On Thursday, in the presence of Ukraine’s Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Vitaliy Koval, Italian Ambassador to Ukraine Carlo Formosa signed an agreement with the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Research in Bari (CIHEAM) to launch the €9 million Pro.UKR project.
The Italian embassy toldInterfax-Ukraine that the agreement aims to promote sustainable agricultural development and food security in the agricultural areas of Odesa region.
The project, which will strengthen the production, technical and organizational capacities of local agricultural producers, livestock enterprises and cooperatives, will be fully implemented in Odesa, a city over which Italy has taken patronage for recovery, demonstrating Italy’s commitment to one of the regions most affected by the war. The program, developed jointly with the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and technical experts from Odesa Oblast, will include the provision of tools for production in the fields of agriculture and livestock, the introduction of new technologies and sustainable irrigation systems.
“The agri-food sector is one of the key components for Ukraine’s economic recovery, particularly in the agricultural areas where small businesses have been particularly hard hit by the conflict. Italy reaffirms its support through a concrete project aimed at strengthening food security and promoting sustainable agricultural development,” said Ambassador Formosa.
The Pro.UKR program is part of a broader effort by Italy to support the recovery of Ukraine and the Odesa region, with the aim of contributing to the country’s economic and social resilience in the current difficult environment.
Agrane Agro Holding has modernized the grain receiving infrastructure at the Service Grain elevator complex (Odesa region) and laid a 200-meter railway line to it, the group’s press service reports.
According to the report, the newly laid railway line allows the company to ship up to 30 cars per day, which reduces the cost and speeds up the delivery of grain to ports.
In addition, Service Grain has equipped three hubs for receiving grain from trucks, including heavy trucks (up to 20 m long). With a total capacity of 2,000 tons, the elevator complex is ready to receive grain up to 1,700 tons per day.
According to the agroholding, the storage capacity of the complex, which is equipped with equipment from the domestic manufacturer KMZ Industries, has already reached 100 thousand tons.
“Thanks to the introduction of modern technologies, the elevator can simultaneously accept and ship both large and small batches of grain in a short time,” Agrane summarized.
“Agrain is engaged in the cultivation and storage of grains and oilseeds, as well as livestock farming. Before the full-scale Russian invasion, the agricultural holding included 11 agricultural enterprises. It cultivated about 110,000 hectares in Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Odesa, and Cherkasy regions.
The holding is owned by SAS Investcompagnie (France).
Farmers of Odesa region had already harvested almost 2 million tonnes of grain, Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for Odesa regional military administration, said.
“We have one more front, we should not forget about it, and it is also one of the main ones – this is the agrarian front. Today, our grain growers have already harvested almost 2 million tonnes [of grain]. The northern parts of Odesa region have joined the harvest. We understand that if there is grain [and there will be!], there is flour. And Odesa region and other regions of our state, and, accordingly, entire Ukraine will have this resource,” he said at a briefing at the Ukraine Media Center on Monday.
At the same time, Bratchuk is convinced that the grain reserves in Odesa region will be sufficient for Ukraine to be able to export it to other countries.
The project of the Dunaya resort in Odesa region provides for attracting private investments of $2.5 billion, replenishing the hotel rooms with 20,000 rooms and creating 25,000 jobs, Fazil Askerov, the chairman of the board of the Odesa region tourism association, has said.
“This is the Dunaya resort town. The state company Dunaya. A year-round resort with a gambling zone. It will be located on the spit (part of the spit is a dam) between Sasyk Lake and the Black Sea. More than 500 hectares, the embankment is over 10 km. More than 80 hotels, the smallest with 150 rooms, and the largest with 1,000 rooms,” he said on Facebook.
The project provides for the opening of the first hotels in 2022, Askerov said. According to the plan, the resort will receive the first million tourists in 2025, and by 2030 their number will reach 6 million annually.
“After the quarantine is over, we will definitely hold a public presentation of the project for the general public,” he wrote.
He added that the project was created on the initiative of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, the project’s architect was Serhiy Husev’s team, and one of the ideological authors was the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Economic Development, Dmytro Natalukha. In addition, according to him, Mikheil Saakashvili presented the project at the parliamentary hearings in 2016.
UDP Renewables has launched the Port Solar solar power plant with a capacity of 8.6 MW in Izmail, Odesa region.
According to the press service of the company, more than 25,700 solar panels manufactured by Jinko Solar (the largest global manufacturer of solar panels) are installed on an area of 16 hectares. It is expected that the plant will generate about 11,800 MWh of electricity annually.
The co-investor in the facility is Slovakia’s E-Group, the general contractor is the Metropolia Group of Companies (Kyiv).
“Involving the experience of our partners, UFuture and UDP Renewables are working to ensure that energy production in Ukraine complies with the best global environmental safety and energy efficiency practices. Our goal is more than 300 MW by 2022. Now we are following the plan, gradually implementing projects in the regions with the highest solar activity – Odesa, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions,” the press service said, citing the founder of the UFuture investment group Vasyl Khmelnytsky.
The company also reported that Ukrainian-built equipment worth over UAH 44.5 million was used in the construction of this plant. The total amount of attracted investments amounted to EUR 6.75 million.
UDP Renewables is an investment and development company in the field of renewable energy. It is part of the UFuture investment group, which belongs to Khmelnytsky.
E-Group is part of the INDUSTRY investments sub-fund that invests in energy. It belongs to the portfolio of the qualified investors fund ZMJ SICAV.
Ovid Wind II LLC (Kyiv) intends to build the Roksolanivska wind farm (Ovidiopol district, Odesa region) with a capacity of 96 MW, according to the website of the unified register of environmental impact assessment. It is planned within the project to build 16 wind turbines with a capacity of 6 MW each. The height of the towers will be 140 meters.
In addition, it is planned to build a 110/35 kV substation and 110 kV power grids. The term of operation of the wind plant is 20 years.
Ovid Wind II belongs to the Cypriot company DLG Wind Rose Ltd. According to the unified register of legal entities, the director of Ovid Wind II is managing partner of INTEGRITES law firm Oleksiy Feliv.
