Ukrainian agricultural exports to the European Union countries in January-October 2018 grew by 1.3% year-over-year, to $4.7 billion, according to a posting on the website of the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine.
According to the report, over the period foreign trade flow with agricultural goods and food between Ukraine and the EU countries rose by 7.15, to $6.9 billion.
“The EU countries are extremely important partners for Ukraine in terms of trade and economic relations in the agro-industrial sector. The pace of bilateral trade in agricultural and food products confirms this. The EU’s share of the regional structure of Ukrainian agricultural export in January-October 2018 is 31.6%,” Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food for European Integration Olha Trofimtseva said.
According to her, the Netherlands ($865,500), Spain ($713,600), Italy ($583,700) and Poland ($535,300) became the largest importers of Ukrainian agricultural products among the EU countries in January-October.
“During this period, Ukrainian producers increased exports of a number of products to EU markets. First of all, these are rapeseed, meat and edible poultry byproducts, wheat, corn, dried leguminous vegetables, nuts, confectionery goods made from sugar, rapeseed or mustard oil, chocolate and other products,” Trofimtseva said.
The deputy minister said that imports of European goods showed an increase over the specified period and amounted to almost $2.2 billion. In January-October 2018, Ukraine imported from the EU countries tobacco and products from it, chocolate and cocoa beans, animal feeding products, meat and byproducts, alcoholic beverages, grain products and cereals and other products.
Ukraine of the total sales of organic raw materials and products exports 90% of goods and sells 10% in the domestic market.
“The domestic market, despite the fact that it is developing, occupies 10% of total sales, while 90% of “organic” goods are exported. Among the leading countries consuming Ukrainian organic products are the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom,” Olena Berezovska, the president of the Organic Ukraine union of producers of organic certified goods said at a press conference in Kyiv.
In total, Ukraine exports its organic products to more than 40 countries. Among the exported organic crops are maize (99,500 tonnes in 2017), wheat (58,000 tonnes), barley (22,900 tonnes), sunflower (11,600 tonnes), and soybeans (10,900 tonnes).
“According to the Organic Standard certification authority, Ukraine has 585 operators in the organic market. When we summarize statistics data for 2018, the number of organic producers will exceed 600. Now 14% of the total number of operators are processors. Of the 80 processors, 55 sell their products in the stores of the country. The growth in the sales of organic products in the key networks of Ukraine during 2018 amounted to 5%. There are more than 400 items in the product range,” Berezovska said.
According to her, in 2018 a number of Ukrainian manufacturers received the status of “organic.”
Ukraine in January-October 2018 increased electricity exports by 13.5% (by 600.5 million kWh) compared to the same period in 2017, to 5.05 billion kWh, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry has told Interfax-Ukraine. The supply of electricity from the Burshtyn TPP energy island towards Hungary, Slovakia and Romania increased by 15.6% (by 419.4 million kWh), to 3.103 billion kWh.
Export of electricity to Poland increased by 57.6% (by 424.6 million kWh), to 1.161 billion kWh.
Electricity supplies to Moldova amounted to 785.5 million kWh, which is 23.7% (243.5 million kWh) less than in January-October 2017.
Ukrainian electricity was not exported to Belarus and Russia in January-October 2017 and January-October 2018.
At the same time, in October 2018, export of Ukrainian electricity amounted to 532.4 million kWh, which is twice more than in October 2017 (267.4 million kWh).
In addition, Ukraine in January-October 2018 imported 26.489 million kWh of electricity.
Ukraine since the beginning of the 2018/2019 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of November 21 had exported 16.58 million tonnes of grain, which is almost 4.9% more than on the same date of the previous MY.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the country exported 8.8 million tonnes of wheat, 3 million tonnes of barley, and 4.4 million tonnes of corn.
In addition, 82,500 tonnes of flour had been exported on that date.
As reported, with reference to the ministry, Ukraine exported 39.4 million tonnes of grain in the 2017/2018 MY. Grain exports in the 2018/2019 MY are projected to be 42.5 million tonnes.
Ukraine in January-October 2018 exported electricity worth $266.113 million, including $28.728 million in October alone.
Hungary bought electricity worth $154.69 million, Poland $62.684 million, Moldova $42.169 million, other countries $6.57 million, Ukraine’s State Fiscal Service has said.
Exports of Ukrainian electricity in monetary terms in January-October 2018 increased by 27.1% compared to the same period in 2017 ($209.293 million).
Over the period under review, Ukraine imported electricity worth $1.22 million, in particular, electricity imports from the Russian Federation were estimated at $1.156 million, from Belarus at $0.058 million, from Moldova at $0.006 million.
As reported, Ukraine plans in 2018 to increase exports of electricity to the EU and Moldova by 13.3% from 2017 to 5.855 billion kWh. According to the forecast for 2018, deliveries from the Burshtyn TPP energy island to Hungary, Slovakia, Romania will be 3.6 billion kWh, to Poland 1.2 billion kWh, and to Moldova 1.055 billion kWh.
Farmak plans to boost exports to 40% of total sales in coming five years, PJSC Farmak CEO Volodymyr Kostiuk has said, speaking about the company’s entrance the Australian market at the Ukrainian Pharmaceutical Forum in Kyiv. According to him, in 2015, negotiations were held with representatives of an international company with the office in Australia. And in 2017, Farmak shipped the first batch to this country.
“It took us a little time to enter this market [Australia]. After all, our products meet the high requirements that are needed to deliver products to this region… Having a certificate from the Australian regulator facilitates access to other markets. Our goal is to increase exports in the sales structure up to 40% in the next five years,” Kostiuk said, adding that the company’s closest horizons are the EU countries (Germany, the U.K.), the United States, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates.
According to the company’s press service, the share of sales to the regions of Australia and Oceania in Ukrainian exports of pharmaceutical products is only 0.3%. This is due to the fact that the Australian market is considered well regulated – at the level of the United States, the EU, so few Ukrainian companies can ship their products to Australia.
Farmak is a member of the Association Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine (AMMU).
