The Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine jointly with the Infrastructure Ministry of Poland are working on restoration of two train services in 2019, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said at a press conference in Kyiv.
“Together with our Polish colleagues, we are working on the restoration of railway services on the Przemyśl-Malhowice-Nyzhankovychi (Lviv region) line, as well as for Lublin-Lviv. I am sure that these lines have the future,” he said.
Omelyan said that the initiative to resume the railway services between Ukraine and Poland came from Infrastructure Minister of Poland Andrzej Adamczyk.
“We agreed that in December Ukrzaliznytsia and the Polish railway will finally agree on the launch format of these lines, and closer to the New Year we will be able to announce the terms for their implementation,” the Ukrainian minister said.
Omelyan also reported that today the decision was made to launch a container train between China and Europe, namely between China and Poland, on the territory of Ukraine.
“We plan that the number of such trains will be about 1,000 a year,” he said.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved a draft amicable agreement between Philip Morris and Ukraine, foreseeing the abolishment of the tax notification for the amount of UAH 635.3 million by the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine.
According to the draft government resolution, this agreement should ensure the investment dispute settlement, prevent bringing a claim to international investment arbitration against Ukraine amounting to more than UAH 635 million, avoid significant expenses from the national budget during the arbitration, demonstrate to the partners of Ukraine and foreign investors that the government adheres to commitments to provide incentives and protect foreign investment.
The amicable agreement will be signed between Philip Morris International Inc., Philip Morris Global Brands Inc. (both the United States), Philip Morris Brands Sarl (Switzerland), PrJSC Philip Morris Ukraine and the state of Ukraine.
Acting Head of the State Fiscal Service Oleksandr Vlasov is authorized to sign the amicable agreement, and the State Fiscal Service is authorized to execute it after signing.
As reported, PrJSC Philip Morris Ukraine in March 2015 appealed and received permission from Kharkiv customs office to apply the processing mode in the customs territory of Ukraine for the production of cigarettes and accompanying products and their re-export for the period from April 1, 2015 through March 31, 2016. The company was authorized to conditional exemption from Ukrainian import duties and other import taxes on materials for processing under the terms of re-export.
After Philip Morris Ukraine carried out processing and re-export operations, the main directorate of the State Fiscal Service in Kharkiv region conducted an unscheduled inspection of the company’s compliance with the customs legislation of Ukraine regarding the clearance of goods in the processing mode in the customs territory of Ukraine.
According to the results of the inspection of the main directorate of the State Fiscal Service in Kharkiv region, on June 14, 2016, it approved decision notices that determined the liabilities for paying of import duties, additional import duty and VAT on the import of materials, as well as penalties for the total amount UAH 635.3 million Philip Morris Ukraine. Philip Morris Ukraine said that the actions of the State Fiscal Service are pressure on the company. After that, the parties entered into litigation.
The Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) estimates the volume of the illegal taxi market in Ukraine at 93-98% with the market volume being UAH 40 billion a year, head of the Infrastructure sector at BRDO Vladyslav Prytomanov has said during the round table “The taxi services market” in Kyiv. “According to experts, the total volume of the taxi market in Ukraine is UAH 40 billion a year, which are distributed between carriers (UAH 36 billion) and information and dispatch services (UAH 4 billion). At the same time, the level of market shadowing ranges from 93% to 98%, about 95% on average,” he said.
According to BRDO, there are about 220,000 taxi drivers in Ukraine, serving 280 million passengers annually. The average cost of a taxi ride in Ukraine is relatively low compared to other countries and amounts to UAH 60-90 for a trip within the city.
The expert noted that the budget revenues from the taxi market work are 1-3% of the minimum projected.
Speaker of the Association of Responsible Carriers public organization Oleksandr Diachenko, in turn, said that according to a study conducted by GfK, 42.7% of drivers are willing to work with an illegal taxi service if they need to pay 15-20% of taxes for legal work.
Areas planted with leguminous crops in 2018 were expanded by 12.4% compared with the previous year, to 568,400 ha, while their harvest fell by 15.9%, to 1.04 million, according to the UkrAgroConsult analytical agency. “Despite the decline in prices and profitability, the area planted with legumes actually increased this year. At the same time, there was a decrease in yield, but the weather factor worked here. One can argue how negative the weather factor is, which affected the decrease in yield, decrease in supply, but it is quite possible it contributed to the prices. The conclusion we are making is that farmers continue to trust legumes,” Director General of the UkrAgroConsult analytical agency Serhiy Feofilov said at a conference in Kyiv.
He said that the export of legumes will be high this season.
“This year, the export of peas will fall quite strongly. Earlier, in the structure of exports from Ukraine, chickpeas dominated, now horse beans and beans, and lentils have recently sold well. According to the nuances of logistics, if two or four years ago up to 90% legumes were exported from Ukraine by containers, but now the situation has changed and up to 60% is exported in bulk and mainly this is export of peas,” Feofilov said.
According to him, in the outlook of three to five years, the drivers of the development of the legume market of the Black Sea region will be: stable growth in demand, the need to restore crop rotation after oversaturation with oilseed crops, attractiveness both for large farms (peas, large batches) and for small farms (other legumes), differentiation of the commodity nomenclature for farms, new trends in healthy nutrition from the use of legumes.
According to Ukraine’s Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry, global demand for legumes is growing faster than supply. Today, the largest producers of legumes in the world are India, China and Canada.
“Ukraine has all the prerequisites to become one of the key producers of these products and a supplier of legumes to the global market,” Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food on European Integration Olha Trofimtseva said.
According to her, Ukrainian exports of legumes are growing significantly. The main buyers of Ukrainian products are India, Turkey, Pakistan, Myanmar and the Netherlands.
“In 2015, we exported legumes to the amount of $60.6 million, in 2017 – $148.5 million, and for the results of January-October, this figure is $97.7 million,” the deputy minister said.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that the European Commission has made a favorable decision on the provision of a first tranche of the fourth macrofinancial assistance of the European Union (EU) to Ukraine in the amount of EUR 500 million and thanked the European Commission for its decision. “Sincerely grateful to the European Commission for positive decision to disburse to Ukraine first tranche of the 4th EU macrofinancial assistance program in the amount of EUR 500 mln,” Poroshenko said on its Facebook page on Friday.
Ukraine of the total sales of organic raw materials and products exports 90% of goods and sells 10% in the domestic market.
“The domestic market, despite the fact that it is developing, occupies 10% of total sales, while 90% of “organic” goods are exported. Among the leading countries consuming Ukrainian organic products are the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom,” Olena Berezovska, the president of the Organic Ukraine union of producers of organic certified goods said at a press conference in Kyiv.
In total, Ukraine exports its organic products to more than 40 countries. Among the exported organic crops are maize (99,500 tonnes in 2017), wheat (58,000 tonnes), barley (22,900 tonnes), sunflower (11,600 tonnes), and soybeans (10,900 tonnes).
“According to the Organic Standard certification authority, Ukraine has 585 operators in the organic market. When we summarize statistics data for 2018, the number of organic producers will exceed 600. Now 14% of the total number of operators are processors. Of the 80 processors, 55 sell their products in the stores of the country. The growth in the sales of organic products in the key networks of Ukraine during 2018 amounted to 5%. There are more than 400 items in the product range,” Berezovska said.
According to her, in 2018 a number of Ukrainian manufacturers received the status of “organic.”
