Moldovan Railways has agreed to grant a discount of 27% to the existing tariffs for transit transportation of Ukrainian agricultural products through the territory of the Republic of Moldova in the direction of the ports of Reni, Giurgiulesti and Galati, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported.
Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solskiy, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry of the Republic of Moldova Volodymyr Bolia and the head of the Moldovan railroad agreed on the discount at an online meeting. The meeting was attended by representatives of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC.
According to the message, tariff conditions for transit cargoes will be calculated as a discount to the base tariffs if all forwarding organizations comply with transportation volumes.
For recalculation of the tariff it will be necessary to fulfill one of two conditions – to produce the established volume of cargo transportation for the month or to keep the average monthly volume of transported cargo for the last three months at a level that exceeds or corresponds to the established volume of cargo transportation for the month.
The new tariff conditions will take effect on July 15, 2023.
You can familiarize yourself with the size of the tariff coefficients here:
The Joint Coordination Center (JCC) has resumed inspections of vessels coming from Ukraine with agricultural products within the framework of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Sabah reported on Tuesday.
The relevant information earlier became known to the Turkish media from the Ministry of Defense of Turkey.
As the newspaper recalls, the day before, the UN said that on Sunday and Monday there were no inspections of ships.
Meanwhile, the Turkish Defense Ministry confirmed that Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and the UN will hold talks on the “grain initiative” on May 10-11.
Earlier, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that on May 8, Russia again blocked the work of the Grain Initiative, refusing to register vessels for entry and conduct inspections. According to the ministry, 90 vessels are awaiting inspection in Turkish territorial waters, of which 62 are vessels going in for loading. Inspections of both incoming and outgoing ships are suspended. Export of Ukrainian agro-products via the “grain corridor” did not even reach 3 million tons in April.
“Black Sea Grain Initiative” was concluded in Istanbul on July 22, 2022 with the participation of the UN, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia to create a corridor for the export of grain from three Ukrainian ports: “Chernomorsk”, “Odessa” and “Pivdenny”. The initiative was concluded for 120 days and was extended twice, most recently on March 18. However, while Ukraine claims it was extended for 120 days, Russia claims it was only for 60.
European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis says the European Commission has reached agreements in principle with Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia on the export of Ukrainian agricultural products.
“There are agreements,” he wrote in capital letters on his Twitter page Friday.
Dombrovskis said the European Commission reached “an agreement in principle with Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia regarding Ukrainian agri-food products.” “Together with Janusz Wojciechowski (European Commissioner for Agriculture) we have taken measures to solve the problems of both farmers in neighboring EU countries and in Ukraine,” he wrote.
The Vice President also named the key elements of the deal, which were also agreed with Ukraine. These elements include the removal of unilateral measures by Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Hungary. Then there are “exceptional safeguard measures for 4 products: wheat, corn, rapeseed, sunflower seeds and a support package of 100 million euros for affected farmers in 5 member states.
In addition, Dombrovskis reported on the investigation of some other products, including sunflower oil.
Agro-industrial holding Astarta does not expect a significant drop in income because of the ban on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine imposed by Poland and other neighboring countries, as it intends to export its products to Western European countries, representatives of the company’s board said at an online conference on Tuesday.
“We have permission to transit through these countries. Rather, our export targets are Western European countries, such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Croatia. We don’t see much risk to our revenues,” Infostrefa quoted Astarta Commercial Director Vyacheslav Chuk as saying from a conference call Tuesday.
Julia Bereshchenko, director of investor relations, expressed confidence that Astarta will be supported by expected sugar shortages in the EU and world market.
“Sugar shortages are expected not only in the EU, but worldwide as the world’s largest sugar producers, such as Brazil and India, begin to use sugar to produce ethanol. This could potentially reduce these countries’ exports,” she said.
As reported, Astarta agro-industrial holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, received EUR65.16 million net profit in 2022, down 46.8% compared to 201.
The holding’s EBITDA shrank by 23.2% to EUR154.77 mln, while revenues increased by 3.8% to EUR510.07 mln.
The Hungarian Grain Association has opposed a ban on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine because it will lead to a deficit on Hungary’s domestic market and undermine efforts to curb the highest inflation rate in the European Union, Zofia Poza, secretary general of the Hungarian Grain Association, said.
“Our members are desperate and don’t support any import bans, in fact we need imports,” she told Bloomberg.
Hungary needs to import about 700,000 tons of feed corn after the 2022 crop failure, according to Hungarian grain growers.
“Eastern neighbor Ukraine will be the cheapest supplier,” she stressed.
Potsa recalled that Hungary used to only perform export control of agricultural products from Ukraine.
“Now we got a widespread ban on imports. It’s hard to call it anything other than amateurish,” the public figure said, commenting on the government’s decisions.
Poza is confident that blocking export flows will put negative pressure on food prices in Hungary, where the inflation rate exceeds 25 percent.
The Hungarian Grain Association represents the interests of flour makers, grain processors and sellers of basic food products ranging from flour and sugar to animal feed and ethanol.
Hungary has joined Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria to impose a ban on Ukrainian grain and certain agricultural products until the end of June 2023.
While business associations in Poland are already saying that such restrictions could hurt local producers.
“Government interference in business has been a hallmark of the rule of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who imposed restrictions on agricultural exports in 2022 after a sharp summer decline in production,” Bloomberg writes.
The publication reminds us that the Hungarian government has also maintained a regime of controversial price controls on basic food products, which the central bank blames for inflating inflation by forcing retailers to raise the cost of other goods to make up for lost profits. Last week, the Hungarian Cabinet of Ministers announced that it would oblige supermarkets to lower the prices of basic foodstuffs as part of a new package of measures.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS, BAN, Hungarian Grain Association, IMPORTS
Negotiations to unblock imports of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU between Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the European Commission (EC) continue. The EU offered a package of financial assistance to five countries neighboring Ukraine in exchange for the lifting of restrictive measures on Ukrainian agricultural products, informs the Ukrainian government portal.
“These countries will receive the package offered by the Commission on condition that member states cancel their unilateral measures,” EC Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said after a meeting with representatives of Ukraine and the five EU member states that restrict the export of Ukrainian agricultural products.
According to him, the European Commission understands the importance of a joint EU approach rather than unilateral decisions, which can lead to new bans and thereby endanger the internal European market.
“The Commission has taken note of the views of the participants. We agreed to continue political consultations in the coming days to find an early solution to this problem,” Dombrovskis summarized.
The ban on the transit of Ukrainian grain through the territory of Poland and other countries was imposed last week. Poland subsequently pledged to unblock the transit of Ukrainian products through the territory of a neighboring country.
