Astarta Agro-Industrial Holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, started sugar beet processing at a plant in Vinnytsia region on August 24, with a total of five plants of the agricultural group operating this season, the press service of the agricultural holding reported on its Facebook page.
According to the report, two plants in Poltava region are scheduled to be launched at the end of the week, and two more in September.
“The season has started successfully. The first plant is now online and operating at full capacity. We will soon start shipping the first batches of high-quality sugar to Ukrainian consumers. In general, our investments in the sugar segment were aimed at improving the energy efficiency of the plants. We also focused on improving staff motivation and product quality,” said Igor Rylyk, Director of Agricultural Processing at Astarta.
At the same time, the agricultural enterprises of the agro-industrial holding, which are the main suppliers of raw materials for Astarta’s sugar factories, continue harvesting sugar beet, the total area of which this year is 38 thousand hectares.
Currently, the holding’s plants are working on their own raw materials, and starting from September 1, sugar beet will be supplied for processing by farms with which Astarta cooperates on a regular basis, the agricultural holding said.
In 2023, Astarta Agricultural Holding grew 39 thousand tons of sugar beet, which is 20% more than a year earlier, thanks to a record yield of 58 tons/ha against 56 tons/ha in 2022, the company’s annual report said on Wednesday evening.
According to the agricultural holding, the record high sugar beet harvest extended the processing period until the end of January 2024. In total, the sugar production campaign in 2023 lasted 130 days, compared to 111 days a year earlier.
“In the 2023-2024 marketing year, Astarta increased sugar production by 34% year-on-year to 377 thousand tons. At the same time, the volume of sugar beet processing in 2023 increased by 37% compared to the same period last year and reached 2.7 million tons. The market share remained unchanged at 21% in 2023.
In 2023, Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR 61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR 145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR 618.93 million.
Insurance company “PZU Ukraine” (Kiev) in January-June 2024 settled under contracts of voluntary insurance of motor vehicles (CASCO) 2,2 thousand events, which is 14% more than in the same period a year earlier, the company reports.
The total amount of payments under this type of insurance is UAH 100.7 mln, which is 23% more than in the first half of last year. At the same time, 105 applications have been accepted under CASCO contracts for events that occurred abroad, the amount of payments for events abroad is almost UAH 6 mln. The largest payment for this period under such contract amounted to UAH 1.313 mln. 53% of CASCO cases have been settled within 7 days.
According to the company’s data for 6 months of the current year under contracts of compulsory insurance of motor third party liability of vehicle owners (MTPL) the company settled 5,324 thousand events for the total amount of UAH 156,220 mln. At the same time, 474 insurance cases were considered under the system of direct settlement and payments in the amount of UAH 13.9 mln were made. Through Telegram-bot PZU on KASKO and MTPL contracts 4,811 appeals were accepted.
As for “Green Card” contracts in the period January-June 2024 502 insurance cases were settled for the total amount of UAH 78,7 mln. The largest payment under such contract for the specified period is UAH 2,740 mln.
PZU Ukraine is a part of one of the largest insurance groups of Central and Eastern Europe – PZU Group (which includes the parent company of PJSC IC PZU Ukraine – PZU S.A.).
The national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will raise thorny issues like Taiwan and Russia with only months left before a new administration takes office.
Making another heavy push to work with China in the waning months of the Biden administration, Jake Sullivan arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for talks aimed at showing that the United States and China can manage their differences.
The U.S. national security adviser began his fifth meeting in less than 18 months with China’s top foreign policy official, Wang Yi, as the Biden administration seeks to reinforce its strategy on China despite uncertainty over the future of American foreign policy.
There is much to talk about — but probably little on which they will agree.
Mr. Sullivan plans to discuss working with China on limiting the spread of fentanyl and expanding high-level military contacts. He will also stress the United States’ position on Taiwan and its concerns about China’s support of Russia.
China indicated it would raise its own objections during the talks — including over America’s support for Taiwan, the island democracy Beijing claims, and U.S. controls on exports of technology to China.
Beijing wants the United States to ease its pressure on China, in the hope that it would set the tone for smoother relations with the next U.S. administration, analysts said.
“China’s priority is to maintain the stability of China-U.S. relations in the last several months of Biden’s presidency,” said Zhao Minghao, an expert on U.S.-China relations at Fudan University in Shanghai.
The prospect of a potential meeting between President Biden and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, before Mr. Biden’s term ends, is likely to come up. (It was unclear if Mr. Sullivan would meet with Mr. Xi during his three-day visit.)
Here are some of the issues Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Wang are expected to broach:
Taiwan and Ukraine
Perhaps the biggest flash points in relations between China and the United States are Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s increasing aggression toward Taiwan.
Mr. Sullivan is likely to urge China to reduce its support to Russia, which the United States and NATO say has helped sustain Russia’s war effort, now in its third year. China buys huge quantities of Russian oil and supplies Russia with dual-use technology that can be applied to the battlefield, U.S. officials say.
Beijing is unlikely to turn its back on Moscow, its only major-power partner in counterbalancing the United States.
Chinese officials will seek to criticize U.S. support for Taiwan, which Mr. Xi has threatened to take by force, if necessary. Beijing accuses Washington of promoting “Taiwan independence” by supplying the island with arms and allowing for exchanges between American and Taiwanese officials.
China said in a statement on Sunday that the United States needed to do more to repair relations. “The United States has kept containing and suppressing China,” a foreign ministry statement said. The relationship, it said, is “still at a critical juncture of being stabilized.”
Taiwan was “the first and foremost red line that must not be crossed,” the statement read.
Technology Controls
Mr. Sullivan has championed the Biden administration’s export controls designed to prevent China from getting its hands on advanced American semiconductors, or microchips, that can be used to develop weapons or computing power that could threaten U.S. national security.
That has frustrated China, which has struggled to catch up with the United States in designing advanced chips despite investing billions of dollars in research. Beijing says the export controls are aimed at stunting China’s rightful development.
The restrictions, which were first introduced in October 2022, have had far-reaching consequences by forcing countries to shift, or consider shifting, some production of semiconductors out of Asia back to North America and Europe.
It is unclear what the long-term implications of U.S. export controls will be. China has seized on the restrictions to redouble efforts to become more technologically self-sufficient. Brokers have also used proxies to smuggle banned chips into China.
Will Xi and Biden Meet Again?
Mr. Sullivan’s visit could lay the groundwork for one last summit between Mr. Xi and Mr. Biden. Discussions between Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Wang were key to organizing last November’s meeting.
Though he will only serve one term, and one that was disrupted by the Covid pandemic, Mr. Biden could be the first president not to travel to China since President Carter.
Mr. Biden has visited China before, when he was vice president in 2011, a trip remembered for his stop at a local Beijing restaurant for noodles and dumplings. If a state visit is not possible, Mr. Xi and Mr. Biden could potentially meet at the APEC summit in Peru in November.
Of course, China may not be interested in Mr. Biden’s lame duck presidency and could be focused on how best to approach the next administration. Writing in Foreign Affairs magazine this month, the Chinese international relations scholars Wang Jisi, Hu Ran and Zhao Jianwei said Beijing sees little difference between a Trump or Harris administration; they will both be driven by domestic pressure to be tough on China.
“Beijing is preparing itself for the outcome of the U.S. elections with great caution and limited hope,” they wrote.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/27/world/asia/sullivan-biden-china-xi.html
One of the largest grain market operators in Ukraine, Nibulon JV LLC, exported 100 thousand tons of grain to 25 countries using grain carriers and trucks provided by the USAID Ukraine project, the grain trader’s press service reported on its Facebook page.
The agricultural holding recalled that in 2023, Nibulon was forced to switch from water transportation of grain to transportation by road and rail. This alternative solution was helped by the USAID Ukraine economic support project. The Nibulona Project purchased 50 Modern Hope trucks with the capacity to transport 70 tons of grain each. Thanks to this support, Nibulona delivered and exported the first 100 thousand tons of grain to 25 countries.
“We are grateful to our international partners who lend a friendly hand in a difficult time for the company by providing the necessary railcars. This allowed us to continue working, resuming purchases of agricultural products at the blocked river terminals and thus supporting our agricultural partners. The combination of road and rail transport has allowed us to optimize logistics costs and offer purchase prices to farmers that ensure the profitability of their production,” said Nibulon Logistics Director Serhiy Kalkutin and congratulated his colleagues from Danube Transportation.
As reported, in 2023, USAID provided Nibulon with 50 hopper cars built at Karpaty DMZ for grain transportation. In 2024, USAID’s Economic Support for Ukraine provided the grain trader with 13 grain carriers with trailers. “Nibulon also asked the donor organization for assistance in obtaining 250 grain carriers.
Nibulon JV LLC was established in 1991. Prior to the Russian military invasion, the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and crop reception complexes, a one-time storage capacity of 2.25 million tons of agricultural products, a fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugs), and owned the Mykolaiv Shipyard.
“Before the war, Nibulon cultivated 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries. In 2021, the grain trader exported the highest ever volume of 5.64 million tons of agricultural products, reaching record volumes of supplies to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, in the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons, and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
Nibulon’s losses due to Russia’s full-scale military invasion in 2022 exceeded $416 million.
Currently, the grain trader is operating at 32% of capacity, has created a special unit to clear agricultural land of mines, and was forced to move its headquarters from Mykolaiv to Kyiv.
Ovostar Union, one of the leading producers of eggs and egg products in Ukraine, has postponed the publication of its financial report for the six months to September 6, 2024, the company said in a statement on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
The reasons for the postponement of the publication of the report are not specified in the statement. The agricultural holding referred to Article 56.1 of the Polish law of July 29, 2005 on public offer, conditions governing the introduction of financial instruments into organized trade and public companies.
Ovostar Union, a vertically integrated holding company, is one of the leading producers of eggs and egg products in Ukraine. “In 2023, Ovostar increased its net profit by 7.4 times to $45 million, EBITDA by 4.5 times to $50.4 million, and revenue by 20% to $162.5 million.
In mid-June 2011, the group’s holding company, Ovostar Union N.V., conducted an IPO of 25% of its shares on the WSE at PLN62 per share ($22.78 at the then exchange rate) and raised $33.2 million.
At the end of May this year, the majority shareholders of the agricultural holding, CEO Boris Belikov and board member Vitaliy Veresenko, who own 65.93% of the shares, announced that they, together with Fairfax Financial Holding, had accumulated 95.45% of the shares in the agricultural holding and were ready to buy out the remaining 4.55% of the shares held by minority shareholders. During the announced voluntary buyout at a price of PLN70 (about $17.5) per share, they acquired another 56,027 shares, or 0.934%, and now own 96.383%.
“The offerors intend to exercise the squeeze-out right … in order to acquire 100% of the company’s shares at a price of PLN70 per share,” Ovostar said in early July, recalling its delisting plans.
Ukraine’s agricultural sector made a significant breakthrough in development in 2010-2021, employing 17% of Ukrainians and generating 19% of GDP, while 70% of its products are exported, which is one of the highest rates in Europe, said Acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky.
According to him, Ukraine’s production is enough to feed almost 400 million people.
“Ukraine’s role in international food security is very important. After the full-scale invasion of the aggressor country, Ukraine was unable to export its products for four months. This led to a 35% increase in the global food price index in 2022. In African countries, hundreds of millions of people were forced to significantly reduce their food consumption,” the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food quoted Vysotsky as saying in his speech at the national educational and professional course for young people ”State Builder: the Way to Restore the State.”
Vysotsky noted that Ukraine has traditionally exported grains and oilseeds and many other products. In particular, Ukraine ranks 4th in the world in corn exports, and first in sunflower oil. In addition, it ranks 7th in poultry exports. Ukrainian dairy farmers are among the top ten exporters of butter. In addition, Ukraine ranks 4th in walnut production and is one of the world’s leading exporters of honey.
