In July-September this year, the cargo turnover of the port of Kolobrzeg increased by 52% due to the resumption of transshipment of Ukrainian agricultural products, the Polish edition of Rynek Infrastruktury reports.
According to the report, Kolobrzeg was not previously included in the Polish government’s resolution on the transit of Ukrainian grain. In the third quarter, the port resumed accepting Ukrainian agricultural products, which helped increase cargo turnover.
In the third quarter, the Polish port handled more than 73 thousand tons of cargo, which is 52% more than in the same period of 2022, when 48 thousand tons were handled. The cargo included grain, logs, limestone, pellets and fertilizers. Grain accounts for half of the transshipment. Among the grains transshipped in Kolobrzeg, corn and barley were the most common.
The port temporarily suspended operations in April this year. Back then, the Polish authorities banned imports of Ukrainian grain but allowed its transit. At first, Kolobrzeg was not on the list of ports that could handle Ukrainian grain, but later the Polish government allowed the company to handle Ukrainian cargo.
“We have demonstrated that we are unpredictable in our actions as a country, so building long-term business relations is perceived as risky, as one decree can turn everything upside down”, said Artur Lievski, head of the port’s administration.
A week after the ban was imposed by the Polish government, the mistake was corrected: Kolobrzeg was included in the list of seaports through which grain can be transited from Ukraine. However, it took a long time to restore trust, and for some time no freight trains with Ukrainian products arrived in Kolobrzeg. After a three-month break, the first train with corn from Ukraine arrived at the seaport of Kolobrzeg in late July, the newspaper said.
The Kvitna Charitable Foundation has conducted free breast cancer screenings for more than 2,000 women over the five months of its Mobile Medical Platform.
According to the foundation’s press release, the mobile medical platform project began operating in May 2023. As part of the project, visitors can receive a free medical examination and consultation.
“The idea of creating a mobile medical platform has been around since the beginning of the full-scale war. This initiative is relevant for providing medical care to people in the destroyed regions, in settlements with many internally displaced persons, as well as in those cities and towns where there is simply no access to medical examination,” the foundation reports.
In addition, the foundation has purchased equipment and reagents worth more than UAH 1.5 million for the National Cancer Institute (NCR), and has implemented more than 40 awareness-raising campaigns.
The mobile medical platform is a converted room on wheels specially designed for medical purposes. Its autonomy is ensured by its own power generator to provide comfortable conditions for visitors. The platform is connected to the Starlink network to ensure constant communication.
Inside there are two rooms, a bathroom and a refrigerator for storing medicines. The platform is equipped with an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus with a set of sensors for various examinations, including ultrasound of the thyroid gland, breast, abdominal organs, pelvic organs, etc.
The competition between Ukrainian and Russian sunflower oil on the global market in 2023/24 MY will be very high, especially on the markets of India, China, Asia and Africa, said Viktoriia Blazhko, the Head of the Black Sea Agricultural Markets Department of APK-Inform, at the XXI International Conference Fat&Oil Industry-2023.
According to her, Ukraine remains the world’s largest exporter of sunflower oil, despite the disruption of the supply chain. However, Ukraine’s share in the global exports is decreasing due to the increase in sunflower oil exports from Russia.
“Russia’s pressure is increasing… Russian products exert pressure by improving quality, price and increasing sunflower production,” the expert explained.
She emphasized that the main “battlefield” in this confrontation is India and China, other countries of Asia and Africa.
“Russia is becoming the main supplier of sunflower oil to China… The Chinese are interested in Ukrainian oil, but they will buy it only from Ukrainian ports, shipped from ports. As for India, Ukrainian products retain their market share, but the pressure from Russia is increasing,” emphasized Ms. Blazhko.
She also drew attention to the important news for the market about the ban on imports of vegetable oils by Iran starting from October 23. Iran is a major buyer of Russian sunflower oil. All the products shipped to this country will end up on the global market and put additional pressure on the export of products from Ukraine.
Poland’s Pronar, a major manufacturer of agricultural and municipal equipment, is patenting a special machine for demining fields and construction sites, planning to start mass production for Ukraine’s needs in 2024, said Radoslaw Biletsky, Pronar’s director of trade and marketing.
“A team of 150 engineers is working very closely with partners in Ukraine to overcome the existing challenges – mined agricultural fields… so that agricultural machinery has special integrated systems that could solve these problems,” he said at the forum “Ukraine-Poland. Machinery and Equipment Sector” forum under the patronage of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency and the Polish Union of Employers in the Construction Sector in Siemiatycze, Poland.
Biletsky declined to give more precise specifications of the machine until the patenting procedure is completed, noting that the vehicle will be automated, can be controlled remotely, and can be used in fields, construction sites, and other open areas.
According to the Sales and Marketing Director, this is another product line that Pronar has designed specifically for use in Ukraine.
“The newest line is shredding machines. They allow us to bring to zero those places where the business will continue to develop in order to prepare locations for new construction,” said Biletsky.
He added that Pronar also exports snowplows, spreaders and sweepers to Ukraine, which help to ensure transportation.
Earlier, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine indicated that there are 30 demining machines in the country, of which 25 are in constant operation.
Pronar is a Polish manufacturing company that has been operating since 1988. According to its website, it has nine production sites, its own research and development center, airport and exhibition center. According to the company, it holds a significant position in Europe in the production of agricultural, municipal and processing machinery, crushers and disc wheels for low-speed machines and components, supplying products to more than 80 countries in total. Pronar employs over 3000 people.
A work plan for 2024-2025 in fulfillment of a memorandum of understanding on bilateral cooperation was signed on Monday by the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovation (UKRNOISI, IP Office) and the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) during a visit to Kiev by an EU delegation led by EUIPO Executive Director Joao Negrau.
“The plan … opens the door to the inclusion of data on Ukrainian trademarks and industrial designs in the EUIPO databases, which are the largest in the world with more than 115 million trademarks and more than 20 million industrial designs from five continents,” the Ministry of Economy said in a press release following the meeting and the signing of the document.
It is also assumed that UKRNOISI will receive support from the EU on issues related to the legal protection of trademarks and industrial designs, including IP rights protection.
In addition, as part of the work plan, UKRNOISI will take advantage of the EU support in harmonizing the Ukrainian practice of registration and examination of applications for trademarks and industrial designs with the EU practice. Such harmonization should allow Ukrainian businesses to operate more easily abroad.
As part of larger EU initiatives to deepen UKRNOISI’s integration into the EU intellectual property (IP) system, a project on international IP cooperation involving Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia is also under discussion.
It is specified that this was the first foreign visit in the new position of EUIPO Executive Director Joao Negrau.
“Intellectual property and innovation in the context of Ukraine’s attainment of EU candidate status play a defining role. By harmonizing rules and procedures in these areas, we not only open Ukraine to the world as an innovative and creative nation, but also significantly improve its investment attractiveness,” the release quotes First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy Yulia Sviridenko as saying.
“The work plan agreed in Kyiv today not only emphasizes the commitment of EUIPO and EU national agencies to support our Ukrainian partners on the eve of EU accession, but also reinforces our role as an effective mediator for Ukraine in the dialogue with EU partners,” Negrau added.
According to Remy Duflo, Deputy Chairman of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, strengthening intellectual property protection is important not only in the context of Ukraine’s accession to the EU, but also for the more pressing needs of recovery, as without a strong intellectual property ecosystem, foreign investors will simply not come in sufficient numbers.
The MoE recalls that in June 2023, the EUIPO and the European Commission’s SME Fund to support Ukrainian enterprises was extended to include Ukrainian enterprises, which can now obtain funding to apply for the acquisition of intellectual property rights, in particular trademarks, industrial designs or inventions and utility models.
EUIPO is one of the largest decentralized offices of the EU, located in Alicante (Spain). EUIPO registers EU Trade Marks (EUTM) and Community Designs (RCD), which makes it possible to obtain legal protection for the relevant intellectual property in all EU Member States. The Office also cooperates with national and regional EU intellectual property offices and coordinates the activities of the European Observatory for Intellectual Property Infringement.
The number of structural units of Ukrainian banks in the third quarter of 2023 decreased by another 55 to 5,098 due to the closure of branches of the liquidated Concordbank and Ukrbudinvestbank, according to information published on the NBU website.
According to the information, the second largest state-owned Oschadbank by assets in the third quarter reduced the number of branches by one to 1182, retaining its first place among all banks in the country by this indicator.
PrivatBank, the largest bank by assets, kept the number of branches at the same level in July-September – 1131.
Raiffeisen Bank rounds out the top three, adding five branches to its 324 operating branches, becoming the leader in terms of branch growth in the third quarter of this year, while at the beginning of the year its network shrank by 27 branches to 323.
The fourth-ranked Ukrsibbank significantly reduced its network in July-September, from 230 to 222, and now FUIB, which closes the top five and whose network remained the same in the reporting period, is only one point behind it.
Two other banks have more than 200 branches: Ukrgasbank (218, minus one for the quarter) and A-Bank (202, no changes).
Sense Bank, which was nationalized in July, reduced its network by two branches to 138, making it one of the top ten banks with the largest networks in the market, followed by Accordbank (147) and Credit Agricole Bank (141).
OTP Bank (down to 71), Metabank (down to 25) and Piraeus Bank (down to 13) each had one less branch.
At the same time, RadaBank opened three branches in July-September and increased its network to 28 outlets, while Asvio Bank opened two outlets and its network reached 30 branches across the country.
TAScombank, Cominbank, MTB Bank, RBC Bank and Unex Bank each opened one outlet in the third quarter, expanding their networks to 94, 54, 43, 21 and 19 outlets, respectively.
In general, the rate of decline in the number of bank branches in the third quarter of this year accelerated to 1.1% from 0.8%, which is, however, lower than the 2.7% in the first quarter, as in the fourth quarter of last year it was 3.3%, in the third quarter – 7.9% and in the second quarter – 8.1%.
In February of this year, the National Bank proposed to the Ministry of Finance, as the owner of state-owned banks, to impose a moratorium on the reduction of their branch network during the war.
According to the updated data, since the beginning of 2022, the number of branches has decreased by 420 at Oschadbank, 366 at PrivatBank, 50 at Ukrgasbank, and 5 at Ukreximbank, to 48.
As of the beginning of October 2023, state-owned banks accounted for 53.3% of all bank branches in Ukraine.
As reported, the number of structural units of Ukrainian banks in 2022 decreased by 20.2%, or by 1349 branches, to 5,336 thousand.
