A meeting of the Ukrainian-Polish intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation will be held in the near future, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. “Poland is already our second largest trading partner in the EU, but the potential of this cooperation has no borders,” he said at a joint press conference with President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday.
Zelensky hopes for an active dialogue between the governments of the two countries in the framework of the intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation.
He expressed hope that the next meeting of the commission will take place in the near future.
The United States expects a meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in Warsaw, where a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II will be held on September 1, Assistant to the U.S. President for National Security Affairs John Bolton has said.
He expressed his expectations about the meeting of the two presidents in Warsaw and said they would work on its organization in the coming days.
Poland is ready to launch a gas pipeline with a transmission capacity of 2 billion cubic meters, which will connect the Polish gas transmission system (GTS) with the Ukrainian one in Hermanowice (Poland), the zn.ua (Mirror Weekly) ezine reported on Thursday.
“We are ready to launch the gas pipeline, if necessary, which will connect the Polish system with the Ukrainian one in Hermanowice. Its capacity is 2 billion cubic meters. This is not much, but when Ukrainians need urgent help, we are ready to provide it,” the publication said, quoting a representative of the Polish government for the strategic energy infrastructure Piotr Naimski.
He also said that Poland is waiting for a decision from the Ukrainian side.
T.B.Fruit, one of the largest processors of fruits and berries in Ukraine, has begun the construction of the eighth plant of the group for processing fruits and berries in Brzostowiec (Poland), investment in which will amount to EUR45 million, founder of T.B.Fruit Taras Barschovsky has said. “The capacity for apple processing will be 300,000 tonnes, strawberries 10,000 tonnes, cherries 6,000 tonnes, raspberries 12,000 tonnes, currants some 7,000 tonnes per year. Production start is scheduled for July 2020,” he told the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
According to Barschovsky, investments in the plant are estimated at EUR45 million.
T.B.Fruit is a vertically integrated international group of companies with a closed production cycle (growing raw materials, processing, transportation).
The group of companies was established in July 2011 after the consolidation of all the assets of businessman Taras Barschovsky.
The Olkom Group plans in autumn 2019 to supply a first batch of goods (margarine spread) to Poland, Board Chairman of PrJSC Kyiv Margarine Plant, which is part of the group, Yuriy Yevenko has said.
“We will start trial deliveries to Europe this season – in September. Now we are negotiating with one Polish company. However, they want products under their own trademark, so we will not export under our own trademark yet. The volume of the first delivery is 40 tonnes: this is enough so that they put the products on the shelves of supermarkets. We plan to increase the share of direct exports to 10% of the total production within three to five years,” Yevenko told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, the company increased production by 75% in January-March 2019 (mainly thanks to b2b products), and by the end of the year it plans to double production in monetary terms.
“Last year we earned about UAH 600 million of revenue, and this year we set a goal to earn UAH 1.2 billion,” he said.
He added that in 2018, the company produced about 40,000 tonnes of products, of which 23,000 tonnes were tolling services for oil refining.
Over 2018-2019, company has invested about $1 million in boosting the production capacity, and is currently in talks with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), International Finance Corporation (IFC) and two investment funds.
At the same time, according to Yevenko, in three to five years, Olkom should complete the repayment on loans attracted about 10 years ago and consider expanding production outside Kyiv, but the company does not intend to leave the site in Kyiv.
Ukraine in January-March 2019 increased revenue from exports of electricity by 22.2% or $17.895 million compared with January-March 2018, to $98.366 million, including $33.798 million in March alone.
Hungary bought electricity worth $58.014 million, Poland $22.13 million, Moldova $13.635 million, other countries $4.587 million, Ukraine’s State Fiscal Service has said.
Over the period under review, Ukraine imported electricity worth $0.263 million, in particular, electricity imports from the Russian Federation were estimated at $0.249 million, from Belarus at $0.012 million, from Moldova at $0.002 million.
As reported, Ukraine in 2018 exported electricity worth $331.942 million. Hungary bought electricity worth $189.958 million, Poland $78.763 million, Moldova $53.144 million, and other countries $10.078 million. Exports of Ukrainian electricity in monetary terms in 2018 increased by 40.9% compared to 2017.
Ukraine increased electricity exports by 19.3% or 999.4 million kWh in 2018, to 6.166 billion kWh.
According to the forecast, Ukraine in 2019 plans to export 6.42 billion kWh of electricity, and this is slightly more than in 2018 (6.2 billion kWh).
