In its January review, the International Grains Council (IGC, headquartered in London) raised its forecast for global grain harvest in 2025/26 (July-June) by 31 million tons to a record 2 billion 461 million tons.
This is primarily due to improved forecasts for corn harvests, mainly in the US and China, and barley harvests in Canada and Australia.
In the 2024/25 season, the harvest amounted to 2 billion 238 million tons.
“Thanks to an increase in yield (by 5%) and an increase in acreage (by 1%), the grain harvest in the 2025/26 season will break all existing records. In addition to record corn and wheat harvests, barley and sorghum harvests are also expected to reach multi-year highs,” the review says.
The estimate for grain consumption has been raised by 16 million tons to 2.416 billion tons. Carryover stocks at the end of the season are forecast at 634 million tons, which is almost 16 million tons higher than the previous estimate.
Global trade this season is estimated at 446 million tons, which is 4 million tons higher than the previous forecast and 5% higher on an annualized basis.
The wheat harvest forecast has risen to 842 million tons, which is 12 million tons higher than the previous estimate. In the 2024/25 season, the harvest amounted to 801 million tons. “It is expected that in the 2026/27 season, the area sown with wheat will decrease slightly, and assuming average yields in the next season, the harvest is preliminarily forecast to decline by about 2%,” the review says. “As demand has reached a new peak, a slight reduction in global stocks is expected, but aggregate stocks in major exporting countries will remain at comfortable levels.”
The corn harvest forecast for the 2025/26 season has been raised to 1.313 billion tons from the previous 1.298 billion tons. Last season, 1.238 billion tons were harvested.
The estimate for global rice production has remained virtually unchanged at 543 million tons. Taking into account a slight decline in consumption, stocks at the end of the 2025/26 season will increase by 2 million tons. Expectations for global trade volume in calendar year 2026 have declined slightly, but at 60 million tons (a 2% increase), it will still be a record high, the review notes.
Earlier, the Experts Club analytical center presented a video analysis of global grain production by leading agricultural countries in the period 1991-2024. The video is available here: https://youtube.com/shorts/2XwiBWf9GrM?si=F9-QsXbWRl2jqV8M
Silver prices hit historic highs amid growing demand for safe-haven assets and expectations of monetary policy easing in the US. According to Reuters, the spot price of silver rose to a record $86.22 per troy ounce on January 12.
At the same time, silver futures on the US market rose above $89 per ounce during trading on January 13, Investopedia reported. A number of industry publications noted that at certain points during the session, silver rose by about 5%, reflecting the metal’s increased volatility. Analysts surveyed by Reuters do not rule out a further movement of prices towards $90 per ounce if the current combination of factors supporting precious metals remains in place.
Reference: The Experts Club analytical center previously released a video analysis of the twenty largest silver-producing countries and their competition for leadership in 1971-2024 – https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HvKK-YET8vs
Agro-Region agricultural holding has completed its 2025 harvest campaign with a record corn yield of 9.64 tons per hectare, according to a Facebook post by the holding’s press service.
Agro-Region stated that the yield indicators for the 2025 season exceeded the planned forecasts. One of the production units, AR Bozna, broke its own yield record and the record of other units, achieving a yield of 11.87 tons/ha.
Yuriy Lysak, chief agronomist of Agro-Region, recalled that 2025 was marked by cool weather conditions: spring started late, and all crops, especially corn, did not receive the necessary amount of heat. That is why the harvest started with a delay of almost two weeks. Despite the increased moisture content of corn, which affected the productivity of elevators, the harvest results, according to the expert, were “truly impressive.”
“Thanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as the coordinated work of the agronomic, engineering, and elevator teams, we were able to achieve high results,” Lysak summed up.
Agro-Region agricultural holding owns a land bank of 39,000 hectares in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, and Khmelnytskyi regions. It specializes in crop production. It consists of 11 companies, which are united into four crop clusters. It has two elevators: Boryspil with a capacity of 73,000 tons and Myropil with a capacity of 52,000 tons.
Agro-Region’s annual harvest of grain and oilseeds is 200,000 tons.
In April 2021, the Swedish company Lobiu Sala AB, owned by former Ukrainian Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavičius, received permission from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to purchase the Swedish company Agro Region Stockholm Holding, which manages the Agro-Region group of companies in Ukraine.
Ukrainian cities received 107 trolleybuses in 2025, 75 of which were new, compared to 34 trolleybuses (28 new) in 2024, according to AllTransUA.
“2025 was the year of recovery for the trolleybus market in Ukraine, and although the figures are still lower than deliveries from 2014 to 2021, Ukrainian cities received 107 trolleybuses, which is a record during the full-scale war with Russia. The lion’s share is made up of new trolleybuses (75 units), most of which (66 units) were purchased in cooperation with international financial organizations (IFOs). In 2024, many agreements were signed, which began to be implemented in 2025,” the website said.
In general, according to AllTransUA’s data, last year, Khmelnytskyi (30 units) and Mykolaiv (24 units) received the most new trolleybuses funded by IFOs. Eight trolleybuses were also delivered to Kremenchuk and four to Ivano-Frankivsk.
According to experts, in 2025, the market for new trolleybuses was dominated almost equally by Etalon (manufacturer – Chernihiv Automobile Plant) and PTS (Politechnoservice), covering 91% of the market, while the rest of the supply was covered by Lviv-based Electron (5%) and the Litan trading house (Dnipro brand, 4%), which manufactured trolleybuses for the first time in several years.
In particular, Electron began deliveries to Ivano-Frankivsk, and Litan manufactured trolleybuses for Mykolaiv in Belarusian MAZ bodies, completing the delivery of a batch that was interrupted by the start of a full-scale invasion.
“The question of the origin of the bodies remains open: it is unknown whether they arrived in Ukraine before 2022 or were obtained later through indirect channels,” the report states.
Only Chernihiv (three Etalon T121 Barvinok trolleybuses) and Chernivtsi (six PTS T123 trolleybuses) received new trolleybuses at public expense.
The main recipient of used trolleybuses was Kharkiv, which received 26 Škoda trolleybuses of various models. Rivne purchased four Solaris Trollio trolleybuses from Lublin, and Ivano-Frankivsk received the last Gräf & Stift from Austria.
The city of Dnipro also replaced one YMZ T1 trolleybus body with an unused body from the 1990s (there are three such vehicles in the city in total).
“In 2026, we expect continued revenue under existing agreements within the framework of cooperation with IFIs, both as the completion of deliveries already underway (in particular, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kremenchuk) and deliveries to other cities, in particular Lutsk, Ternopil, and Chernivtsi,” the report says.
According to AllTransUA, in 2024, the market received the smallest number of trolleybuses since 2009, and compared to 2023, deliveries fell by a third.
In pre-war 2021, Ukrainian cities purchased 170 trolleybuses, and in 2020, 337.
Nova Poshta, the leader in express delivery in Ukraine and part of the Nova Group, processed 2.41 million shipments in a single day on December 22, exceeding the previous record of 2.25 million set on December 23, 2024, by 7.1%, the company announced on Friday.
“This is a joint record for the company and our customers, in particular entrepreneurs whose goods we delivered and who, despite all the challenges and difficult conditions, continue to work and support our country’s economy,” said Volodymyr Poperechnyuk, co-owner of Nova Poshta, in a press release on Friday.
It is noted that in 2023, the record day was December 18, when the company processed 2.01 million parcels throughout Ukraine.
The company added that on peak days in December, more than 1,000 additional colleagues from the office were involved in processing parcels.
“Nova Poshta has a pre-New Year tradition when support office employees join the work in branches, at terminals, in fulfillment, as couriers, and as contact center operators,” the company said.
Nova Poshta previously reported that in the first half of 2025, it delivered 238 million parcels and cargoes, which is 7% more than in the same period in 2024, as well as 5.9 million international parcels.
As of October 6, the leader in express delivery in Ukraine had 44,983 service points, including 14,336 branches and 30,647 parcel terminals. In the first half of this year, the branch network grew by 708 points to 13,985, and the number of parcel terminals increased by more than 4,000 to 28,326.
Nova Poshta’s consolidated net profit for January-September 2025 increased by 35.1% compared to the same period last year, to UAH 2 billion 876.38 million, consolidated net income – by 21.7%, to UAH 45 billion 727.67 million.
The main activity of Nova Poshta is express delivery of documents, parcels, and palletized large-sized cargo.
The average cost of housing in Portugal reached historic highs in 2025 amid sustained demand and limited supply, and analysts expect prices to continue to rise in 2026 despite tight affordability conditions.
According to data from the Portuguese Statistical Office (INE), in October 2025, the median bank valuation of residential real estate exceeded the threshold of €2,000 per square meter for the first time, reaching approximately €2,025 per square meter, which is 17.7% more than a year earlier. This marks more than a year of double-digit annual growth in housing prices.
The apartment segment is rising in price faster than villas: according to Global Property Guide estimates, the median bank valuation of apartments reached €2,345 per square meter (+22.1% year-on-year), while villas reached €1,472 per square meter (+11.8%). The highest prices are recorded in the Greater Lisbon agglomeration and in the Algarve tourist region.
According to the Idealista portal, by November 2025, the median asking price for residential real estate across the country reached around €3,000 per square meter (+7.8% year-on-year). At the same time:
Lisbon remains the most expensive market, with an average price of €5,914 per square meter (+4% over the year).
In Porto, the average price is around €3,908 per square meter (+5.9% over the year).
Inland regions (the center, part of Alentejo) are significantly cheaper – in many municipalities, prices range from €1,400 to €1,700 per square meter, while the most affordable districts in the country, according to local research, offer housing from €800 to €900 per square meter.
At the end of 2024, the INE housing price index (HPI) rose by 9.1%, with existing housing rising by 9.7% and new housing by 7.5%. In real terms (adjusted for inflation), prices have been rising continuously since 2013 and have increased by more than 80% during this period, which is significantly higher than the dynamics in neighboring Spain.
The market remains extremely active. In the first half of 2025, 84,247 residential properties were sold in Portugal, 20% more than in the same period in 2024. Sales of secondary housing amounted to 67,578 properties (+20.6% year-on-year), and new housing – 16,669 (+17.7%).
95% of transactions were made by buyers with tax residency in Portugal (about 80,000 properties, +21.9% year-on-year). Foreigners (both from the EU and third countries) purchased 4,205 properties, which is 7.2% less than a year earlier. Experts attribute the decline in the share of foreigners to reforms: the abolition of “golden visas” for real estate investments and the termination of the Non-Habitual Resident preferential tax regime from 2024, which reduced fiscal incentives for foreign investors.
At the same time, 2024 saw a record volume of transactions: in the third quarter of 2024 alone, €9.05 billion worth of housing was sold (+28% year-on-year), with 93.5% of buyers being Portuguese residents and the share of foreigners at around 6.5%.
Supply remains a bottleneck in the market. In the first half of 2025, 13,244 new homes were completed in the country, only 4.9% more than a year earlier and significantly below the rate of increase in the number of transactions. At the same time, the number of building permits issued is growing rapidly: in the first six months of 2025, 21,057 new housing units were licensed (+28.8% year-on-year), reflecting the growing confidence of developers and the expected acceleration in the introduction of new housing in the coming years.
According to BPI Research estimates, the growth in housing prices in Portugal is likely to continue in 2026. This is indicated by a stable labor market, record employment, and real wage growth, which support household purchasing power, as well as the stabilization of interest rates in the eurozone at “neutral” levels after a period of sharp tightening. Analysts expect that, given the current set of factors, prices in 2026 will grow at a rate above the European average, although probably slower than the double-digit figures of 2024-2025 (we are talking about high single-digit percentage growth, provided there are no new shocks in the eurozone). This will sustain investor interest but keep pressure on housing affordability for the local population, especially in large cities and on the coast.
