The Chumak PJSC intends to build a plant for processing tomatoes into paste in Odessa Region, as the company considers this region to be the most favorable in terms of climatic conditions, the director of the department of agrarian policy, food and land relations of the Odessa OVA, Alla Stoyanova, has said on Facebook.
The official recalled that Ukraine covers its domestic needs in vegetables at the expense of imports. According to Stoyanova, in Odessa region in 2023, the sown area of vegetable crops is 1489 hectares, of which 476.6 hectares are allocated for tomatoes, 307.1 hectares – onions, 95.11 hectares – carrots, 81.87 hectares – cabbage, 22.75 hectares – cucumbers, 434.44 – other vegetable crops.
The Director of the Department also informed that relocation of production facilities of Chumak PJSC to Odessa region will be a significant support for agro-industrial complex of the region and will create almost 5000 additional jobs.
The director of “Evrika” LLC Mikhail Bely suggested “systematic and balanced approach to the issue of product logistics”, which will facilitate the delivery of products to farmers for processing and will help the company “Chumak”.
Farmers present at the meeting expressed their willingness to expand production areas under tomato production.
“Vegetable farming is a high-cost business. It depends on irrigation and acquisition of specialized machinery, because farmers massively complain about the shortage of workers. In addition to investments in mechanization of production, attention should also be paid to storage and processing of products. We have a huge potential – natural, logistical (…), human”, summarized Stoyanova.
JV Nibulon LLC (Nikolaev), one of the largest operators on the grain market of Ukraine, attracted EUR27 million from the Export Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) to increase the capacity of the Bessarabian branch in Izmail, where an elevator and a flour mill will be built, the company’s press service said on Facebook.
“We are extremely impressed by the speed of decision-making and support from Denmark in these difficult times for the Ukrainian economy. We really need more and more such positive signals so that others can emulate them,” Nibulon CFO Olga Babanina said.
According to the grain trader, the raised funds will be used to build an elevator for simultaneous storage of 118.5 thousand tons of grain and high-tech modern mill with a capacity of 750 tons per day.
This infrastructural solution will allow Nibulon to increase its export capacity up to 300,000 tons per month and supply flour to the domestic market as well as serve the interests of the food security mission of UN World Food Program via the Danube ports, the company explained.
Besides, the company added that construction of the new production facilities will allow to increase the number of jobs in the region and employ 100 specialists.
As it was informed, the financing is carried out within the framework of social program of Danish Investment Fund, created for Ukraine. The launch of the program was announced in May during the Ukrainian Investment Forum in Copenhagen.
JV Nibulon LLC was founded in 1991. Before the Russian military invasion the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and complexes for reception of agricultural crops, capacities for simultaneous storage of 2.25 mln tons of agro-industrial complex products, fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugboats) and owned Nikolaev Shipbuilding Plant.
“Nibulon” before the war worked 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries.
The grain trader exported a maximum of 5.64 million tons of agricultural products in 2021, reaching record volumes of deliveries to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, in the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
Nibulon’s losses from Russia’s full-scale invasion reached $400 million. The grain trader is currently operating at 30% of its capacity and has set up a special unit to clear farmland.
Investment company BGV Group Management in 2024 plans to begin construction of a plant to produce graphite concentrate and spherical granite on the basis of Balakhovskoye deposit (Kirovograd region).
“BGV’s team is currently performing the second stage of pilot tests of the processing plant and completing the design of the production complex and graphite pilot tests on the Balakhovskoye project. Next year, the company plans to start building one of the largest production complexes in Europe,” BGV Group Management said in a press release.
According to its data, the facility’s potential capacity will be 50,000 tons of graphite concentrate per year and 19,000 tons of spherical graphite for lithium-ion batteries. The company expects that such volume will be able to cover a significant part of the European Union market demand.
BGV is also working on a pre-feasibility study for the Perzhansky complex beryllium deposit (Zhytomyr region) and expects to present the results to investors soon. According to its data, the deposit has reserves of 2.34 million tons of ore. In addition, it also has reserves of zinc, rare earth elements and other materials.
Investments in extraction and further processing of raw materials are one of the main focuses of the company, BGV Group Management board member Sergii Voytsekhovskii said during the presentation of projects at Ukraine Recovery Conference 2023 in London. According to him, the investments of the group and its founder Gennady Butkevich in the Ukrainian mining projects amounted to over $100 mln in eight years.
BGV Group Management is an investment company, which develops businesses and projects in mining, processing, energy efficiency, retail and development. Its founder Gennady Butkevich is also a co-owner of ATB Corporation
Kernel Agro Group is completing the construction of Starokonstantinov Oil Extraction Plant (SEP) in Khmelnitsky Oblast, CEO of the agro-holding Evgeniy Osipov said at the Grain Ukraine-2023 international grain conference.
“As early as next year, we will finish the construction of the Starokonstantinovsky Oil Extraction Plant, which will be able to process 1 million tons of sunflower annually,” he said in a statement on the company’s Facebook page on Wednesday.
According to Osipov, Kernel has invested more than $800 million in the Ukrainian market over the past few years.
“Each of our initiatives is implemented with the goal of strengthening the country’s agricultural potential. We must be ready to accept the products of Ukrainian farmers in time. We must provide all necessary services to our agrarians so that they can sell their products, get the necessary resources and invest them into production,” he stressed.
Osipov clarified that “Kernel” intends to increase the volume of processing and production of products with added value. To do this it is important to build effective logistics for the company’s partners to export their products.
“Our task is to increase the efficiency of the business system,” explained the CEO of Kernel.
As reported, in February 2023, “Kernel” acquired the river terminal “Danube Prom Agro” in the Ukrainian port of Reni on the Danube.
Kernel Agro Holding before the war was the world’s number one producer of sunflower oil (about 7% of world production) and its exports (about 12%). The company is one of the largest producers and sellers of bottled oil in Ukraine. Kernel is also involved in crop growing and sales of agricultural products.
The largest co-owner of Kernel, through Namsen Ltd. – Ukrainian businessman Andrei Verevskyi, with a 41.3% stake, has recently proposed Kernel’s delisting from the Warsaw Stock Exchange and a buyout of its shares from other shareholders.
For the first half of fiscal 2023 (FY, July-December 2022), Kernel cut its net profit by 12.6% YoY to $370.3
NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine has refused to implement the UAH 1 billion project to build the first powerful biofuel CHP in Lviv that was launched when Yuri Vitrenko was in charge of the company, Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovoy said.
“Unfortunately, we have not found the support of “Naftogaz” in the implementation of this project, so now the process is suspended. We are directing all our energy, in particular, to the construction of a waste recycling plant,” he told Energoreform correspondent on the sidelines of the high-level meeting “Agreement of Mayors in Ukraine: Planning Sustainable Development Together” in Lviv on Wednesday.
At the same time, Sadovy noted that no money was allocated from the city budget for the CHP construction project. “It was an initiative of the former head of Naftogaz (Yuriy Vitrenko – ER), but today the management of the company has a different opinion regarding such projects in Ukraine,” the Lviv mayor explained.
At the same time, he pointed out that among other things there is a waste composting station in Lviv, and other eco-projects aimed at reducing CO2 emissions are implemented.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, in September 2022, the Naftogaz of Ukraine jointly with the Lviv City Council launched a project to construct a combined heat and power plant on wood chips, which was planned to be put into operation by February 2023.
As Vitrenko said then, the cost of the project for the company will cost approximately UAH 1 billion.
Sadovaya, in turn, noted that for the city it will be the first powerful CHP plant on alternative fuel, which will cover about a quarter of its needs in heat. “We have planned such a project with the EBRD for a long time, but according to their classical procedures we could start it only next year. But Russian aggression has so activated the thought process that we came to agreements with Naftogaz,” he explained.
Similar projects were planned in other cities: under Vitrenko, Naftogaz announced its intention to build at least nine combined heat and power plants in eight regions of Ukraine with a total capacity of 250 MW of thermal energy and 52 MW of electrical energy.
According to Sadovyy, the construction of a waste processing plant in Lviv is planned to be completed by the end of this year. The works are 25% completed.
“Covenant of Mayors in Ukraine: planning sustainable development together” is the biggest movement in the world concerning climate and energy, which started in the European Union in 2008. Now the initiative unites 11 thousand local and regional authorities in 55 countries of the world. For today almost 300 Ukrainian communities have joined the climate movement. They have developed 180 action plans aimed at solving energy and climate problems. Signatories of the agreement in Ukraine have pledged to reduce CO2 emissions by more than 25 million tons per year.
Velta Group of Companies with titanium ore mining assets in Novomirgorod (Kirovograd Region) decided to build a plant to produce titanium products using its own innovative technology in the United States instead of Ukraine and the UAE because of the war.
The company’s president, Andrei Brodsky, said on Facebook on Sunday that it has been more than two weeks since he returned from a business trip to Washington, D.C.
“Before the full-scale war began, we, VELTA, were starting to build a pilot plant to make titanium products using our own technology. We obtained a lease on an industrial facility in Novomoskovsk, began repair and construction work and the purchase of equipment. We also received a long-term lease on the territory of a former mine next to our mining and processing facility in Novomirgorod in Kirovograd region and began designing a large enterprise. It has to be a new Ukrainian industrial giant. Everything was stopped by the war”, stated the CEO.
According to him, near the future enterprise “two Russian missiles flew in, right above our mine our air defense shot down another one, there was a threat of a quick breakthrough front”.
In order “not to give high-tech developments to the enemy,” they decided to create the first enterprise for the processing of titanium raw materials outside of Ukraine. “It was a forced and very difficult decision,” said the co-founder of VELTA.
At the same time, he noted that the company had very strong ideas to build an enterprise in the UAE.
But the UAE has taken an unclear position with regard to Ukraine, “Kadyrovites and simply fugitive Russians have created their own almost hub there, and I stopped to consider Dubai or Abu Dhabi as an attractive haven,” Brodsky said. He also noted that he had to reformat his plans concerning titanium products: “Even now I really want to produce purely civilian products. And we are going to do that. Perhaps later… Now the market says completely different things. The world has completely changed with the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine.
According to Brodsky, it was decided to build the company in the United States, which is Ukraine’s main and reliable ally in the fight against Russian invaders and also the leading leader in technology and weapons production.
PKF VELTA LLC was registered in April 2000. The main activity is the extraction and production of ilmenite concentrate.
VELTA Holding LLC owns 100% of PKF VELTA LLC. The ultimate beneficiaries are three individuals: Andrey Brodsky (60%), Vadim Moskalenko (20%) and Vitaly Malakhov (20%).
