Ukraine’s progress in implementing the reforms required for EU membership is impressive, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said.
“The speed at which Ukraine is pursuing EU membership (…) is excellent, impressive. It is an achievement-based process and we see with what enthusiasm and intensity Ukraine is reforming and moving rapidly towards EU membership,” the EC chief told reporters in Vilnius.
“I firmly believe that if they continue in the same spirit, they will soon succeed,” she added.
Von der Leyen will take part in a meeting with leaders and partners of the North Atlantic Alliance on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius.
Ukraine imported “borscht set” vegetables, in particular potatoes, carrots, beets, cabbage and onions, worth $100.253 million in January-June 2023.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS) on Monday, Ukraine imported 12.476 thousand tons of potatoes worth $8.641 million in the first six months of 2023.
At the same time, 27.29% of the market share of imported potatoes in the first half of this year belonged to Greece, which was able to earn $2.23 million from its sales. Potato shipments from Romania accounted for 12.66% worth $1.034 million, and from Azerbaijan – 9.67% and $970 thousand, respectively.
Ukraine had to import the entire “borscht set” during the most deficient in terms of vegetables in the first half of 2023. In particular, purchases of onions on foreign markets reached 0.16% of the country’s total imports, cabbage – 0.09%, carrots and beets – 0.06%. In total, market operators spent $93.882 mln to purchase these basic vegetables in the diet of Ukrainians (excluding potatoes).
The top three leading suppliers of “borscht set” vegetables in the group were importers from Poland and the Netherlands. They accounted for 43.5% and 31.6% of Ukraine’s onion imports, which amounted to $12.393 mln and $8.949 mln, respectively. The leading onion supplier was China with 8.3% of supplies worth $2.346 mln.
The leader in cabbage supplies to Ukraine was Poland, whose share in supplies amounted to 32% and brought $9.147 million to the neighboring country. Macedonia ranked second with 31.6%, for which it earned $9.034 million, while the Netherlands ranked third with 10.8% and $3.093 million, respectively.
Poland also turned out to be one of the leading suppliers of root vegetables – carrots, beets and celery – in the first half of 2023. The share of imports of these vegetables in the domestic market reached 46.9%, which in monetary terms amounted to $11.072 million. The best in supplies of these vegetables were the Netherlands and Turkey, whose supplies occupied 37.7% and 2.9% of the import share, which in monetary terms amounted to $8.899 million and $683 thousand, respectively.
The most demanded vegetables in winter-spring time in Ukraine are tomatoes and cucumbers. Import of tomatoes in the first half of 2023 amounted to 0.29% of all imports into the country, cucumbers – 0.07%, which amounted to 73.05 thousand tons and 28.182 thousand tons respectively.
The leader in supplying these vegetables to Ukraine was Turkey, which accounted for 77.4% of all imports of tomatoes and 46.8% of cucumbers in January-June 2023, which amounted to $45.5 million and $12.87 million, respectively.
The top three suppliers of tomatoes to Ukraine were Poland, which accounted for 20.37% of supplies worth $12.989 mln, and the Netherlands with 2.99% of supplies worth $1.9 mln.
In addition to Turkey, Ukraine bought cucumbers in the first half of 2023 from Romania, which fulfilled 35.33% of supplies worth $9.714 million, and Poland with 11.3% for $3.106 million, respectively.
Despite the shortage of vegetables in the country, Ukrainian agricultural producers managed to send small batches of them for export.
Ukrainian potatoes are forbidden to be supplied to the European market due to legislation not adapted to European requirements. Ukraine did not lose its traditional markets and managed to earn $11.251 million on the export of 19.854 thousand tons of potatoes, of which 50.7% went to Bulgaria, 39.7% to Azerbaijan, 9.05% to Moldova.
Cabbage exports from Ukraine amounted to 871 tons, of which 98% went to Bulgaria. Deliveries of onions, carrots and beets to foreign markets were practically not performed in the first half of 2023.
The sale of 781 tons of cucumbers on foreign markets brought Ukraine $1.905 million. The traditional buyer of greenhouse cucumbers is Poland, where in the first half of 2023 was made 96% of all exports of this vegetable, and the Baltic States, in particular, in Lithuania went 3% of Ukraine’s exported cucumbers.
Ukrainian farmers earned $463 thousand on export of 120 tons of greenhouse tomatoes, 86.5% of which were bought by Poland and 12.4% by Estonia.
A study of the prospects for EU rail links with Ukraine and Moldova provides a basis for launching a project to use European gauge railway gauges on key lines, the European Commission (EC) has said.
The study was published on Tuesday by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
“The construction of the first European rail gauge in Ukraine and Moldova, which will connect their railroads with Poland and Romania, will bring these countries closer to the EU single market. With this study, we are laying the groundwork for long-term solutions, supporting Ukraine in its trade and recovery,” said Adina Velian, EC Member for Transport.
The conformity of the railroad lines of Ukraine and Moldova to the European standard of gauge, she said, will also improve conditions for citizens of these countries to travel to Europe.
The study suggests that the European gauge on the lines to Lviv and Chisinau should be implemented “as a first step to improve communication between Poland and Ukraine, as well as between Romania and Moldova”.
The study also assesses how the new European standard gauge lines will interact with the rest of the rail network in these countries, where broad gauge will continue to be used, the EC communiqué said.
The Delta-Lotsman branch of the state enterprise Administration of Sea Ports of Ukraine announced a tender for compulsory motor third party liability insurance (CMTPL) on July 11
According to the electronic public procurement system Prozorro, the expected cost is UAH 84,330 thousand.
Documents for participation in the tender are accepted until July 21.
SE “Delta Pilot” was established by order of the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine in 1998 in order to improve the conditions for ensuring safety of navigation, protection of human life at sea and the environment, in the territorial sea of Ukraine in accordance with the requirements of international agreements and conventions, streamlining the structure of marine pilot services in the north-western part of the Black Sea.
Recently, I came across a lively discussion on social media about a certain issue, and it went like this: “There is a war in the country, the real estate market is not even operating at half capacity, and prices are rising. Who will buy it?”. I have an answer: they are and will continue to grow, because no one has canceled the laws of the market. Another question is what to do with the limited effective demand. In my opinion, the answers should be sought within the market, not outside, relying solely on reparations or government support. Let’s go through everything in order.
Why prices are rising
The key factor affecting the price of a square meter has been and remains the growth of construction costs and related expenses, primarily influenced by inflationary processes. Let me just remind you that we had almost 27% inflation in annual terms. The price tag is also driven up by contract extensions and sometimes by radical changes in supply chains due to the loss of capacity of certain building materials producers in the southern and eastern regions and the relocation of many businesses. We should also mention the cost of labor, which increased by an average of 37%, and we should not forget about the costs of fuel and lubricants, machinery, and goods and services of 40 related industries involved in housing construction. Hyperinflation and exchange rate fluctuations have hit the market.
For your understanding: last year, the weighted average cost of housing construction increased by at least 45%. In some categories of building materials, we saw growth of 30-70%. Concrete, glass, putty, wood, and iron are the record holders. This directly affects the price of a square meter.
What to do with real demand
At the same time, limited effective demand in the market, and even almost zero sales in some stagnant periods, is a constraint on price growth. In some months, if the company sold 5-10 apartments per month, it was already a success and an indicator that people trust the brand and believe in the product.
All this time, it was necessary to continue building so that people had time to adapt, to make sure that the actions were firm, that they were being built and would be completed, that it was not in words but in actions. Nothing says it better than your product, its format and liquidity, as well as the real construction dynamics on the site.
By the way, the situation with real demand has been improving since the end of winter. And in the spring months, the team managed to return more than a third of the pre-war figures, despite the complexity of the situation.
Why did we succeed? I believe that a combination of factors worked here, which can be scaled up further if desired:
1. We resumed construction in June 2022 and, despite all the difficulties of the first year of the full-scale war, we persevered and commissioned 19 thousand square meters.
2. Investors saw that the company was working and gradually began to pay under installment agreements. As a result, if at the beginning of the full-scale invasion only 10% of installment agreements were paid on time, now this figure reaches 50%.
Exactly half of those who bought real estate from us are not waiting for the war to end and are already fulfilling their obligations. They see that every hryvnia from their pockets is actually spent on the construction of their own home, not just a new pit. We are now working to ensure that by the end of the year the percentage of those who pay under installment agreements will be at the level of 80-90%.
3. We have developed financial instruments to support and stimulate demand.
For example, in October-December, we offered special conditions for debt repayment and early repayment of installment plans. We offered a favorable exchange rate, for example, UAH 33-34/$, and debt restructuring to start making payments. We launched a guaranteed yield program at 10% per annum in dollars, a trade-in program.
Of course, it is too early to dream about the volume of transactions that we had before the war. The market’s recovery and potential will directly depend on the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ counteroffensive, or rather, on its results and timing. We can already see that psychologically, buyers and investors are gradually ready to return to the market if there is a complete coincidence in their expectations in the price-value-construction time axis and real dynamics.
Author: Alexander Nasikovsky, Managing Partner of DIM Group of Companies.
Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina beat the world number one in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon and reached the semifinals of the tournament in London.
Svitolina defeated Polish tennis player Iga Swiontek in three games with the score – 7:5, 6:7, 6:2.
In the semifinals of Wimbledon, which will be Svitolina’s second career title, she will meet Czech tennis player Markéta Vondroušová.
