Romania has expanded the list of goods imported from Ukraine that require a license to enter the country to include eggs and poultry meat, Euractiv.ro reported, citing information from the Romanian government. The publication reminded that Romanian poultry producers faced a “serious problem” due to the import of eggs and poultry meat from Ukraine, which are sold at prices significantly lower than the cost of production in Romania.
According to the Minister of Agriculture Florin Barbu, after discussions with representatives of the poultry industry, the government decided to add eggs and poultry meat to the list of products that can be imported from Ukraine only with a license. The list also includes cereals, seeds, flour and sugar.
“It is our duty to protect Romanian production,” Barbu said.
In addition, he reminded that Romania, as a member of the European Union, must comply with certain production requirements in the poultry sector, which is why Romanian poultry farmers have “30% higher costs than in Ukraine.”
Barbu also emphasized that there is no ban on imports of Ukrainian eggs and poultry meat.
“We have made this decision on licensing to ensure that when the food industry needs these products and Romania is not completely self-sufficient, only Romanian processors will be able to import them under license,” he added.
After the European Commission decided not to extend the ban on imports of Ukrainian grain to five neighboring EU countries (Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary) in September 2023, Romania introduced import licenses for grains and oilseeds from Ukraine and Moldova. This measure, introduced in October last year, was extended.
According to this decision, only Romanian companies engaged in the production of oil and fat products, flour milling, animal feed production and livestock farming are entitled to import agricultural products from Ukraine and Moldova.
Ukrainian one-dollar store chain Aurora has expanded its network to 25 stores and served more than 1 million customers in Romania over the past year, CEO Taras Panasenko said on Facebook.
“Exactly one year ago, the first store in Suceava opened its doors. Now we already have 25 stores here, and eight are in the pipeline to open soon. This year we have served more than 1 million customers in Romania (…), 98% of them are locals,” Panasenko said.
He noted that the segment in Romania is still far from being profitable, “because we need to scale up and fine-tune the product, but we are growing steadily, both quantitatively and qualitatively.”
At the same time, in Romania, Aurora’s NPS (Net Promoter Score), measured by an independent marketing agency, is even higher than in Ukraine, reaching 86.
“We are the first case in the history of independent Ukraine when a system retailer has successfully scaled to the EU. We support local Romanian and Ukrainian producers who export a lot of goods to Aurora Romania. This includes manufacturers from the frontline cities,” he said.
“Aurora was founded in 2011 by Lev Zhidenko, Taras Panasenko and Lesya Klymenko. The retail chain is headquartered in Poltava. The chain has 1528 stores in Ukraine and 25 in Romania.
According to Opendatabot, the owner of Vygidna Pokupka LLC, which develops the chain, is listed as Auroritail Investments Limited of Cyprus, with Zhydenko as its beneficiary. The Cypriot company also owns Prior Development LLC, Seven A LLC, Promyslova 9 LLC, and Tak LLC.
At the end of 2023, the network’s net profit amounted to UAH 4.1 billion, and net income – UAH 27 billion.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 occurred in Romania at 17:40 Kyiv time, with tremors also felt in the city of Odesa. According to the website of the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center, the epicenter was located in the Vrancha Zone in the Carpathians at a depth of 137 km.
Odesa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov reported no casualties or damage in the city.
“An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 occurred in Romania. It was felt in Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine, including Odesa. There was no information about damage or injuries in the city,” Trukhanov wrote on Telegram.
In local social media, users reported that the tremors were also felt in Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, and Bila Tserkva in Kyiv Oblast.
KMZ Industries (Karlivka Machine-Building Plant, KMZ, Poltava region) has fulfilled another export contract for the comprehensive supply of equipment for the construction of an elevator complex in Romania, according to the plant’s website.
“We manufactured and shipped silos, transportation and gravity equipment to the customer in a timely manner,” the statement said.
The supplied equipment includes two conical silos with a diameter of 5.5 m and eight tiers with a capacity of 210 tons of wheat grain each, two elevators with a capacity of 50 tons per hour, an elevator tower, two chain conveyors with a capacity of 50 tons per hour, a conveyor gallery and a set of gravity equipment.
The press service notes that the facility is actively undergoing installation work and this season the silos will receive the first grain stored there before being sent for processing.
“The peculiarity of Romanian farmers is their desire to avoid earthworks as much as possible, so the acceptance of agricultural products at their elevator complexes is carried out using an above-ground silo and elevators without burial. In particular, at the request of the customer, all metal structures (elevator tower, gallery, supports) were also designed and manufactured by KMZ Industries,” Oleksandr Tkachenko, Head of Exports at KMZ Industries, was quoted as saying in the statement.
According to him, the logistics of shipping elevator equipment from Ukraine to Romania is well established, and there are no problems with it.
“The delivery time may still be affected by the lack of truck drivers authorized to cross the border and queues at border crossings, which makes transportation take more than a week.
Therefore, both Romanian customers and Ukrainian producers take these factors into account to avoid the risk of extending the construction time,” Tkachenko added.
As reported, KMZ Industries carried out the first comprehensive supply of a set of elevator equipment for a farm in Romania in 2020, as part of the contract concluded after winning the tender.
KMZ Industries is the largest manufacturer of elevator equipment in Ukraine and produces a full range of equipment, including silos, grain dryers, transport equipment and separators, as well as provides automation and installation services. According to the company, it has sold more than 5,000 facilities. In 2012, the company acquired the assets of Brice-Baker (UK), one of the leading suppliers of elevator equipment in Europe, and in April 2021 announced a merger with the elevator business of Variant Agro Bud LLC.
According to the Clarity Project, in 2023, KMZ reduced its net profit by 3.9 times compared to 2022, to UAH 15.8 million, with revenue falling by 20% to UAH 650.2 million.
The plant ended the first quarter of this year with a net profit of UAH 35.4 million, 3.9 times more than in January-March 2023, and revenue increased by 3.3% to UAH 71.7 million.
Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria on Monday launched a joint mine-sweeping operation in the Black Sea to improve shipping safety, especially during the export of Ukrainian grain, Bloomberg reports.
The publication noted that the Istanbul-led initiative is the first major joint action by the Black Sea countries since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and focuses on clearing mines drifting in certain areas of the Black Sea as a result of the war.
“Russia and Ukraine are key grain producers, and the war has jeopardized the safe passage of goods. Kyiv launched its own Black Sea export route last year after the failure of a secure corridor agreement backed by Russia, Turkey and the United Nations. It has successfully boosted exports and helped the economy grow faster than forecast, but the route remains risky,” Bloomberg writes.
Among the major maritime losses, the publication named a Russian missile attack near the key Ukrainian port of Odesa on a merchant ship, killing the captain and other crew members, as well as a ship hired by Cargill Inc. that was damaged in November by an explosion while leaving a Ukrainian port in the Black Sea.
Ukraine said in March that exports from its Black Sea ports had almost returned to pre-war levels after repeated attacks and disruptions following Russia’s full-scale invasion. However, ports around Odesa frequently face strikes from Russia that continue to interrupt operations, Bloomberg recalled.
Eurohold Bulgaria AD (Eurohold) and Euroins Insurance Group AD (EIG) have officially filed an arbitration claim against the Romanian government with the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington, DC, for more than EUR 500 million, according to the EIG website.
According to the report, the arbitration proceedings were initiated due to the Romanian state’s failure to comply with its obligations under the bilateral investment treaty between Bulgaria and Romania, including its obligation to ensure fair and equitable treatment for companies. EIG has been one of the largest investors in the Romanian insurance market, with investments of approximately EUR 280 million.
Eurohold and EIG are seeking damages for the actions of the Romanian authorities, which have damaged EIG’s business in Romania and completely destroyed it in the case of Euroins Romania, the statement said.
As reported, on March 17, 2023, the Romanian financial authority ASF revoked the license of Euroins Romania, which led to the bankruptcy of the insurer in June 2023.
October 25, 2023. Eurohold and EIG sent a notice of dispute to the Romanian government requesting an amicable settlement in the Euroins Romania case, but the Romanian government did not use this option.
Eurohold and EIG are being advised in the arbitration proceedings by Pinsent Masons, a leading multinational law firm, and by Gingov, Guginski, Ketchukov and Velichkov (DGKV), one of the largest and most prominent law firms in Bulgaria.
Euroins Insurance Group (EIG) is one of the largest independent insurance groups operating in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, represented in Ukraine by Euroins Ukraine.
