Ukraine would be grateful to Germany for assistance in unblocking the export of agricultural products and organizing mobile grain storage facilities due to the expected shortage of storage capacity this autumn, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a meeting with Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture of Germany Chem Ozdemir.
“According to preliminary estimates, in October we may not have enough storage facilities to store crops for 10-15 million tons. The Ministry of Agrarian Policy is considering the possibility of organizing mobile storage facilities,” he wrote in a telegram on Saturday.
Shmyhal stressed that Russia is deliberately destroying agricultural facilities, such as Ukraine’s second largest grain terminal in Nikolaev a few days ago.
In early June, the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) increased the forecast for grain and oilseeds harvest in Ukraine this season by 5.2% compared to the April forecast – up to 66.5 million tons.
Continental Farmers Group agricultural holding put into operation a potato storage facility in the village of Chukva (Lviv region), designed for simultaneous storage of up to 16,000 tonnes of potatoes, investments in the project amounted to UAH 111.4 million, according to the website of the group.
“After launching a new complex in the village of Chukva, our company has the ability to simultaneously store over 100,000 tonnes of potatoes and supply them to our customers throughout almost the entire year with the preservation of quality indicators,” Continental Farmers CEO Georg v. Nolcken said.
Construction work at the facility with a total area of over 6,000 square meters was conducted during 10 months. The storage is zoned into six chambers for bulk storage of potatoes with a total capacity of 2,650 tonnes each, its shelf life is about 10 months.
Continental Farmers Group said that the floor of the potato storage is equipped with forced air systems that evenly distribute ventilation around the entire perimeter of the building, this technology is used for the first time in Ukraine.
The agricultural holding indicated among its priorities the cultivation of potatoes: chips, seed and food varieties. The total area under potatoes in the current production season amounted to 1,800 hectares, its harvest is stored in warehouses in Ternopil and Lviv regions with a total capacity of 103,000 tonnes. The group also has its own starch plant.
Agroholding Mriya and CFG, united under the name Continental Farmers Group, have been operating as a single business since November 2018.
The Ministry of Health of Ukraine allowed to store the undiluted vaccine against COVID-19 Comirnaty produced by Pfizer-BioNTech at temperatures from + 2°C to + 8°C for a month instead of five days, the ministry said on its official website.
The Ministry of Health received the corresponding letter from Pfizer Export B.V. with a request to review the requirements for the cold chain of the Comirnaty vaccine on June 24, 2021. The company turned to regulators after a series of new studies.
The European Medicines Agency, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and the relevant authorities of other countries have also changed the storage requirements for the vaccine.
Allseeds, one of the largest producers and exporters of vegetable oil in Ukraine, has expanded the oil storage facilities at a terminal in the Pivdenny port (Odesa region) by 2.4 times, to 100,000 tonnes, according to a posting on the website of the group on Tuesday. “Recently, the capacity of the tank farm here has increased from 42,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes for one-time oil storage. The company is ready to fill tankers at seven loading points from six berths belonging to TIS company with a speed of up to 1,200 tonnes/hour,” the company said.
The company said that such capabilities in logistics and active mutually beneficial cooperation with partners allowed Allseeds in April 2019 to set its own transshipment record of about 100,000 tonnes of vegetable oil which corresponds to 1.2 million tonnes per year.
“So far [1.2 million tonnes a year]… Because the development plan implementation of the company’s oilseed-processing and terminal complexes in Pivdenny and its infrastructure continues,” the company said.
Allseeds Group was founded in 2010.
JSC Ukrtransgaz has created a new branch – Operator of Ukrainian Gas Storage Facilities, which will be responsible for the provision of gas storage services and operation of underground gas storage facilities.
The company said in a press release that the branch would consolidate all assets, processes and employees required for the provision of gas storage services. It is planned that the branch will start operating at a full capacity from January 1, 2019. The branch will function as a structural unit of Ukrtransgaz, without establishing a separate legal entity.
Ukrtransgaz is conducting preparatory work on the legal and organizational design of the operation of the branch, the redistribution of production and business processes, an inventory of existing assets and the transfer to the new branch of more than 1,700 specialists who support the operation of Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities.
“The creation of the operator is a consistent step towards the qualitative completion of the unbundling process, as a result of which the operator of Ukraine’s GTS [gas transmission system] will be finally separated from Ukrtransgaz after the current transit contract with Gazprom terminates,” Ukrtransgaz President Andriy Khomenko said.
Ukrtransgaz, a wholly owned subsidiary of Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates Ukraine’s gas transmission system and 12 underground gas storage facilities with 31 billion cubic meters of capacity.
Nika-Tera maritime terminal (Mykolaiv), part of Group DF of Dmytro Firtash, is increasing its oilseeds storage capacity to 30,000 tonnes, according to a press release of the port. According to the company, the port is continuing work on commissioning the second phase of a transshipment complex for oilseeds.
According to the report, the volume of cargo transshipment at Nika-Tera port since the beginning of the year amounted to 3.7 million tonnes, which is 10% more than in the same period of 2017, while for the nine months of the current year 221 vessels were handled.
“A significant increase in the volume of transshipment was provided by cargo that was not previously processed in the port: oil, granulated meal and bran, as well as new items of bulk freight,” the press service said citing commercial director of the port Valeriy Salnykov.
Nika-Tera is a highly mechanized marine terminal, part of Group DF’s port business.
The terminal includes four specialized complexes: grain, for transshipment of fertilizers, bulk freight, and liquid cargo.
