Without the Black Sea ports, Ukraine is nowhere close to reaching the level of exports it urgently needs, said Kate Newton, Deputy Emergency Coordinator for the World Food Program (WFP Ukraine).
“The opening of the Black Sea ports is the most important way to return Ukraine to its former positions. Without the Black Sea ports, we cannot even reach the level of exports that Ukraine urgently needs. However, we are doing our best – by road, rail and now by river – to get closer to the maximum result. At the moment it is about 1 million tons per month, we may reach 2 million. But we urgently need access to the Black Sea in Ukraine,” Newton said at a briefing at the Ukraine media center in Kyiv on Thursday.
She recalled that before the war, Ukraine exported up to 6 million tons of grain every month. According to her, in 2021, about 400 million people around the world used Ukrainian products.
“We need to try to free up storage facilities across Ukraine, ensure that wheat, barley, sunflowers and everything that grows in Ukraine can be harvested and have the ability to be exported,” Newton said.
Ukrenergo offers several options for distributing funds that will be received by the company from the sale at auctions of interstate cross-sections for commercial electricity exports to Europe, Head of the operator Volodymyr Kudrytsky said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.
According to him, the potential supply of generating capacities of Ukraine, which can be released and directed to the export of electricity, is calculated in gigawatts. At the same time, according to the current legislation, the proceeds from Ukrenergo shall be directed to the development of interconnectors.
“Given the scale of potential income, we simply won’t be able to use so many funds in the short term. In such a situation, various mechanisms for socializing this money into the energy sector are possible. For example, we have debts on the balancing market, and we can pay off debts over a certain period of time proportionally to all market participants using this money,” Kudrytsky said.
The head of Ukrenergo said that energy companies would be able to stabilize their work by using the money received to prepare for the upcoming winter, purchase fuel and carry out repairs.
Ukraine expects zero rates for the export of goods to the UK to be set from June, First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said after a meeting with British Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
“We expect that already in early June, zero customs rates for the export of Ukrainian goods to the UK will begin to operate. This will allow Ukrainian exporters to increase the export of products,” the ministry’s press service quoted Svyrydenko as saying in a Telegram message on Friday.
“First of all, we are talking about such goods as flour, grain, dairy products, poultry meat and semi-finished products, honey, corn, sugar. As a result, we will attract additional volumes of foreign exchange earnings to the country, which will have a positive impact on macro-financial stability in the state,” the first deputy prime minister said.
During the meeting, the parties also discussed the situation with trade between the countries. In 2021, it has grown by 40%.
“In 2022, we can expect significant progress even despite the war,” the Ministry of Economy noted.
The Minister of Economy of Ukraine and the British Secretary of State for International Trade also discussed the possibility of British investments in Ukraine. Last year they reached $3 billion.
EXPORTS, GOODS, UK, ZERO RATES
Ukraine in January-April this year reduced the export of coke and semi-coke by 97.2% compared to the same period last year, to 2,532 tonnes.
According to statistics published by the State Customs Service (STS), in monetary terms, the export of coke and semi-coke over this period fell by 97%, to $758,000.
At the same time, the main exports were to Georgia (43.54% of supplies in monetary terms), Hungary (34.83%) and Turkey (21.64%).
Ukraine in January-April 2022 imported 233,003 tonnes of coke and semi-coke, which is 2.6 times more compared to January-April 2021. In monetary terms, imports increased 5.1 times, to $117.023 million. Coke was mainly imported from the Russian Federation (64.76% of deliveries in monetary terms), the Czech Republic (18.56%) and Poland (10.66%).
As reported, in 2021, Ukraine increased the export of coke and semi-coke in quantity terms by 3.3 times compared to 2020, to 194,535 tonnes. In monetary terms, the export of coke and semi-coke over this period increased 4.8 times, to $41.838 million. The products were mainly exported to Kazakhstan (29.03% of supplies in monetary terms), Turkey (20.06%) and Algeria (15.77%).
Ukraine last year imported 789,903 tonnes of coke and semi-coke, which is 2.1 times more compared to 2020. In monetary terms, imports increased 4.3 times, to $351.238 million. The products were mainly imported from the Russian Federation (65.48% of supplies in monetary terms), the Czech Republic (20%) and Poland (8.45%).
Due to hostilities in eastern Ukraine, a number of mines and coking plants occurred in territories temporarily not controlled by Ukraine.
Ukraine and Poland will create a joint logistics venture designed to dramatically increase the volume of rail transportation of Ukrainian exports to the EU and to world markets through Europe, Ukrzaliznytsia said on Saturday evening. The corresponding memorandum was signed on that day by the prime ministers of the two countries Denis Szmigal and Mateusz Morawiecki in Krakow.
Ukrzaliznytsia noted that the creation of such a joint venture is the answer of the railway workers to the challenges posed by Russia’s aggression to both countries. In particular, we are talking about the need to expand railroads for goods that cannot be delivered through ports blocked by the Russians and part of the railway network of Ukraine, which today no longer has links with Russia and Belarus.
“We started preparing the concept of a joint venture with our Polish colleagues as early as a week after the start of the war. Combining the experience and knowledge of Ukrzaliznytsia managers and Polish colleagues will allow us to formulate unique logistics proposals for the European and world market, which refuses Russian deliveries and Russian logistics,” the statement says. in the release of the words of the head of the board of the company Alexander Kamyshina.
The parties also agreed to work together to increase cargo transportation across the western border of Ukraine, jointly solving technical and organizational problems: various customs rules, the use of different railway lines, and the search for free rolling stock.
Since the beginning of 2021/22 (July-June) and as of February 21, Ukraine has exported 42.54 million tonnes of grain and leguminous crops, which is 37.3% higher than the figures for the same date of the previous year.
According to the Information and Analytical Portal of the Agribusiness Complex of Ukraine, 17.85 million tonnes of wheat have been exported to date (34.0% more compared to the same date in 2020/21). Taking into account the restriction on its export at the level of 25.3 million tonnes, introduced on October 19, 2021 by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, Ukrainian exporters can supply another 7.45 million tonnes of wheat to foreign markets (29.5% of the limit).
Ukraine for the specified period exported 5.57 million tonnes of barley (40.8% more), 18.68 million tonnes of corn (41.9% more) and 66,300 tonnes of flour (27.2% less).
As of this date, 158,700 tonnes of rye were also exported, which is 94 times higher than the figure for the previous year.
