The international information and analytical platform EastFruit has published an article in which Uzbekistan may become one of the world’s 5 largest exporters of fresh onions by the end of the 2023/24 season.
The publication reports that the 2023/24 season was marked by bans on the export of onions from many countries. In particular, Egypt, which is usually one of the five largest exporters, introduced a ban on onion exports.
In Uzbekistan, as in many other countries in the region, records were set in terms of onion production areas and volumes. As a result, onion prices in Uzbekistan in January were 40% lower than at the time of harvest, which guaranteed losses for resellers.
Traders began to actively look for opportunities to export onions, as in January onions from Uzbekistan flooded the wholesale markets in Poland. In addition, the first export shipments of the new onion harvest of 300 thousand tons are planned for the end of March, which may be a new export record. This will allow Uzbekistan to overtake Poland, Afghanistan, Spain, Egypt and possibly the United States in terms of onion exports and enter the top 5 global exporters.
In September, the Export Credit Agency (ECA) insured exporters’ loan agreements worth UAH 50.5 million, according to the ECA website.
It is specified that the volume of supported exports for the month amounted to UAH 162.8 million.
The most popular categories of goods for export in September were (by foreign economic activity groups) processed vegetables, ferrous metal products, and finished products made from grain, flour, starch, and milk, while the counterpart countries were Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Germany, and Lithuania.
The top three partner banks were Ukrgasbank (UAH 71.1 million of supported exports and UAH 21.9 million of financing), Oschadbank (UAH 52.8 million and UAH 20.6 million), and Kredobank (UAH 38.9 million and UAH 8 million), respectively.
This year, Ukrgasbank ranks first (UAH 1.35 billion of exports supported and UAH 159 million of loans disbursed), Raiffeisen Bank is second (UAH 605 million and UAH 210 million), and Oschadbank is third (UAH 584.7 million and UAH 128.67 million).
In September, entrepreneurs from Ivano-Frankivsk region were the most active in insuring their loans received under export contracts with the ECA (the amount of contacts amounted to UAH 51.5 million and the amount of loans was UAH 11.9 million), Dnipropetrovs’k region (UAH 38.9 million and UAH 8 million), Ternopil region (UAH 29.24 million and UAH 18.3 million), Zakarpattia region (UAH 23.55 million and UAH 2.3 million), and Rivne region (UAH 19.63 million and UAH 10 million).
In the first nine months of this year, ECA and its partner banks found the largest number of customers in Kyiv (UAH 311.27 million of insured loans), as well as in Dnipropetrovska (UAH 53.63 million) and Vinnytska (UAH 10.5 million) regions.
The State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection (SSUFSCP) has reminded interested parties about the formation of the List of corn and soybean exporters to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the List of storage facilities for these goods for further export to China.
As explained by the press service of the Ministry, this is done to ensure compliance with the requirements of the protocol of phytosanitary and inspection requirements for the export of corn and soybeans from Ukraine to China.
The documents confirming the phytosanitary procedures of the corn and soybean growing and storage facilities in order to include a person in the Lists must be sent to the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection by October 16.
The agency reminds that the grounds for refusal to issue a phytosanitary certificate or a phytosanitary certificate for re-export are the non-compliance of the regulated objects with the requirements of the phytosanitary measures of the importing country.
In 2023, enterprises engaged in operations with ferrous metal scrap may increase the volume of scrap metal procurement by 20-25% compared to the previous year – up to 1.2-1.25 million tons.
Such a draft balance of scrap metal formation and consumption in the country for 2023 was recommended for approval by the majority of votes of the members of the working group under the Ministry of Strategic Industries of Ukraine.
At the meeting of the working group chaired by the First Deputy Minister Oleg Mozhny considered the issue of approval of the balance of formation and consumption of scrap metal in Ukraine for 2023. The meeting was attended by industry associations: the Ukrainian Association of Secondary Metals (UAVtormet), UAVtormetresurs, the Association of Enterprises “Ukrmetallurgprom”, the Association of Foundrymen of Ukraine (ALU), as well as industry experts and scientists.
According to the draft balance sheet, Ukraine will smelt 5.2-5.6 million tons of steel in 2023 (6.263 million tons were produced in 2022), harvest 1.2-1.25 million tons of scrap metal (in 2022 – 997 thousand tons), metal enterprises will consume 5.2-5.6 million tons of steel (in 2022 – 997 thousand tons). steel companies will consume 0.950-1 million tons of scrap metal (896 thousand tons), export 180-200 thousand tons of scrap metal (53.6 thousand tons), increasing the export of raw materials strategic for metallurgists by 3.4-3.7 times compared to last year.
The share of imported salt in the Ukrainian market in January-June 2023 reached 15%, 211.737 thousand tons were purchased on foreign markets for $46.196 million.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service (SCS), the largest supplier of salt to Ukraine remains Turkey, which provided 32.4% of all salt imports in the first half of 2023 and earned $14.966 million.
Egypt and Romania accounted for 23.3% and 17.7% of shipments, for which these countries earned $10.745 million and $8.174 million, respectively.
A year earlier, the top three importers of Ukrainian salt were Turkey with a market share of 29.8% of supplies, Poland and Romania with 22.8% and 19.8% respectively. Their revenue from its sale amounted to $7.492 million, $5.722 million and $4.969 million, respectively.
The State Customs Service recalls that in 2022, the share of imported salt in the domestic market totaled 15%. On foreign markets Ukraine purchased 438.105 thousand tons of salt for the amount of $92.116 million.
In 2021, the level of imported salt in Ukraine did not exceed 2%, which amounted to 142.813 thousand tons at $12.920 million.
For export in this pre-war year, Ukrainian enterprises supplied 710.041 thousand tons of salt, from the sale of which they received $28.323 million.
In 2022, Ukraine reduced salt exports by 80% to 142.038 thousand tons compared to 2021, with revenues of $3.821mn.
The main buyers of Ukrainian salt in 2021 and 2022 were Poland (import share of 39.1% and 44.4%, respectively), Hungary (27.4% and 27.3%) and Romania (7.3% and 5.1%).
In the first half of 2023, exports of Ukrainian salt amounted to only 149 tons at $32 thousand. It was bought by Romania (93.5% of supplies) and Moldova (3.2%).
Earlier, the analytical “Club of Experts” analyzed the situation with export and import of salt in Ukraine, for more details see the link
JSC DTEK Zakhidenergo continues to buy out all the proposed interstate section capacity for exporting electricity to Poland at daily auctions for April, according to data on the website of NPC Ukrenergo.
According to the published results of the auction for April 2-6, the company bought 190 MW of distributed power for each hour of the day.
According to the data on the ENTSO-E website, from April 1 to April 5, exports are the same – in a flat schedule of 190 MWh all day.
As of April 6, data are not yet available.
As reported, on March 28, Ukrenergo resumed daily auctions for the purchase of interstate cross sections for the export of electricity to Poland. All import-export auctions were suspended on February 24 due to the entry of the Ukrainian power system into an isolated mode as part of synchronization with ENTSO-E.
The power systems of Ukraine and Europe switched to synchronous operation on March 16.
