Travel companies saw sales of vacation packages to destinations in Russia and abroad tumble 20-40% on the first day of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, Russian tour operators association ATOR reported on Friday.
Tourists are also asking about the conditions for cancelling trips, but so far few have actually done so, ATOR said.
“Sales of tour packages are lagging behind the average figures last week by 20-40%. The figures vary depending on the company. A large portion of the drop in sales was for tours in Russia – at some companies in this segment it is as much as 40%. Tour operators believe that this is probably a short-term phenomenon that has more to do with the confusion with tourists’ departures from regions in southern Russia,” ATOR said.
The steepest drop has been in sales of trips in the next few weeks in March. Early bookings for summer holidays at resorts in Krasnodar Territory and Crimea declined far less, by only 10-20%, ATOR said.
“Tourists, as we see, believe that the crisis will be resolved by the end of spring. The drop in this segment is smaller than for earlier dates,” the association said.
Sales of vacations abroad also saw a smaller decline, of 15-20%, and also primarily for the coming weeks.
“Some tourists who planned to buy tours for upcoming dates prefer to hold off on booking. But requests continue to come in for the summer, including quite expensive ones. The decline here is not very noticeable. As always, it is the luxury segment that is the most stable,” ATOR said.
Travel agencies and tour operators said they are getting many questions from tourists about the possible size of penalties for trip cancellations, but there are few actual cancellations so far, partly because cancellation terms for upcoming dates usually stipulate penalties. There are also tourists asking about possible travel discounts being offered in connection with the crisis.
Nemiroff, one of the largest Ukrainian producers of alcoholic beverages, increased sales of vodka in Ukraine and on international markets by 12% in 2021 compared to 2020, to 5.63 million 9-liter cases (international unit for measuring alcohol – a box with 12 bottles totaling 9 liters), which corresponds to 50.67 million liters of vodka.
“Many factors contributed to the growth, including the strengthening of the brand’s position in the premium segment, entering new markets and the gradual recovery of the HoReCa and Duty Free segments after the start of the pandemic,” Nemiroff CEO Yuriy Sorochynsky told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.
He also said that the company entered 10 new export markets in 2021. In addition, last year the Nemiroff brand was recognized by IWSR as the fastest growing international spirits brand in the world.
According to Sorochynsky, the company’s sales in the Duty-Free and Travel Retail segments showed upward dynamics, where Nemiroff has been in the top three vodka brands in the world since 2016. Total sales in this area returned to growth last year (especially in the premium segment) after a decrease in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company’s strategy also includes the development of a culture of mixology – the preparation of alcoholic cocktails, including at home.
According to Nemiroff, the company is one of the world’s largest vodka brands, one of the top three global vodka suppliers in the Duty Free&Travel Retail segment. According to Asnilsen Ukraine, Nemiroff is the No. 1 brand in Ukraine for the period from January 2020 to July 2021 in monetary terms and in bottles in the vodka category. The company sells its products in more than 80 countries.
In 2021, state-owned enterprise Artyomsol (Donetsk region) extracted, processed and shipped 1.9 million tonnes of salt to consumers, which is 60% more than in 2020, while the share of exports in total supplies grown by 11.2 percentage points – from 28.3% (336,600 tonnes) to 39.5% (744,200 tonnes).
The company said in a report on its website on Tuesday, the sale of de-icing salt last year grew by 25.2% by 2020, to 936,800 tonnes, shipped in bulk ground salt – to 545,800 tonnes (33.2% more), packaged salt sales amounted to 171,900 tonnes, salt in flexible containers (FIBC) increased to 53,700 = tonnes (5.4% more), iodized salt amounted to 45,300 tonnes.
“The increase in the efficiency of the enterprise was achieved thanks to… a comprehensive program for the improvement of production, developed and implemented at the end of 2020. As a result, last year the volume of salt production increased, sales of products grew, the level of profitability of the enterprise increased, and the wages of employees also grew,” the company said.
SOE Artyomsol is one of the largest enterprises for the extraction and sale of table salt in Central and Eastern Europe. The production facilities of SOE Artyomsol are located in Soledar, Donetsk region.
Sales of new passenger cars in October this year decreased by 8% compared to the same month last year and by 14% from September this year, to 8,000 units, AUTO-Consulting reports.
“The reason for a decrease was the shortage of cars due to the crisis with microchips in the global auto industry. In October, it also covered the Ukrainian car market and knocked down sales of most operators. But there were also those who decided to take advantage of the shortage of cars from competitors and, on the contrary, increased sales,” the report says.
Toyota retained its leadership in the market in October, but the auto deficit reduced its indicators by 18% from September 2021 – to 1,243 units. The second and third places, as before, also were occupied by Renault (sales dropped by 27%, to 920 units) and Kia (minus 33%, to 669 units).
At the same time, China’s Chery moved to the fourth position in the ranking (from the eighth in September) with a 25% increase in sales, to 488 cars.
Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Nissan retained their positions, while Mitsubishi added 3% in sales compared to September.
According to the analysts of the group, the further picture of the location of the brands fixes not so much the market result as the amount of car stocks at dealerships and their outflow/arrival.
“Not so many car brands were able to take advantage of the deficit of competitors. It is clearly seen that so far Chinese manufacturers are benefiting from the chip crisis, since almost all of them have recorded a stable growth in sales,” the source said.
According to it, a total of 84,000 new passenger cars were sold in Ukraine in January-October, which is 22% more than in the same period last year and is almost equal to the indicator for the entire last year.
“So 2021 will already be a positive year, despite the quarantines and chip crises,” the experts said.
Agroholding KSG Agro in January-September 2021 increased the volume of sales of pigs in live weight by 17.4% compared to the same period last year, to 6,650 tonnes, the growth was mainly due to the renewal of livestock and changes structure of compound feed, according to a press release from the group of companies.
“We managed to significantly improve the quality of feed thanks to a comprehensive partnership program with Cargill. As part of the program, we not only improved the qualifications of our personnel, but also modernized equipment, created modern laboratories,” Board Chairman of KSG Agro Serhiy Kasianov said.
In addition, this year, KSG Agro purchased 1,000 sows of the Danish Dunbred breed as part of the livestock renewal, which increased the birth rate of piglets.
The livestock segment of the agricultural holding provides its own feed from the mill with a monthly capacity of 2,500 tonnes, which uses its own raw materials and additives-premixes purchased from Cargill.
According to Oleksandr Dolzhenko, the head of the meat department of KSG Agro, the group is currently preparing for the modernization of the pig breeding complex in the village of Nyva Trudova (Dnipropetrovsk region), the project documentation for future work has already been approved.
The vertically integrated holding KSG Agro is engaged in pig breeding, as well as in the production, storage, processing and sale of grain and oilseeds. Its land bank is about 21,000 hectares.
In January-June 2021, the Latvian pharmaceutical concern Olainfarm increased sales of products in Ukraine by 24% compared to the same period in 2020, to EUR 6.313 million.
According to the company’s materials, the improvement of this indicator has been facilitated by the introduction of a new marketing model in Ukraine since the end of 2020.
In general, over the six months of 2021, the group’s sales reached EUR 66.671 million, which is almost the same as the level of sales for the same period in 2020.
The largest markets for Olainfarm Group were Latvia (30%), Russia (about 27%), Belarus (about 12%), and Ukraine (over 9%).
Olainfarm is the largest pharmaceutical company in Latvia and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the Baltic States. Its product portfolio includes over 60 finished dosage forms, 25 active pharmaceutical ingredients and over 20 chemical intermediates.
Subsidiaries are located in Ukraine, Lithuania, Turkey and Kyrgyzstan, and representative offices – in the Russian Federation, Belarus, Tajikistan, Albania, Mongolia, and Uzbekistan.
