
The number of electric cars is growing from year to year. This year, a record number of 20,785 such cars were imported. This is 2.1 times more than in the same period in 2023, when 9,736 electric cars were imported.
In total, electric cars account for 12.9% of the total number of imported cars.
Among all electric cars, TESLA is the most popular among Ukrainians – 4,742 cars. VOLKSWAGEN is in second place: 3,194 electric cars, and NISSAN closes the top three with 3,034 electric cars. The most popular models among electric trains are the NISSAN LEAF, TESLA MODEL 3 and VOLKSWAGEN ID.4.
Lviv region became the leader among the regions in the import of electric cars – 13.5%, followed by Kyiv (13.1%) and Odesa region (9.3%).
Zaporozhkoks, one of Ukraine’s largest coke and chemical producers, earned a net profit of UAH 399.840 million in 2023, which it retained as undistributed.
According to the minutes of the general meeting of shareholders held on April 30, a copy of which is available to Interfax-Ukraine, the meeting was attended by both shareholders – Metinvest B. V. (the Netherlands), which owns 57.2347% of the company’s shares, and Zaporizhstal, which owns 42.7653% of the shares.
The meeting approved the report of the Supervisory Board for 2023, recognizing its work as satisfactory. The shareholders also recognized the work of the company’s executive body as satisfactory, took note of the audit results and approved the results of the plant’s financial and economic activities for the past year, determined the procedure for distributing profits and gave preliminary consent to enter into significant transactions.
In addition, they amended the employment contract with the executive director.
According to the minutes of the other general meeting of shareholders of the company held on June 13 this year, a copy of which is also available to the agency, the meeting was attended by both shareholders – Metinvest B. V. (Netherlands) and “Zaporizhstal” Steel Works.
In January-March 2024, the company received a net profit of UAH 289 million 834,763 thousand, which it was decided to allocate to pay dividends for 2024. At the same time, almost UAH 2.43 of dividends are paid per ordinary share.
The Board of Directors of the company (Minutes No. 3 dated June 14, 2024) decided to establish the date of compiling the list of persons entitled to receive dividends, the procedure and term for their payment. The start date of dividend payment is July 1, 2024, and the end date of dividend payment is December 13, 2024 inclusive.
As reported, Zaporozhkoks earned a net profit of UAH 163.576 million in January-September 2023, while the same period in 2022 ended with a net loss of UAH 385.255 million. Retained earnings as of the end of September 2023 amounted to UAH 3 billion 131.849 million.
The plant ended 2022 with a net loss of UAH 249.382 million, while in 2021 it made a net profit of UAH 2 billion 997.541 million. In 2020, the plant increased its net profit by 72.2% year-on-year to UAH 166.436 million.
The company ships its products to the domestic market, Europe, Turkey, and Canada. The structure of chemical sales in 2022 was as follows: 50.4% – domestic market, 49.6% – exports.
“Zaporizhkoks has a full technological cycle of coke and chemical products processing.
Metinvest B. V. (the Netherlands) owns 57.2347% of the company’s shares, while Zaporizhstal owns 42.7653%.
The company’s authorized capital is UAH 1.193 million, with a share price of UAH 0.01.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated mining group of companies. Its major shareholders are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage the company.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
