Ukraine in 2023 supplied the European Union market with 45.8 thousand tons of honey, which was the second result and accounted for 28% of all imports of this product by the Commonwealth countries, Eurostat reports.
According to the report, the largest supplier of honey in 2023 was China with 60.2 thousand tons and 37% of the market share, the third place belonged to Argentina with 20.4 thousand tons (12%), the fourth – Mexico with 10.7 thousand tons (7%), the fifth – Cuba with 4.7 thousand tons (3%).
The largest importer of honey in 2023 was Germany, which imported 41 thousand tons of honey from outside the EU, accounting for 25% of all EU imports. Belgium was the second largest importer with 31.4 thousand tons (19%), followed by Poland with 23.3 thousand tons (14%), Spain with 15.7 thousand tons (10%) and France with 7.7 thousand tons (5%).
In total, EU members imported 163.7 thousand tons of natural honey from non-EU countries in 2023, worth EUR359.3 million. At the same time, EU member states exported 24.9 thousand tons worth EUR146.0 million.
The UK was the leading buyer of honey produced in the EU in 2023 with 4.3 thousand tons (17% of all non-EU honey exports). This was followed by Saudi Arabia with 3.5 thousand tons (14%), Switzerland with 3.4 thousand tons (13%), USA with 3.3 thousand tons (13%) and Japan with 2.5 thousand tons (10%).
Spain was the largest exporter. It sent 7.1 thousand tons of honey to countries outside the EU, which amounted to (29% of all exports of this product from the EU). It is followed by Germany with 5.5 thousand tons (22% of all exports), Romania with 1.7 thousand tons (7%), Hungary with 1.6 thousand tons (6%) and Greece with 1.5 thousand tons (6%).
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20240520-1
China on Friday launched an automated spacecraft on a nearly two-month mission to collect rocks and soil from the moon’s back side, becoming the first country to undertake such an ambitious endeavor, Reuters reported. China’s largest rocket, Long March-5, launched at 17:27 Beijing time (12:27 Kiev time) from the Wenchang spaceport on the southern island of Hainan with the Chang’e-6 probe weighing more than 8 tons.
Chang’e-6’s mission is to land in the South Pole-Eitken basin on the back side of the moon, which is eternally facing away from Earth, after which it will retrieve and return samples.
The launch was another milestone in China’s lunar and space exploration program.
“It remains a mystery to us how China was able to develop such an ambitious and successful program in such a short time,” said Pierre-Yves Meslain, a French researcher working on one of the Chang’e-6 mission’s scientific objectives.
In 2018, Chang’e-4 made the first unmanned landing on the back side of the moon. In 2020, Chang’e-5 delivered lunar samples for the first time in 44 years, and Chang’e-6 could make China the first country to get samples from the “hidden” side of the moon.
Earlier, the launch of the Quequiao-2 transponder satellite, designed to link China’s lunar landers with ground stations, was reported.
The Ukrainian national ice hockey team played its third match at the World Championship in Division 1B. The opponent was China, and the match ended with a score of 9:0.
China, which came to the tournament without legionnaires and players from the KHL club Kunlun, was again unable to resist the Ukrainian national team. The Ukrainians scored nine goals in the pre-World Cup sparring session.
Today, Ukraine will play an early match again, with Spain as the opponent.
The Chinese authorities plan to pay car owners up to 10 thousand yuan ($1.4 thousand) if they replace their cars with all-electric or hybrid ones this year, The Wall Street Journal reports.
In addition, the government will provide subsidies of 7 thousand yuan to those who change cars to traditional ones with engines of no more than 2 liters.
Following the news, American Depository Receipts (ADRs) for shares of Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers rose in price on Friday, including Nio – by 9.4%, XPeng – by 11.1%, Li Auto – by 7%, BYD – by 3.7%.
The volume of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the economy of mainland China in January-February 2024 decreased by 19.9% compared to the same period last year and amounted to 215.1 billion yuan ($30 billion), according to the Ministry of Commerce.
In particular, the inflow of foreign investment in the high-tech sector increased by 10.1% to 28.27 billion yuan.
At the same time, France’s foreign direct investment in China in January-February increased by 6.9 times in annual terms, Spain’s – by 5 times, Germany’s – by 2.4 times.
Over two months, 7.16 thousand new enterprises with foreign capital were registered in the country, which is 34.9% more than in January-February 2023, Xinhua reports.
“The 34.9% growth is the highest in the last five years. This indicates that multinationals are still optimistic about the development opportunities of the Chinese market,” a ministry spokesperson told the agency. – “Despite the decline in the volume of actually utilized FDI in the first two months, this is the third highest figure in the last ten years.
“At present, the favorable factors for attracting foreign investment in China outweigh the unfavorable ones, and the investment prospects are still bright,” the ministry representative added.
As reported, the volume of FDI in 2023 decreased by 8% and amounted to 1.13 trillion yuan.
Contrary to forecasts, Ukrainian corn has started to rise in price on world markets due to increased demand from China, Turkey, Egypt and the European Union, according to the analytical cooperative “Pusk”, created within the framework of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council (AAC).
“The expectations of the trade that with the arrival of a new corn crop from Argentina on the world market, demand and prices for Ukrainian grain would fall, did not materialize. Argentine new crop is sold at higher prices than Ukrainian corn. We can predict a rise in prices for corn from Ukraine in the coming weeks,” the analysts said.
According to them, China is actively contracting Ukrainian corn. Other importers, such as Turkey, Egypt, Italy, and Spain, have also started buying a lot of Ukrainian corn. In seaports, the conditional prices for it have risen to $142-145/ton and have been increasing for a week and a half. The supply is sinking, while demand is stable.
“It can be predicted that amid demand, prices will add $2-3 per tonne per week and reach at least $150/tonne on a CPT basis by the end of March,” the experts emphasized.
They said that in April, the main factor of corn price changes will be the information on the grain harvest in Brazil. In April, there will be more reliable information about the harvest in Brazil: the planted areas, soil moisture, and crop condition. This will affect the global market. If the drought continues in Brazil and the harvest is reduced, the price will rise. But for now, this is one of the scenarios. In case of rainfall in Brazil, the situation on the global corn market will be different.
On a DAP basis, Ukrainian corn is traded for delivery in March-April to Italy, Austria and Germany in the range of $192-197/ton, Pusk summarized.
