Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held a telephone conversation with Argentine President Javier Miley, during which the parties discussed the development of economic cooperation, in particular, the relaunch of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation and the start of intergovernmental consultations.
“Javier Miley assured that Ukraine can continue to count on Argentina’s full support,” the Ukrainian head of state’s website reported on Friday.
Zelensky thanked Argentina for participating in the inaugural Peace Summit and joining the Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, the international Crimea Platform and the Ramstein format. He stressed that Ukraine needs the preservation of the Contact Group on Defense, as well as joint steps by Argentina, the U.S. and all allies to weaken the Russian dictator and end the war with a just and lasting peace.
In a Friday evening video message, the Ukrainian president noted his Argentine counterpart’s results in economic reforms and called from “the right example of economic growth.”
“We will increase our cooperation with Argentina – both economic, political and security,” the Ukrainian head of state said.
Zelensky invited Milay to come to Ukraine on a visit.
According to the daily monitoring data of EastFruit project, this week the potato market in Ukraine has seen a decrease in trading activity. Contrary to the hopes of farmers that this product will once again increase in price on the eve of New Year vacations, the selling prices for potatoes in Ukraine, on the contrary, began to decline. Wholesale companies, in turn, see no reason to raise prices and increase the volume of purchases of this product, as the demand for this product has significantly decreased.
Thus, today marketable potatoes are on sale in the range of 18-28 UAH/kg ($0.43-0.67/kg), depending on the quality, variety and volume of offered batches of products, which is on average 12% cheaper than at the end of the last working week.
The reason for a slight decrease in prices in this segment was not only weakening demand for potatoes, but also stable supplies of these products from foreign markets. At the same time, most key market players note mediocre quality characteristics of imported potatoes, which, in turn, affected the pace of sales of local products as well.
Nevertheless, in general, Ukrainian farmers do not complain about the selling prices for potatoes this season, because this product has risen in price by an average of 41% compared to last year. The reason for such a significant price difference experts call the decline in potato yields in Ukraine due to unfavorable weather conditions in the summer months. Many farmers also note a gradual deterioration in the quality of products stored in storage.
You can get more detailed information about the development of the market of potatoes and other horticultural products in Ukraine by subscribing to the analytical weekly EastFruit Ukraine Weekly Pro. Detailed product information is available here.
AllSeeds Group, one of Ukraine’s largest producers of sunflower oil and meal, has stopped buying raw materials for processing and finished products for export due to delays of ships in ports during the implementation of a new system of export security, the head of the group Vyacheslav Petrishche said on Facebook.
He recalled that on the initiative of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy from December 1 began to operate the export security regime to operations for the export of certain types of agro-commodities, which provides a new procedure for customs clearance of export cargoes.
“Well a good thing it seems. Allegedly to combat the shadow market and return currency to the country. I am personally unequivocally in favor of it. I have always been, am and will be against the shadow market. But can it be done not to the delight of the enemy during the bombings, but for the good of the motherland? (…) If you introduce a new procedure, can it be tested first? Will it work at all?” – wrote Petrishche.
According to his information, the authorities issued permits for loading agro-products with all necessary checks on November 29 (before the introduction of the new system – IF-U). Large ships entered Odessa seaports, carried out loading for several days and waited a long time for registration.
“Did you put all this goodness under the berths on purpose for inspection? So that the enemy could take better aim???? (…) during the war I would call it sabotage, you can’t think of anything else. (…) Well, let these boats go (the law has no retroactive effect) and do not launch new ones (and they are already waiting) until exporters submit export documents properly executed according to the new procedure”, – said the head of the AllSeeds group of companies.
Petrische drew attention to the growing losses of companies due to ship demurrage and pointed to safety problems during the downtime in the transition period when implementing the new agro-export system.
“Our company has stopped buying raw materials for processing and finished products for export. It is better to let people go home and sit with their money than to take the risk that if you are not the enemy, you will be “sheltered” by your own people. I recommend it to everyone,” Petrishche emphasized.
He reminded the head of the parliamentary finance committee, Daniil Hetmantsev, that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and recommended him to “ruin the whole economy” on his own.
“God grant him health, and God grant the country to survive it! (…) It’s a shame for the State,” summarized the head of the AllSeeds group of companies.
Allseeds Group is one of the five largest Ukrainian producers and exporters of vegetable oils and meal. It owns an oilseed processing plant with a capacity of 2200 MT per day of sunflower seeds (or 1500 MT per day of rapeseed or 1 day of soybeans), which is located in the port “Yuzhny” (Odessa region).
Allseeds also provides transshipment services for vegetable oils and oilseed meal at its terminals in Yuzhny. The capacity for simultaneous storage of vegetable oils is more than 100 thousand tons, and of oil meal – 30 thousand tons.
In Ukraine in January-October 2024 legal production of alcohol increased by 35.4% or $6.2 million compared to the same period last year, said the head of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax and customs policy Daniil Getmantsev.
“An interesting figure to the issue of detenization of the alcoholic beverage market. In the first 10 months of this year, the legal production of alcohol in the country increased by 35.4%, or $ 6.2 million, compared to the first 10 months of 2023,” he wrote in his Telegram channel on Thursday, expressing confidence that the industry has detenized.
The head of the Finance Committee thanked the State Tax Service for the work done on detinization of the alcohol market.
Ukrainian traders report a new wave of price cuts for imported tomatoes. Short-term, but noticeable increase in prices last week was one of the reasons for a sharp decline in demand for Turkish tomatoes from buyers, analysts of the project EastFruit. Also, the project experts note that this week only single batches of local greenhouse vegetables were on sale, due to the fact that the majority of greenhouse farms in Ukraine have already completed the season of realization.
At the same time, the supply of imported tomatoes in the Ukrainian market continued to increase gradually, which was the main reason for the price decrease in this segment. Thus, today greenhouse tomatoes are on sale at UAH 70-80/kg ($1.68-1.92/kg), which is on average 11% cheaper than at the end of the last working week. The main reason for the negative price trend in the segment of greenhouse tomatoes, producers call a sharp decline in demand for this product, as well as the quality of vegetables offered.
It should be added that today imported tomatoes in Ukraine are already sold on average 54% more expensive than in the same period last year. However, most representatives of wholesale companies do not exclude further price reduction. According to traders, if the current sales rates are maintained, they will be forced to concede in price again in order to prevent the accumulation of unsold products in warehouses.
You can get more detailed information about the development of the market of greenhouse tomatoes and other horticultural products in Ukraine by subscribing to the analytical weekly EastFruit Ukraine Weekly Pro. Detailed information about the product can be found here.
The Franco-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIFU) gathered CCIFU members, diplomats, friends and partners in Kyiv at the Parkovy Exhibition and Convention Center for its traditional annual Beaujolais Nouveau charity event. For the second year in a row, CCIFU will support the UNBROKEN Ukraine Foundation and its project “Prostheses for the unbroken”.
This year, the Franco-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry also celebrates an important anniversary – 30 years of activity in Ukraine!
The event was held under the high patronage and with the participation of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Ukraine, Mr. Gael Vessier, and gathered about a thousand guests.
Every year, on the third Thursday of November, all of France celebrates Beaujolais Nouveau, a festival of young wine that marks the end of the grape harvest and the beginning of a new wine year.
At this time, in the small Beaujolais region, located in the north of Lyon, one of the first grapes to ripen is the Gamay variety, which is black with white flesh.
Beaujolais nouveau wine is different from other wines in that it goes on sale immediately after the fermentation process, six weeks after harvest, and is stored for no more than six months. The tradition of this celebration was born in 1951.
The Franco-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Ukraine (Chambre de commerce française en Ukraine, CCIFU) is a non-profit association designed to promote the growth of French companies’ investments in the Ukrainian economy and create favorable conditions for the development of French companies present on the Ukrainian market or wishing to start their business in Ukraine.
The Franco-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Ukraine unites more than 130 companies from the agricultural sector (Limagrain[en], Euralis, Mas Seeds), banking (Credit Agricole, Ukrsibbank), automotive industry (Renault, Michelin), machine building (Schneider Electric), hospitality (InterContinental Kyiv), tourism and entertainment (France Groupe, Club Med), healthcare (Sanofi), transportation (Air France), trade and other services (Auchan, L’Oreal, Chanel, Danone, Lactalis, Leroy Merlin).
