Nibulon, one of Ukraine’s largest grain market operators, has launched a new service – harvesting. The grain trader has already processed more than 5,000 hectares in the Odesa region, according to its press service.
According to the report, Nibulon uses Claas Lexion 7700 combines and its own fleet of trucks to carry out the work, which allows it to control the entire chain from the field to the elevator.
The harvesting service includes the delivery of equipment exactly on time, transparent pricing — a fixed rate per crop, booking without obligations, but with priority during the season.
The agricultural holding is now ready to scale up and sign further contracts with producers throughout Ukraine.
Nibulon LLC was established in 1991. Before the Russian military invasion, the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and complexes for receiving agricultural crops, a capacity for one-time storage of 2.25 million tons of agricultural products, a fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugboats), and owned the Mykolaiv Shipyard.
Before the war, Nibulon cultivated 82,000 hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries around the world. In 2021, the grain trader exported a record 5.64 million tons of agricultural products and delivered record volumes to foreign markets in August (0.7 million tons), in the fourth quarter (1.88 million tons), and in the second half of the year (3.71 million tons).
The grain trader is currently operating at 32% of its capacity, has created a special unit for demining agricultural land, and has been forced to move its central office from Mykolaiv to Kyiv.
International grain trader Qortia AG (Switzerland) has resumed grain shipments from Ukraine’s deepwater ports, the company reported on Linkedin.
According to the report, the company sent the vessel Bereket M (Panama flag) with a cargo of 21.5 thousand tons of Ukrainian corn from Pivdennyi port to Turkey.
“Bereket M became the first vessel this year that Qortia AG loaded exclusively by its own resources in a deep-water Ukrainian port. Since the company’s establishment, we have been actively shipping to Ukraine from deep water for six years. However, after the Russian invasion, we focused mainly on the development of river transportation and transshipment in the ports of the Danube cluster, where the company’s share reached 15%,” the statement said.
Qortia AG is a Swiss agri-trading and logistics company headquartered in Switzerland. It specializes in the purchase and export of grains (wheat, corn, soybeans, barley, etc.), oilseeds, and processed products. The Ukrainian representative office is located in Odesa. Its owners are Konstantin Kuflyk, Dmitry Yandovsky, and Andrey Vitryak.
Bereket M is a bulk carrier flying the flag of Panama. Its length (LOA) is 154.38 meters and its beam is 26 meters.
The state’s debt for value added tax (VAT) reimbursement to grain trader Prometey for part of last year and this year reaches hundreds of millions of hryvnias, with its reimbursement now being spotty and according to non-transparent criteria, Rafael Goroyan, owner of the grain trading holding Prometey, said.
“The state owes Prometey a big VAT refund for more than a year, since before the war. We are patiently waiting for the VAT refund, but our patience may come to an end. Now it is reimbursed in a pinpoint manner, according to unclear criteria, as in the times of Yanukovych (ex-President of Ukraine – IF), when the tax was “discounted,” suitcases were carried, etc. But Prometey Company has its own principles. We never gave any bribes for VAT refunds because it deprived us of competitiveness,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
“They (tax authorities – IF) want to “negotiate” and we always quarrel – we do not want to “be friends and communicate” with anyone. We do not create an ‘intimate environment,’ so we have conflict all the time,” the head of Prometey stressed in an interview.
“Our principles are much more important than money. Thank God, Prometey is developing, employees’ salaries are being paid, but if we get dirty in the mud of corruption, we won’t be able to wash off,” he added.
According to him, an effective way of dealing with government agencies is to ask for help from the media and hold actions with the participation of Prometey employees and their families.
“If we had to say something loudly, we held large pickets near the tax inspection. When Poroshenko (ex-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko – IF) was in power, 3500 people from Prometey employees and their family members used to picket when Nasirov (former head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine Roman Nasirov – IF) was the chief tax collector. It was a whole revolution. In my opinion, a month after that he was kicked out and now he seems to be under investigation,” stressed the owner of the holding.
“When the average business gets angry en masse, everything ends badly. We shouldn’t see the situation when VAT is reimbursed to someone point by point, for some unknown good,” Goroyan concluded.
The grain trader stressed that the issue of actual VAT refund is not just a positive thing for the Ukrainian AIC companies but a necessary condition for their survival in the market.
As reported, the head of the specialized parliamentary committee of the Rada Daniil Getmantsev earlier said that the volume of VAT refund to business in November increased by 20% compared to October and amounted to 13.6 billion UAH, this year such volumes were achieved only in February.
VAT refunds were almost completely stopped after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation on February 24 this year. If it was 18.52 billion UAH in January and 12.07 billion UAH in February, in March – 0.82 billion UAH, and in April and May it was completely absent and resumed only in June, when 9.5 billion UAH were paid, in July it almost stopped again – 0.6 million UAH. However, in August the amount of payments was 9,4 billion UAH, in September – 1,6 billion UAH and in October – 10,9 billion UAH.
Prometey Group provides services in the storage, processing and logistics of crops. Before the Russian aggression the holding owned 33 elevators in the regions of Nikolaev, Kirovograd, Kiev, Khmelnytsky, Zaporozhye, Sumy, Odessa, Kherson and Dnepropetrovsk, during the war the holding purchased one more.
By the end of 2021, the group planned to receive $45 million EBITDA, while in 2020 this figure reached $32.6 million and in 2019 – $30.5 million.
Prometey grain trader signed an export contract for the supply of 25,000 tons of food wheat from the Chornomorsk seaport in mid-September, the passage of the vessel became possible due to the deblockade of Ukrainian ports under the Istanbul grain agreements.
“In accordance with the contract, to load agricultural products, the bulk carrier will arrive in the territorial waters of Ukraine in 2-3 weeks. After the inspection, the dry cargo ship will follow from the port of Chornomorsk to its destination in mid-September,” the group of companies said in a press release on Monday.
“Prometey” emphasized that the conclusion of this contract gives the holding a reason to raise the minimum export bar at the level of 70-80 thousand tons of agricultural products per month.
The grain trader also clarified that it would take months to send a comparable amount of cargo by rail or road.
“This is already a victory on the front of global food security, in the structure of which Ukrainian grain trading companies play an important role. Another important component of the launch of the “grain corridor” is the trend towards improving the situation on the domestic agricultural market,” Prometey summed up in a press release. .
Prometey Group of Companies provides services for the storage, processing and logistics of grain and leguminous crops based on 33 elevators with a total storage capacity of 1.7 million tons.
At the end of 2021, the group of companies planned to receive $45 million in EBITDA, while in 2020 this figure reached $32.6 million, and in 2019 – $30.5 million.
On April 11, the Prometey group of companies resumed the work of its Kiev office, while its main office in Nikolaev has not stopped working since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the grain trader’s website reported on Friday.
The owner of the holding, Rafael Goroyan, noted in a message that the Kyiv staff of Prometey is returning to the production process, since now the city is calm and safe.
The grain trader clarified that he still does not have access to 3 thousand hectares in the Snigirevsky district of the Nikolaev region due to the occupation of part of the region by Russian troops, while the total land bank of Prometey is 20 thousand hectares.
In the territory controlled by Ukraine, out of 17 thousand hectares, 10 thousand hectares have already been sown with winter crops, sunflower is being planted in the remaining areas.
“Prometey” recalled that in mid-March, Russian invaders attacked the offices of the production companies “VK Prometey” (Peski village) and Agro Capital Center LLC (AKC, Dobraya Krinitsa village, both – Mykolaiv region), where they destroyed / x and office equipment, documentation, weighing and monitoring systems. Despite the attack, the company has already reopened branches.
GC “Prometey” provides services for the storage, processing and logistics of grain and leguminous crops on the basis of 29 elevators in Mykolaiv, Kirovograd, Kiev, Khmelnytsky, Zaporozhye, Sumy, Odessa, Kherson and Dnepropetrovsk regions.
At the end of 2021, Prometey Group plans to receive $45 million in EBITDA, while in 2020 this figure reached $32.6 million, and in 2019 – $30.5 million.
The founder and owner of Prometey Group of Companies is Rafael Goroyan.
Prometey Group of Companies, which owns 29 granaries in Ukraine with a total storage capacity of 1.7 million tonnes of agricultural crops, intends to purchase four-six more elevators this year, the company’s website reported on Monday.
“In the future, Prometey Group intends to take a leading position in terms of one-time storage capacity and become the largest latifundist in Ukraine. This year, the company aims to purchase four-six more elevators,” the grain trader said in a statement.
It is noted that in 2021, Prometey acquired four granaries, which made it possible to increase the elevator capacity of the group of companies by 210,000 tonnes.
Prometey provides services for the storage, processing and logistics of grain and leguminous crops on the basis of 29 elevators in Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Khmelnytsky, Zaporizhia, Sumy, Odesa, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
