The group of companies, A.G.R. Group, of businessman Misak Khidiryan, with the start of a full-scale Russian invasion, reoriented logistics routes from Ukrainian seaports to the EU market through road and rail transport, as well as the river ports of Reni and Izmail.
As a representative of the grain trading department told Interfax-Ukraine, the company would continue to export part of its agricultural products through land border crossings with the EU and along the Danube River even after the occupied territories are liberated from Russian troops and Ukraine resumes full-fledged trade in the Black Sea.
According to him, after the start of the war, A.G.R. Group began searching for elevator capacities in the west of Ukraine and transporting crop stocks there from the central regions of the country. Later, A.G.R. Group established road and rail logistics channels for the selling of agricultural products in the EU, and also agreed to cooperate with a European trading company with a fairly strong infrastructure throughout Europe and begun to supply agricultural products to it.
“In addition, we agreed that we would work together to load their volumes and gave guarantees that after our victory and the liberation of the occupied territories, we will maintain our partnerships, even when ports open and maritime logistics again become a priority. Perhaps even consider with the board purchase of new clusters in western Ukraine for a more convenient partnership,” the representative of the holding told the agency.
According to him, at the moment, deep-water seaports are not available to the holding for export, so it uses road and rail transport, as well as the ports of Reni and Izmail. However, such logistics is much more expensive than maritime exports, and is also associated with a number of difficulties, such as the inability to leave Ukraine for drivers – its citizens, or long queues of ships in ports.
However, A.G.R. Group, in addition to the European direction, stepped up its activities in several countries of the Middle East – in Egypt and Turkey, where the company opened its representative offices.
“Our offices are operating there and domestic sales are running at maximum, as we need additional margin due to high logistics costs. We must clearly understand that the logistics leverage has increased, freight prices have increased, energy and fuel prices have risen, as a result of which we spend about $200 per tonne of exports, $200 on our product is a lot of money, we used to spend $45-50 per tonne,” the source said.
In the agricultural holding A.G.R. Group includes 20 companies. The main direction of its activity is the trade in agricultural products, the cultivation and storage of grain crops, as well as animal husbandry.
A.G.R. Group cultivates land in Poltava, Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions. All grown products are sold on foreign markets.
The holding’s president and head of its supervisory board is businessman Misak Khidiryan.
Since the beginning of 2022/2023 marketing year (MY, September-2022 – August-2023) Ukraine exported 465 thousand tons of soybeans, which is 2.5 times more than the export figures for the same period last season and was the highest for the last three MYs.
Soybean exports in October 2022 amounted to 215 thousand tons, having decreased by 14% compared to the last month, but soybean volumes shipped to foreign markets in October exceeded last year’s October volumes by 24%.
It is specified that one of the reasons of export reduction in October was slowdown of trade in Ukrainian seaports due to uncertainty of “grain” deal prospects.
The main importers of soy from Ukraine were the EU countries (the share of 46%) and Turkey (37%), which increased the purchase of Ukrainian soybeans in September-October 2022, respectively, six times and two times compared to the same period of 2021/22 MY.
As it was reported, by November 25 in Ukraine 3.6 million tons of soybeans were harvested from 1.5 million hectares, which is 97% of the area sown with it. The average yield of soybeans was 24 cwt/ha
Since the beginning of 2022/2023 marketing year (July-June) and until November 28, Ukraine exported 17.19 million tons of cereals, of which 9.13 million tons of corn (53.1% of total supplies), 6.64 million tons of wheat (38.6%) and 1.36 million tons of barley (7.9%).
As reported on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food on Monday, the rate of grain exports since the beginning of this MY is 31.9% lower than the same period last MY (from July 1, 2020 to November 28, 2021, 25.26 million tons were delivered abroad), although back on November 14 the lag was minimal for the past few months at 30.6%.
According to the Ministry, from the beginning of 2022/2023 and until November 28, 2022, Ukraine exported 6.64 million tons of wheat (2.18 times less compared to the same period a year earlier), 1.36 million tons of barley (3.64 times less), 11.5 thousand tons of rye (6.7 times less). At the same time, the rate of corn exports exceeded last year’s volume: it was 9.13 million tons, which is 1.67 times higher than in 2021/2022 MY on the same date.
In addition, for the first time since the beginning of 2022/2023 MY, flour exports exceeded the previous period – 52.5 tons of flour of all kinds had been exported by November 28, compared to 52.1 tons on the same date a year earlier.
It is specified that 3.99 million tons of cereals, including 1.64 million tons of wheat, 2.07 million tons of corn, 252 thousand tons of barley, 5 tons of rye and 14.3 tons of flour exported from Ukraine since early November.
As the Ministry data show, during the last reporting period, November 18-28, an average of 124 thousand tons of cereals per day were supplied to the foreign markets, whereas during the preceding period of November 14-18 – 212.5 thousand tons per day, November 7-14 – 118.6 thousand tons/day, November 2-7 – 178 thousand tons/day, and October 26-November 2 – 170 thousand tons/day. Thus, the average daily rate of exports during the reporting period of November 18-28 decreased by 41.6% compared to the previous period of November 14-18.
As reported, Ukraine exported 48.51 million tons of grains and leguminous crops in 2021/2022 MY, which is 8.4% higher than in the previous MY, despite the full-scale invasion of Russia and the difficulties with the export of agricultural products due to the blockade of Ukrainian seaports. 18.74 million tons of wheat (12.6% more than in 2020/2021MY), 23.54 million tons of corn (+1.9%), 5.75 million tons of barley (+35.9%), 70.9 thousand tons of flour (-44.1%) were supplied to foreign markets.
In 2020/2021 MY, the country exported 44.72 million tons of cereals and legumes: 16.64 million tons of wheat, 23.08 million tons of corn, 4.23 million tons of barley, 126.9 thousand tons of flour and 18.4 thousand tons of rye.
In 2019/2020, Ukraine exported 56.72 million tons of grain and leguminous crops.
Dynamics of prices for main agricultural products in structure of Ukraine’s export in 2020-2022
NBU
Ukraine has exported 15.95 million tons of grain crops since the beginning of the 2022/2023 marketing year (MY, July-June) and through November 18, including 8.44 million tons of corn (52.9% of total supplies), 6.14 million tons of wheat (38.5%) and 1.31 million tons of barley (8.2%).
As reported on the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food on Friday, the rate of grain exports since the beginning of this MY is 31.2% lower than the same period last MY (from July 1, 2020 to November 18, 2021, 23.2 million tons were delivered abroad), although back on November 14 lag was minimal for the past few months at 30.6%.
According to the Ministry, from the beginning of 2022/2023 MY and until November 18, 2022, Ukraine exported 6.14 million tons of wheat (2.23 times less than the same period a year earlier), 1.31 million tons of barley (3.72 times less), 11.2 thousand tons of rye (6.8 times less) and 47.6 thousand tons of flour (1.4% less). At the same time, the rate of corn exports exceeded last year’s volume: 8.44 million tons were exported, which is 1.95 times higher than in 2021/2022 MY on the same date.
It is specified that since the beginning of November, Ukraine exported 2.75 million tons of grain crops, including 1.14 million tons of wheat, 1.39 million tons of corn, 199 thousand tons of barley, 5 thousand tons of rye and 9.2 tons of flour.
As follows from the Ministry data, during the last reporting period, November 14-18, 212.5 thousand tons of grain were supplied to the foreign markets on average per day, while during the preceding period of November 7-14 – 118.6 thousand tons per day, November 2-7 – 178 thousand tons per day, October 26-November 2 – 170 thousand tons per day, and October 21-26 – 132 thousand tons per day. Thus, the average daily rate of exports during the reporting period of November 14-18 has increased by 1.8 times compared to the previous period of November 7-14.
As reported, Ukraine exported 48.51 million tons of grains and leguminous crops in 2021/2022 MY, which is 8.4% higher than during the previous MY, despite the full-scale invasion of Russia and the difficulties with the export of agricultural products due to the blockade of Ukrainian seaports. 18.74 million tons of wheat (12.6% more than in 2020/2021MY), 23.54 million tons of corn (+1.9%), 5.75 million tons of barley (+35.9%), 70.9 thousand tons of flour (-44.1%) were supplied to foreign markets.
In 2020/2021 MY, the country exported 44.72 million tons of cereals and legumes: 16.64 million tons of wheat, 23.08 million tons of corn, 4.23 million tons of barley, 126.9 thousand tons of flour and 18.4 thousand tons of rye.
In 2019/2020, Ukraine exported 56.72 million tons of grain and leguminous crops.
War and the decline of the domestic market force the Ukrainian business to pay maximum attention to expanding exports and entering foreign markets, TAS Group founder Serhiy Tihipko said.
“Now we are starting to create a project as a monobank in Poland – it is a unique product,” he said at the Kiev International Economic Forum (KIEF) in Kiev on Thursday.
Tigipko recalled that currently monobank has 6.5 million customers and a significant part of them abroad.
The businessman said that before the war he did not pay enough attention to the development of export opportunities. “Those businesses that I had focused on the domestic market are a problem,” he described the current situation.
At the same time, Tigipko said that in war conditions it is possible to increase exports, in particular, the group’s wagon building companies have signed two contracts for Europe, one – a startup for the construction of innovative cars.
According to him, apple concentrate, metalware and nails have good prospects.
The businessman also noted the importance of diversification. “We have both industrial and financial (sectors), and agriculture – diversification has worked. I believed in it and I believe in it now,” he stressed.
Tihipko also complained that before the war, he did not pay enough attention to the reserves in case of crises. According to him, if there were more of them, now he could make more profitable deals, but he already bought 49% in one of the companies from one of the partners, and before that he bought a share from another partner because “people are rushing around”.
TAS Group was founded in 1998. The sphere of its business interests covers the financial sector (banking and insurance segments), industry, real estate, venture projects.
