The volume of insurance of agricultural risks has decreased fivefold over the past three years, as noted at a meeting of experts from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and representatives of the insurance market, which was attended by the League of Insurance Organizations of Ukraine (LIOU). According to the UIO website, according to NBU statistics, in 2015-2021, the amount of insurance payments for the voluntary type of “agricultural insurance” averaged UAH 243-245 million, in 2022 – UAH 80.7 million, and in 2023 – UAH 53.1 million. This indicates the insignificance of agricultural risk insurance given the importance and share of the industry in the country’s domestic product.
“We believe that the change in demand for agricultural insurance correlates with the amount of state support for agricultural producers. First of all, we are talking about lending and the mechanism of partial compensation of the interest rate on bank loans, when farmers gained access to credit through agricultural risk insurance,” said Viktor Berlin, President of the League of Ukrainian Agrarians.
He also emphasized that small farmers need the most support in wartime, and the introduction of mechanisms to stimulate agricultural insurance is one of the elements of financial support for their business.
Currently, the League is analyzing the issues of agricultural insurance in order to identify barriers that prevent the expansion of the number of insurers participating in agricultural insurance programs with state support.
The National Police of Ukraine and the Department of Strategic Investigations conducted searches at the place of work and residence of employees of the construction company suspected of causing damage to the state for more than 1 billion UAH due to violations in tenders.
“In the course of pre-trial investigation it was established that the officials of the company by means of “artificial” markup in the supply chain of inventories illegally increased the cost of goods, made false information in the acts of work performed, which caused damage to the state budget in especially large amounts – in the amount of more than 1 billion UAH”, – stated in the message of law enforcers.
The press release does not contain the name of the company, but it is stated that it is a construction company “carrying out repair and construction works on state infrastructure facilities”. The company is suspected of violating tender procedures and unauthorized setting prices for the cost of works in different regions of Ukraine.
It is noted that the urgency of the searches was due to the information received about the possibility of destroying documents indicative of criminal activity.
“The activity of the enterprise is not blocked, it continues to function in normal mode”, – emphasized in a press release of the National police.
Earlier on Monday about searches in the office of the company and apartments of its employees reported construction company “Avtomagistral-Yug”. According to the company, the procedural actions were carried out without a court order by the decision of the investigator of the Main Investigation Department of the National Police together with the Department of Strategic Investigations.
According to the company, the searches were carried out within the framework of a criminal case concerning a number of tenders that Avtomagistral-Yug won at different times in different regions. The company emphasized that the claims of the investigators concern the value of the contracts, which were determined in the course of open tenders.
“Procedural actions were conducted on the basis of fabricated criminal proceedings based on the assumptions of investigators (…) We perceive the brutal actions of law enforcement agencies as classic raiding: an attempt to intimidate employees and their families, paralyze the work, and then destroy the company,” the company stressed.
LLC “Avtomagistral-Yug” has been on the market since 2004. It designs and builds expressways, bridges, interchanges, airfield complexes, hydraulic structures. The owner of the company is listed in Opendatabot information as Alexander Boyko. According to the financial results for 2023, the company’s net profit amounted to UAH 624.9 mln, income – UAH 8.215 bln. In terms of revenue, the company became the first among construction companies last year, follows from the data of Opendatabot.
The company noted that among the completed projects are important infrastructure facilities for the state. “The company lent Ukraine more than UAH 8 billion, completing important for the country objects even in the absence of financing,” – follows from the message of the press service of the company.
European Travel Insurance (ETI, Kyiv) will allocate UAH 95 million of retained earnings for 2015-2021 (except for 2019) to pay dividends.
As the company reported in the NSSMC information base, this decision was made at the general meeting of shareholders on September 30, 2024.
Thus, UAH 3.895 million of the company’s retained earnings for 2015, UAH 7.655 million for 2016, UAH 15.473 million for 2017, UAH 16.1 million for 2018, UAH 14.7 million for 2020 and UAH 37.2 million for 2021 will be used to pay dividends.
Part of the profit for 2021, which is not directed to the payment of dividends in accordance with this decision and is not directed to increase the authorized capital in accordance with the minutes of the general meeting on April 27, 2023, will remain undistributed.
The announcement also specifies that dividends will be paid directly to shareholders from September 30, 2024 to March 30, 2025.
As reported, European Travel Insurance was founded in 2006. It holds one of the leading positions in the Ukrainian travel insurance market. The company is part of the non-banking financial group Euroinsurance Group.
In 2023, it collected insurance premiums in the amount of UAH 151.2 million, which is almost the same as a year earlier, and ended 2023 with a net profit of UAH 12.937 million.
The agricultural holding Continental Farmers Group has completed threshing sunflower from 13 thousand hectares with a yield higher than planned and oil content of more than 50%, the press service of the agricultural holding reports.
“Although high temperatures during the flowering period somewhat reduced the expected potential of the crop in some regions, Continental still notes good quality of the harvested sunflower, its high oil content of more than 50% and yields above the target,” the statement said.
Currently, the agroholding has focused all its efforts on threshing soybeans, for which 46.5 thou hectares were allocated in the 2024 season. Both own and hired machinery are used to harvest the crop.
“We have started threshing corn only on a few areas where the moisture content is already at the basic level. This accelerated maturation of the crop was caused by a hot and dry August. However, we plan to start intensive corn harvesting in the second half of October in most fields. In total, we have 28.5 thou hectares of the crop to thresh,” explained Konstantin Shityuk, COO of Continental.
He noted that October will be the busiest period of the harvesting campaign for the agricultural holding. Weather conditions at the beginning of the month will largely determine whether the harvest season will be successful. Continental expects to complete the main field work on schedule and remains optimistic about crop yields.
The harvesting of sugar beet and potatoes continues on Continental’s fields, which this season occupy 3.2 thousand hectares and 1.8 thousand hectares respectively. For both crops, farmers are getting good intermediate results, with favorable weather conditions providing sufficient soil moisture for high-quality harvesting with minimal damage.
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.
Chilled meat of all types continued to rise in price by an average of 1.9-3.3% in national retail chains in early fall, according to the Pig Producers of Ukraine (PPU).
“In September, there was a gradual increase in prices for chicken and beef, so the average price of these types of meat added 2% and 3.3% to the August figure. Although retail prices for pork changed direction during the month, the average price per kilogram for the analyzed period also showed an increase of 1.9% compared to August to 203.5 UAH/kg,” the analysts said.
At the same time, according to them, it is 2.1% more affordable than in September last year.
Experts noted that in September, unlike in previous periods, the thigh part went up by 4.6%, or almost 7.5 UAH/kg compared to August. The increase in prices for pork tenderloin did not exceed the average mark, but due to the higher price of this semi-finished product, it was more noticeable for the wallets of Ukrainian consumers (+4.8 UAH/kg). The rise in price of other pork products was limited to 3-4 UAH/kg.
Another difference in September was the inconsistency of changes in pork prices in purchases and on supermarket shelves.
“If in August the direction of movement of quotations in the pork market corresponded to the rise in price of slaughterhouse pigs, in early autumn the situation changed. Thus, in the first half of September, live pork prices dropped significantly, while retail prices continued to grow by inertia. At the same time, the reaction of store price tags to the positive correction of purchase prices was more rapid. While the average price of pork in supermarkets was 1.9% higher than in August, pig farms received 4.4% less per kilogram of live weight sold than in the previous month,” the industry association summarized.
Ukrainian one-dollar store chain Aurora has expanded its network to 25 stores and served more than 1 million customers in Romania over the past year, CEO Taras Panasenko said on Facebook.
“Exactly one year ago, the first store in Suceava opened its doors. Now we already have 25 stores here, and eight are in the pipeline to open soon. This year we have served more than 1 million customers in Romania (…), 98% of them are locals,” Panasenko said.
He noted that the segment in Romania is still far from being profitable, “because we need to scale up and fine-tune the product, but we are growing steadily, both quantitatively and qualitatively.”
At the same time, in Romania, Aurora’s NPS (Net Promoter Score), measured by an independent marketing agency, is even higher than in Ukraine, reaching 86.
“We are the first case in the history of independent Ukraine when a system retailer has successfully scaled to the EU. We support local Romanian and Ukrainian producers who export a lot of goods to Aurora Romania. This includes manufacturers from the frontline cities,” he said.
“Aurora was founded in 2011 by Lev Zhidenko, Taras Panasenko and Lesya Klymenko. The retail chain is headquartered in Poltava. The chain has 1528 stores in Ukraine and 25 in Romania.
According to Opendatabot, the owner of Vygidna Pokupka LLC, which develops the chain, is listed as Auroritail Investments Limited of Cyprus, with Zhydenko as its beneficiary. The Cypriot company also owns Prior Development LLC, Seven A LLC, Promyslova 9 LLC, and Tak LLC.
At the end of 2023, the network’s net profit amounted to UAH 4.1 billion, and net income – UAH 27 billion.
