Countries importing agricultural products, primarily the Middle East and Africa, will not be able to do without export supplies of Ukrainian agricultural products, since it is physically impossible to replace its volumes with supplies from the aggressor country of the Russian Federation or from any other, this was stated by First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky on the air of Ukraine 24 TV channel on Friday.
“We supplied 10% of world wheat exports, more than 15-20% of barley, more than 50% of sunflower oil. On average, 50 million tonnes of agricultural products were exported from Ukraine. In record years, this figure even reached 65 million tonnes. Today there is no way to find an alternative to such volumes and replace our products. It is physically impossible to do this even in the next three to five years,” the deputy minister emphasized.
According to him, the blockade by Russian warships of key Ukrainian seaports in Odesa and Mykolaiv and the mined areas of the Black Sea led to a drop in exports of agricultural products from Ukraine to 15-20% of pre-war figures. Also, this has already led to its significant rise in price and its physical shortage around the world, especially in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa.
“If the situation with the war and the blocking of ports continues, for example, up to six months, the countries of these regions will, in principle, have no grain. And this means famine,” Vysotsky stated.
According to him, the Ukrainian government is working to expand the physical export of agricultural products through alternative logistics routes, which allowed it to quadruple its exports in April compared to March 2022.
“This is still not enough, but there is significant progress. And we see in May that there is still an opportunity to increase export performance. Therefore, there are two strategies here: first of all, our victory and unblocking the ports, and the second is the expansion of these alternative ways of marketing products,” he said.
Kernel, one of the largest Ukrainian agricultural groups, will channel $170 million in the implementation of alternative energy projects.
The agricultural group said on its Facebook page on Friday that a green energy turbine with a capacity of 7.5 MW operates to its full capacity at the oil crushing plant in Kropyvnytsky.
“Six more Kernel’s plants operate in the same format until 2021 and generating a total of 90 MW. In particular, Starokostianstyniv oil crushing plant, which is being constructed in Khmelnytsky region, will become the largest modern oil crushing plant in Ukraine,” Kernel said.
According to the group, Starokostianstyniv oil crushing plant will have a turbine with a capacity of up to 20 MW.
VR Capital Group (the United States), an alternative asset manager specializing in global emerging markets, has acquired the remaining stake in alternative energy projects jointly developed with ICU independent asset management, ICU reported on its website.
According to the report, deal covers green energy facilities in Kamyanets-Podilska solar plant (64 MW) in Khmelnytsky region, Solar Capital energy company (35 MW) in Kherson region and a number of small stations in Mykolaiv region (with a total capacity of 127 MW).
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The ICU only said the transaction has been approved by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine on July 4, 2019.
“I am still confident that these assets are in good hands and that the key alternative energy sector in Ukraine is positioned to attract further large foreign investments. We see a great potential in our economy and we continue our work with international investors,” said ICU managing partner Makar Paseniuk.
He said that VR Capital has been a visionary among western investors in understanding the enormous potential of Ukraine and being ready to support the country even during difficult times.
VR Capital Group Ltd., through its principal subsidiaries including VR Advisory Services Ltd (together, VR Capital Group) is an alternative asset manager with assets under management in excess of $4.5 billion. VR Capital Group’s external client base is primarily composed of institutional investors from the United States and Western Europe, including university endowments, charitable foundations, family offices and institutional asset allocators.
Founded in 2006, ICU is Ukraine’s leading asset manager with over $500 million in assets under management. Managing Partners Makar Paseniuk and Konstantin Stetsenko are majority shareholders of ICU.
ALTERNATIVE, DEVELOPED, ENERGY PROJECTS, ICU'S, SHARE, US VR CAPITAL
There are both economic and strategic components in the issue of concern for the Nord Stream 2 project, while Ukraine needs to seek alternative natural gas resources, Assistant to the U.S. President for National Security Affairs John Bolton has stated.
We with the prime minister of Ukraine held a very interesting discussion on energy resources and the role Ukraine plays, what we can do in future, Bolton said at a press conference in Kyiv.
According to him, U.S. President Donald Trump, expressing concern about Nord Stream 2, stresses “not only the economic importance of this issue in Europe … but also strategic.”
Undoubtedly, this is what is connected with the monopoly of a supplier of critical energy resources … Why do you, Europe, voluntarily bind yourself even more to Russian energy suppliers? An alternative option for Ukraine and other countries is to find other natural gas sources and resources, he added.
He stressed this is the matter of policy, the government of Ukraine to look for alternative energy resources so that there is no dependence on Russia.
Bolton noted that if Nord Stream 2 is built, then Ukraine will remain in a situation of risk that Russia, even if it undertakes, will not supply sufficient volumes of gas.
