Ukraine, Poland and the United States on Saturday, August 31, signed an agreement on cooperation in the gas sector, National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine Oleksandr Danilyuk said.
“At a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, which preceded the signing of the Memorandum, we discussed the importance of diversifying the risks dictated by dependence on Russian gas supplies, both for Ukraine and Poland. One of the steps to ensure energy independence of our state will be the supply of liquefied gas through Poland, “he wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday night.
Danyliuk considers the signing of the memorandum historically important for Ukraine.
“A historic day. Another step towards diversifying gas supplies to Ukraine,” Danyliuk said.
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.
