The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine held a number of meetings with representatives of the government and business of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the parties agreed to develop a number of interstate agreements in the field of the agro-industrial complex, and also discussed investments in the Ukrainian agro-industrial complex, Minister of Agrarian Policy Roman Leschenko said on Facebook.According to him, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia agreed to develop a comprehensive framework agreement between the countries in the field of agriculture, to diversify sources of supplies of phosphate fertilizers to Ukraine, to increase support from Saudi Arabia for processing Ukrainian agricultural products and implement investment projects for processing and logistics of agricultural products.The agency also discussed with the Arabian company Ajlan & Bros Holding Group the possibility of investing in the production of agricultural products in Ukraine, with Almarai – growing alfalfa for its supply to v Saudi Arabia, with the Saudi Fund for Development – the issues of financial support for irrigation projects, with ARASCO – increasing the volume of grain purchases in Ukraine, with Saudi EXIM Bank – financing the agricultural sector of Ukraine.“One of the key tasks in the near future is to bring the negotiation process to a successful conclusion. We are continuing the dialogue, strengthening trade and investment cooperation with Ukraine’s strategic partner in the agricultural sector,” the minister summed up.As reported, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and the Arabian manufacturer of irrigation equipment Alkhorayef Group on November 27 signed a memorandum allowing the possibility of starting its production in Ukraine . According to the ministry, Alkhorayef Industries is the third largest manufacturer of irrigation machines in the world and the first in the Arabian Peninsula. Its activities are spread in 40 countries of the world, they produce industrial, agricultural and irrigation equipment.
Schwarz Group is entering the Ukrainian market and will develop the Lidl food retail chain, the German edition Lebensmittel Zeitung reported, citing an internal letter from the company.
As follows from the internal letter from Schwarz, 47-year-old Adam Miszczyszyn will deal with Lidl’s entering Ukraine. The document on his appointment as Country Manager for Lidl in Ukraine was signed by Lidl CEO Gerd Chrzanowski and Procurement Director Tim Bork.
Schwarz Group, with 500,000 employees, is one of the world’s leading retail companies.
The company is headquartered in Neckarsulm, Germany. The main food retail brands are Lidl and Kaufland. The group also includes food production Schwarz Produktion and waste disposal, sorting and recycling company PreZero.
According to the official website of the company, it operates 12,900 stores in 33 countries, with revenues in 2020 of EUR125.3 billion, which is 9.6% higher than in 2019. Kaufland increased store sales by 7.5%, to EUR 25.5 billion, Lidl increased sales by 9.9%, to EUR96.3 billion, PreZero grew by 33.7% in 2020 and brought in about EUR 700 million from waste treatment.
DEVELOP, FOOD, LIDL, RETAIL CHAIN, SCHWARZ, UKRAINIAN MARKET
According to the pessimistic forecasts, the market for pet food may fall to 20% by the end of 2020, CEO of Kormotech Rostyslav Vovk said. “The experience of previous crises shows that according to the pessimistic scenario, the market for finished food in Ukraine can go down to 20%,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Vovk, in the field of animal care, the crisis becomes considerable in one and a half or two years after its beginning. He said that over the past five years, the food market for cats and dogs has grown by 15% annually. The market volume amounted to 122,000 tonnes in 2019.
“This year it will not grow in full size, but it will not go down significantly either, as feed is a product that is difficult to quickly replace (with another feed or food from the table). At the same time, we are predicting, based on the results of previous crises, that demand for keeping expensive pedigreed dogs and cats will decrease slightly. This means that kennels will become less involved in breeding and this will certainly lead to a decrease in feed consumption,” the CEO of Kormotech said.
According to him, the population will have significantly less money by the autumn, and if product prices begin to rise, pet owners can not only buy less, but also look for a cheaper alternative.
“Customers who generally preferred products of the economy segment are more likely to start buying less, adding water to dry and cereal to a wet diet,” Vovk said.
The CEO of Kormotech said that the demand for the company’s products grew by 30% in the second half of March, and as of the second week of April began to return to normal range.
“We assume that the owners of the animals made feed stocks in the same way as other products. In small retail outlets, usually located near residential buildings, sales grew by 30% (the share of this sales channel for our products was 15%), online stores by 45% (the share of this channel is 5%). Pet stores are key point of sale, showed an increase of 32% (the share of this channel is 55%),” Vovk said.
Kormotech exports products to about 20 countries, including France, Estonia, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Poland. The facilities of the company include two plants for the manufacture of dry and wet pet food. The company produces products for cats and dogs under its own brands Optimeal, Club 4 Paws (Meow! and Woof! trademarks) and in private label.
The ultimate beneficiaries of Kormotech are Olena and Rostyslav Vovk.
Ukraine from March 1 through March 17, 2020 increased imports of food by 40,000 tonnes year-over-year, to 158,000 tonnes with the cost being $211 million, the State Customs Service said on Thursday. “Some 40,000 tonnes of food products more were brought to Ukraine during 17 days of March compared with the same period in 2019. In general, food imports amounted to 158,000 tonnes worth $211 million. This is almost 8,000 completely filled trucks carrying 20 tonnes,” the customs authority wrote on its page in the Facebook social network.
According to the authority, the supply of cheese, eggs, honey tripled and amounted to 3,177 tonnes worth $13.6 million, imports of finished products from grain, flour, flour confectionery products rose by 86%, to 6,166 tons worth $12.3 million.
Deliveries of vegetables, some edible roots and potatoes increased 138%, to 38,900 tonnes worth $20.4 million.
The milk and milk group of goods showed growth by 163%, to 921 tonnes worth $1.2 million, fish imports – by 73%, to 2,493 tonnes worth $14 million.
Deliveries of coffee, tea, mate and spices increased by some 33%, to 1,293 tonnes worth $4.3 million, extracts, essences and coffee concentrates, syrups, sauces, soups, etc. grew by 23%, to 3,854 tonnes worth $25.1 million.
Import of fruits and nuts also increased slightly, by 3%, to 45,837 tonnes worth $33.9 million.
Ukraine’s new Cabinet of Ministers may not include a Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food. A source of Interfax-Ukraine with knowledge of the situation confirmed this information.
According to the source, the ministry’s liquidation was discussed for about a month.
The European Business Association (EBA) stated its concern about the possibility of liquidating the ministry and attaching parts of it to other ministries or agencies, as did specialized agricultural associations, such as the Ukrainian Grain Association, the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, the Ukrainian Agrarian Forum, the Agrarian Union of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation and others.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky is convinced that Ukraine should be associated not only with agriculture, mines and metallurgy, beautiful people, nature and food, but also with the IT industry. “There has always been a vision for everyone in the world that Ukraine is, above all, agriculture, mines, metallurgists, and tourists have always said that Ukraine is very beautiful, food here is very tasty and people are very beautiful, especially women. Yes, that’s it and it remains our brand, but there are other figures that indicate that the IT industry, IT technologies and companies are developing very quickly in Ukraine,” he said during a visit to Station F, the world’s largest startup campus, in Paris.
According to Zelensky, more than 4% of Ukraine’s GDP is now formed through the IT industry. “We have about 150,000 IT specialists, startup initiators in Ukraine. I think that we will develop in this direction,” he said.
Zelensky noted that in Ukraine there is no such campus for startups yet, but they will work on it. “We have a lot of factories, which, unfortunately, do not work. We will definitely find such a large building,” he said.
