Against the backdrop of rapid growth in international gold prices, residents of a number of Asian countries really did rush to buy bullion — and in the first half of the day, stores sometimes closed by noon. Vietnamese people in a number of cities lined up at dawn when legislation finally abolished the state monopoly on gold trading.
Meanwhile, the price of gold has already surpassed $4,300 per ounce and continues to hit historic highs.
Growing expectations of a Fed interest rate cut and tensions in US-China relations have pushed investors toward “safe havens” — gold has become a safe asset. Against the backdrop of inflationary pressure and market volatility, the precious metal is once again in the spotlight for investors.
In Australia, at the peak of gold price growth, areas and rivers traditionally used by amateur gold miners (washing gold in river streams) are once again attracting attention. Some people are earning hundreds of dollars in just a few hours. This phenomenon is being covered by the media as a “gold renaissance” not only in the corporate sector, but also among mass investors.
Earlier, the Experts Club analytical center presented an analysis of the world’s leading gold-producing countries in its video on YouTube channel — https://youtube.com/shorts/DWbzJ1e2tJc?si=YuRnDiu7jtfUPBR9
The IMC agricultural holding has completed the sunflower harvest from an area of 24.8 thousand hectares and collected over 81 thousand tons with a record yield of 3.3 t/ha, the agricultural holding’s press service reported on Facebook.
IMK cited data from the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture, according to which, as of October 6, 2025, the average sunflower yield in Ukraine was 1.83 tons/ha.
“The sunflower harvest was not easy — the weather this year made its adjustments more than once. We exceeded the planned yield indicators, the average oil content reached a record 54%, and in some fields it reached an incredible 64%,” said IMC Chief Operating Officer Bohdan Kryvitsky.
IMK also completed the sowing of winter wheat for the 2026 harvest on an area of 21,000 hectares, which is 18% of the company’s total land bank.
“This year, due to problems with autopilot systems caused by the operation of electronic warfare equipment, we were forced to return to sowing with physical markers. Despite this, we worked in an organized manner and met the optimal deadlines,” Kryvitsky commented.
IMK Agroholding is an integrated group of companies operating in the Sumy, Poltava, and Chernihiv regions (northern and central Ukraine) in the segments of crop production, elevators, and warehouses. The land bank is 116,000 hectares, storage capacity is 554,000 tons, and the 2024 harvest is 864,000 tons.
IMK ended 2024 with a net profit of $54.54 million, compared to a net loss of $21.03 million in 2023. Revenue grew by 52% to $211.29 million, gross profit quadrupled to $109.10 million, and normalized EBITDA increased 25-fold to $86.11 million.
In September 2025, Ukraine processed a record monthly volume of rapeseed, exceeding 250,000 tons. For the first time in a long time, domestic processing exceeded monthly exports of this crop by 236,000 tons, according to the analytical industry agency APK-Inform.
“At the same time, in late September and early October, trade in this sector slowed down due to the expected decision on the mechanism for exempting soybean and rapeseed producers from the 10% export duty. Against this backdrop, the supply of rapeseed decreased,” analysts noted.
Experts added that a number of processors reported low rapeseed supplies to enterprises and the likely completion of its processing and transition to sunflower, stocks of which were accumulated quite well in September.
Nevertheless, plants raised their demand prices for rapeseed in an attempt to attract more offers, to UAH 23,000-23,500/ton CPT and above for real volumes and large batches, according to APK-Inform.
The price of gold continues to rise rapidly on global markets: December futures on the Comex exchange rose to $3,965 per troy ounce on Monday, a new historic high. Since the beginning of the year, gold has risen in price by almost one and a half times.
The main drivers of growth were increased demand for safe-haven assets and political instability in the US and Europe.
In Washington, federal agencies have been shut down for six days now, as Congress has been unable to approve a temporary budget. Against this backdrop, investors are pulling their money out of stocks and bonds and putting it into gold, which they see as a safer bet in times of crisis.
Adding to the nervousness is the political crisis in France: Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu resigned after criticism of the composition of the new cabinet, causing another surge of volatility in European markets.
“We see both fundamental and situational factors for a further rally in gold. If current conditions persist, the price could reach $4,200 per ounce by the end of the year,” UBS analysts predict.
According to experts, if political uncertainty in the US and the EU persists, gold could consolidate above the $4,000 mark.
Earlier, the Experts Club analytical center presented an analysis of the world’s leading gold-producing countries in its video on YouTube — https://youtube.com/shorts/DWbzJ1e2tJc?si=9YBue5CS6dz-tA6_
In the first half of August 2025, Ukraine increased its imports of dairy products to $14.7 million, the highest figure since the beginning of the year for similar periods. The previous record was set in the first half of March, six months ago, at $13.2 million, according to the Ukrainian Dairy Industry Association (UDIA).
The industry association noted that in monetary terms, imports increased by 30% compared to the first half of July and almost one and a half times compared to the first half of June.
In addition, in real terms, growth was recorded for almost all commodity items, except for whey, imports of which fell by a third. The largest increase, 25%, was observed in the cheese group: more than 1.8 thousand tons of this product were imported into the country. This commodity item accounts for the lion’s share of the value structure of imports (almost 85%).
As a result, the balance of exports and imports of dairy products became negative for the first time since March, at $(-4.3) million.
Analysts believe that such a significant increase in imports was largely due to the rise in domestic prices for raw milk in Ukraine, which occurred in the second half of July (+5%) and continued in August. This partially reduced the competitiveness of domestic products, making imports more attractive.
“Such dynamics affect the country’s balance of payments and require a balanced approach to pricing in the domestic dairy products market,” the SMPU concluded.
Agro-Region agricultural holding has completed the harvest of winter crops with yields exceeding the planned targets and the average yield for the last five years, the holding’s press service reported on Facebook.
According to the report, the agricultural holding threshed more than 12.5 thousand hectares, with an average yield of winter wheat across the group of companies at 6.3 tons/ha and winter rapeseed at 3.23 tons/ha. At the same time, three clusters achieved an average winter wheat yield of over 7.5 tons/ha.
“The end of the growing season for winter wheat and the filling period were favorable, as a result of which a yield of 9-9.5 tons/ha was achieved on a significant number of fields,” said Chief Agronomist Yuriy Lysak.
At the same time, the Western cluster had the highest yield of winter rapeseed — 3.71 tons/ha.
“The rapeseed crops were damaged by frost, and the crop needed time to recover. Overall, the year was cooler than last year, so we started threshing later,” Lysak added.
Agro-Region specified that in the 2025 season, the harvest started two weeks later due to weather conditions. All of the company’s clusters made maximum use of their own equipment, which has been updated in recent years.
Agro-Region has a land bank of 39,000 hectares in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, and Khmelnytskyi regions. It specializes in crop production. It comprises 11 companies grouped into four crop clusters. It has two elevators: one in Boryspil with a capacity of 73,000 tons and one in Myropil with a capacity of 52,000 tons.
Agro-Region’s annual harvest of grain and oilseeds is 200,000 tons.
In April 2021, the Swedish company Lobiu Sala AB, owned by former Ukrainian Minister of Economy Aivaras Abromavičius, received permission from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to purchase the Swedish company Agro Region Stockholm Holding, which manages the Agro-Region group of companies in Ukraine.
