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.”
The Indian pharmaceutical market in Ukraine could grow by 2% in 2019, President of the Indian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association (IPMA) Dr. Menon has said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine. “Indian pharmaceutical products consistently rank third among importing countries in Ukraine. We are optimistic about 2019 and we expect the market of Indian pharmaceutical products to grow in Ukraine,” he said.
Indian Ambassador to Ukraine Partha Satpathy, in turn, notes that India can meet the needs of Ukraine in inexpensive and high-quality medicines.
“Indian pharmaceutical products account for only 5% of the total pharmaceutical consumption in Ukraine. This is a large amount – more than $150 million, but in today’s conditions Ukraine needs effective medicines that will not be very expensive. This is where Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers will help, whose medicines cost one-sixth, one-tenth of the western analogues. All medicines are certified by the WHO,” he said.
The ambassador also noted that India ranks first in terms of the number of GMP certified products, therefore the Indian pharmaceutical market in Ukraine should grow.
Ukraine and Moldova plan to bring mutual trade to $1 billion in 2018. This was discussed during a meeting of the heads of government of Ukraine and Moldova, Volodymyr Groysman and Pavel Filip, in Kyiv on Saturday, the press service of the Ukrainian government said.
“I’d like to note the positive trends in our mutual trade. According to the results of the first half of the year, we have increased our trade by 40% – up to about $500 million. We can reach $1 billion by the end of the year,” said Groysman.
The premiers also noted that the planned joint activities between Ukraine and Moldova are being carried out. So, joint control has been introduced at the international check point Kuchurgan – Pervomaisk, two more control points are being prepared for this procedure. The issue of drivers’ stay on the territory of Ukraine and Moldova has been settled.
We plan in the near future to start construction of a new bridge across the Dniester and further implementation of the project is to merge the power systems of the two countries with the European ENTSO-E system.
Ukraine since the beginning of the 2018/2019 marketing year (MY, July-June) and as of November 21 had exported 16.58 million tonnes of grain, which is almost 4.9% more than on the same date of the previous MY.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the country exported 8.8 million tonnes of wheat, 3 million tonnes of barley, and 4.4 million tonnes of corn.
In addition, 82,500 tonnes of flour had been exported on that date.
As reported, with reference to the ministry, Ukraine exported 39.4 million tonnes of grain in the 2017/2018 MY. Grain exports in the 2018/2019 MY are projected to be 42.5 million tonnes.
