“As of March 2024, Kernel, one of the largest Ukrainian agro-industrial groups, has returned to pre-war volumes of agricultural exports by sea, said Yuriy Kizlevych, Head of the Transshipment and Fleet Department of the agricultural holding, during the online conference of the Center for Economic Strategies “Challenges at Sea and Border. What is the future of Ukraine’s foreign trade?”.
“We are investing in infrastructure. As of today, we have really returned to pre-war export volumes. During the full-scale invasion, we continued to invest in port terminals. We now own a certain cluster of terminals, both for grain and vegetable oil transshipment,” he said.
According to Mr. Kizlevych, Kernel handles not only its own agricultural products but also provides this service to other operators, which has a positive impact on the domestic market and exports.
The head of Kernel’s transshipment and fleet department noted that the agricultural holding sees prospects for increasing exports via the Black Sea sea corridor.
He also said that 70% of Kernel’s exports are to non-European destinations, including Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and only then to Western Europe.
Speaking about the cost of logistics, Kizlevych stated that since the beginning of the war, it has had to be divided into two components: domestic and maritime. All domestic market operators have problems with the former, in particular with regard to facilities where infrastructure has been damaged.
“However, thanks to the fruitful cooperation between business and the state, we see that the best ways to solve problematic infrastructure issues are being found. Inland logistics is changing very dynamically, taking into account the existing export channels. We see that this process has become more planned and manageable, comparable to the pre-war level,” he said.
Describing Ukraine’s maritime logistics, Kizlevych confirmed the impact of the military bonus factor on the total cost of export transportation.
“Of course, there is a factor of the military premium that must be paid to shipowners for the call of ships (to the Ukrainian part of the Black Sea – IF-U). Fleet freight has become more expensive. If we look at the “grain corridor”, its first Ukrainian version, we can state huge losses in port dues for the downtime of the large-capacity fleet. These are millions, tens of millions of losses,” said the Head of Transshipment and Fleet Department of Kernel.
At the same time, he emphasized that market participants see positive dynamics in the reduction of insurance rates, which is a positive signal and gives hope for a more stable functioning of Ukraine’s sea routes in 2024.
Before the war, Kernel Agro Holding was the world’s largest producer of sunflower oil (approximately 7% of global production) and a major exporter (approximately 12%). It is one of the largest producers and sellers of bottled oil in Ukraine. In addition, it is engaged in the cultivation and sale of agricultural products.
Kernel’s net profit for FY2023 amounted to $299 million, while the company ended the previous year with a net loss of $41 million. The agricultural holding’s revenue for FY2023 decreased by 35% to $3.455 billion, but EBITDA increased 2.5 times to $544 million.
In a conversation with the Secretary of State of the Presidential Chancellery, Andriy Yermak expressed hope that Ukraine’s neighbors would abandon the blockade of Ukrainian agricultural exports after September 15.
“The interlocutors discussed in detail the issue of ensuring the export of Ukrainian grain by land to the EU countries in the context of the continued blockade of Ukrainian ports. The head of the Presidential Office expressed hope that Ukraine’s neighboring countries would refrain from imposing unilateral restrictive measures on the export of Ukrainian agricultural products after September 15,” the press service of the Presidential Office said in a statement on Sunday following the meeting in Jeddah.
“During a meeting with the State Secretary of the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland, Head of the Bureau of International Policy Marcin Przydach, the head of the office expressed gratitude to Polish partners for their comprehensive assistance and solidarity with Ukraine in countering the armed aggression of the Russian Federation,” the statement also said.
The press service also reports that “Yermak praised Poland’s readiness to join the implementation of the Ukrainian peace formula.”
The leaders of Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia have supported the “Grain from Ukraine” initiative announced by the president of Ukraine and announced further efforts to increase existing and create new transit corridors for the export of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products.
“Since the beginning of the war, 8.4 million tons of grains and oilseeds from Ukraine have been transited (through Romania) to consumers in the world. We expect transit exports from Ukraine to increase in the coming months,” Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said in a video message at the international food security summit in Kiev on Saturday.
He noted that Romania has acted very strongly in support of Ukrainian grain exports through Romanian ports and will continue working to increase connectivity between the countries by land and rail, including the recent opening of a new border crossing.
Ciuche also stressed that Romania has and will not back down from supporting Ukraine and Moldova in the energy sphere. “We will not allow Russia to plunge the region into darkness,” he said.
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said at the summit that Bulgaria has managed to transport about 200,000 tons of grain from Ukraine across the Danube in recent months, and the country intends to continue this transportation project.
“Unfortunately, the loss of power in Ukrainian ports due to Russian shelling has made this process difficult for Bulgarian vessels,” he said.
Radev also said Bulgaria is providing fuel to Ukraine so the country can support the agricultural and transportation sectors.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrea Plenkovic also supported work on new corridors for the supply of Ukrainian products as part of the EU’s Solidarity Routes project.
“Croatia is actively joining, and will attract other ports on the Adriatic and there are opportunities for corridors along the Danube River,” said the Croatian government head.
The three leaders welcomed the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative for another 120 days, and the Bulgarian president urged the search for stable long-term solutions.
State-controlled PrivatBank (Kyiv) on May 9 began accepting applications for financing the purchase of fixed assets for a total amount of UAH 500 million, which include agricultural machinery, commercial vehicles and special equipment.
The launch of the corresponding program was announced in a press release from the financial institution.
The bank also announced the completion on May 13 of the Agroseason lending program for agricultural producers, carried out to finance the 2022 sowing campaign under the state program 5-7-9% with interest compensation.
It is specified that over 2,400 Ukrainian agricultural enterprises and farmers have already received loans for UAH 6 billion.
PrivatBank clarified that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine by resolution No. 28 set the deadline for issuing loans for the sowing campaign until May 31, 2022. Since the bank is currently processing more than 2,000 loan applications, it will limit the acceptance of applications on May 13 in order to have time to process those already received before the deadline set by the government.
The financial institution recalled that under the terms of the state program, lending was available to Ukrainian agricultural producers for a period of six months with compensation from the state up to 0% per annum in the amount of up to UAH 60 million.
As reported, Ukrainian banking institutions for the period from mid-March to May 5 provided loans to farmers under the state program to support the sowing campaign in 2022 for a total of UAH 19.82 billion, including loans and portfolio guarantees for the week of April 28-May 5 for UAH 4.87 billion.
AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL EQUIPMENT FOR UAH 500 MLN, LEND, PRIVATBANK
Minister of Education and Science Serhiy Shkarlet says that when forming the state order for 2022, all construction, agricultural, high-tech and pedagogical specialties will be a priority.
“Today we are already working with the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Digital Transformation regarding the formation of a budget order for 2022. The focus will be on high-tech and post-war economic recovery,” Shkarlet said in an interview on Thursday morning’s national telethon.
According to the minister, the humanitarian block, highly competitive specialties: economics, social sciences, management, public administration, lawyers will not have a large share of state funds covered in the state budget.
At the same time, Shkarlet noted that builders, all agricultural, high-tech, pedagogical specialties will be a priority, including when applying to universities.
The Minister also stressed that the emphasis is on professional higher education.
AGRICULTURAL, CONSTRUCTION, HIGH-TECH, PEDAGOGICAL SPECIALTIES, PRIORITY, STATE ORDER
Agricultural holding Continental Farmers Group has put into operation a new warehouse for storing seed potatoes with a capacity of 3,000 tonnes of simultaneous storage in Batiatychi village (Lviv region), the project cost UAH 3.2 million, according to the company’s website.
“We got a yield of seed potatoes higher than the planned indicators – 36.2 tonnes per ha. Over the season, the gross yield of seed varieties exceeded 15,600 tonnes, so we needed additional storage capacity. We plan to further increase the volume of seed potatoes, respectively, there is a need to increase storage capacity,” Continental said, citing Head of Continental Potatoes Cluster Orest Kravchuk.
According to the agricultural holding, growing potatoes is a strategic direction of its activities.
Continental Farmers Group cultivates chips, seed and food varieties of potatoes in Lviv and Ternopil regions. The total area under potatoes amounted to 1,600 hectares in 2020, in the current year – 1,800 hectares, with the total land bank being 195,000 hectares.
