Avers-Agro agricultural equipment manufacturer in connection with the coronavirus pandemic launches production of lung artificial ventilation devices.
The company told the Interfax-Ukraine agency that production of ventilators was established as part of an international project.
“Our company participates in an international project together with manufacturers from Italy and Germany: there the devices have already been licensed. We adapted our devices a little for the Ukrainian market. This week we will release the first ten ventilation machines and at the end of the week we submit documents to the State Service of Ukraine on Medicines and Drugs Control for registration,” the company said.
Avers-Agro also emphasized that several private clinics were already interested in the devices.
Ukrainian farmers under the government-funded program to support acquisition of Ukrainian machinery and equipment bought it for the amount of over UAH 5.77 billion in 2019, which is 31.2% more than in 2018, Secretary of the National Committee for Industrial Development Olena Salikhova has said.
“At the same time, the amount of compensation [25% of the cost] for the purchased equipment according to the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, in fact in 2019 amounted to UAH 640 million (applications submitted by farmers in September were satisfied), while applications filed in October-November for the amount of UAH 563 million were not compensated, but the equipment was purchased,” she said during a Thursday working meeting with Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Taras Vysotsky with agricultural associations devoted to support programs for 2020.
In turn, Vysotsky said that this program was underfunded due to the fact that the budget provided for these purposes less funds (UAH 682 million) than the demand for this program.
“Farmers bought a lot more equipment under the program than there were funds in the budget, so we can discuss the possibility of considering this compensation in 2020. Our position is to complete all the programs,” the deputy minister said.
He said that in the fourth quarter, when there was no money left for compensation, farmers purchased equipment for UAH 2 billion, which means compensation for another UAH 500 million.
The Agrotrade Group in spring 2019 will invest $1.2 million in the upgrade of its agricultural machinery fleet, the press service of the company has reported.
“The company will purchase five tractors and three cultivators. The total amount of investments is about $ 1.2 million,” the agro holding’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the press service, Agrotrade intends to unify the equipment of the holding’s enterprises, which will help minimize costs.
“We are going to ensure that all the tractors will be made by the same manufacturer and of the same model range. At the moment, approximately 90% of our equipment is Case and New Holland, and about 10% is John Deere. We plan to gradually abandon the latter,” the press service reported, citing Financial and Operations Director at Agrotrade Olena Vorona.
Agrotrade is a vertically integrated holding, engaged in production, processing, storage and trade in agricultural products. It manages 72,000 hectares of farmland in Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv regions.
The spending of funds under the program of providing public grants to buy agricultural machinery in 2018 grew to UAH 912.9 million from UAH 134.1 million a year ago, and the number of agricultural companies that participated in the program of partial compensation for purchase of Ukrainian-made agricultural machinery rose to 7,043 from 1,220.
Agricultural enterprises bought 17,182 units of agricultural machinery for UAH 4.4 billion in 2018, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv wrote on his Facebook page. In 2017, companies bought 2,906 units of agricultural machinery under the public grants program, he said. “This mechanism of support for Ukrainian agricultural machinery manufacturers allows us to simultaneously stimulate modernization in the agricultural and industrial sector, increase the localization of agricultural machinery production in Ukraine and develop Ukrainian industrial production,” Kubiv said.
As reported, the budget for 2018 provided for UAH 945 million to reduce the cost of agricultural equipment. The 2019 budget for government support of the agricultural and industrial complex is announced to be about UAH 6 billion. In particular, grants for the purchase of agricultural equipment amount to some UAH 0.9 billion.
Lozova Machinery (a brand of cultivating agricultural machinery manufactured by the enterprises of the UPEC industrial group, Kharkiv region) soon will sign a distribution contract with BELARUS company, which will represent the products of Lozova Machinery in Germany, the press service of UPEC has reported. The relevant agreement was reached during the participation of Lozova Machinery in a large exhibition of agricultural products and agricultural machinery Landwirtschaftliches Hauptfest 2018 in Stuttgart (Germany).
“We have agreed to cooperate with the largest European distributor of the Minsk Tractor Plant (MTZ) – the BELARUS company, which has an extensive dealer network. In the near future, we will sign a distribution contract. It is planned that in the future BELARUS will represent the production of Lozova Machinery in Germany,” the press service said, citing Sales Director of the agricultural division of UPEC Eduard Chudopalov.
According to him, in Germany it is planned to expand the presence and demonstration of equipment at the exhibition events of the northern and eastern regions of this country.
“In particular, in February, with a new dealer, they scheduled joint participation in one of the largest German exhibitions in Leipzig,” he said.
The press service of UPEC told Interfax-Ukraine agency that currently there is one dealer of Lozova Machinery in Germany. The share of this country in the company’s European exports is 3%.
“But next year, we are counting on a significant increase in the share,” the press service said.
