Sales of new passenger cars in January 2020 increased by a third compared to the first month of 2019, to 7,000 units, according to AUTO-Consulting. “January 2020 turned out to be very successful for car dealers. Almost all major automotive brands had two-digit growth, which gives reason to expect a very successful year,” the group said on its website.
Analysts of the group note the strengthening of the competition among brands in January 2020. Toyota was first, ahead of last year’s leader Renault, and its sales increased 81%, to 1,149 units.
Renault sales in January grew by 29%, to 1,045 units, which is slightly below the market, but allowed to stay in the lead and go beyond the 1,000 cars sold.
“Nissan has actively claimed its intention to become a leader. The Japanese brand increased sales in January by 25%, which allowed it to be third for the second month in a row,” the group said.
Skoda sales grew by 27%, to 437 units. This allowed the Czech brand dealers to bypass Kia, which closes the top five with a 9.7% increase in sales, to 430 units.
According to the analysts, Peugeot became the record holder for growth in the top 10 in January, having tripled sales, which allowed it to move to the eighth position from the 14th in January 2019 and occupy 4.6% of the market. Mitsubishi, which returned to the top 10, also noticeably increased its sales in January.
The first month of the year was also successful for Mercedes-Benz, which regained its status as a leader among premium brands: it increased sales by 53%, to 224 units.
According to AUTO-Consulting, the beginning of the year was also successful for Chinese brands: Chery increased sales by 66%, to 169 units, and the Haval brand grew seven-fold.
Sopharma AD pharmaceutical company in 2019 increased sales in Ukraine by 5% compared to 2018. According to the company’s preliminary report, in general, in 2019, revenue from sales to European countries increased by 21% compared to 2018.
The company noted that such an indicator was achieved, in particular, due to an increase in sales in Ukraine by 5% and in Russia by 32%, as well as an increase in sales to the Balkan countries, as well as Poland, the Czech Republic, Moldova, and other countries.
In addition, the company reports that in 2019 the company received 47 permits for the use of new medicines, in particular, in Ukraine, for the preparation of desloratadine in two dosage forms, as well as two names of cosmetic products.
As reported, in January-June 2019 Sopharma increased sales in Ukraine by 35% compared to the same period in 2018.
Since January 2008, Sopharma AD has been controlling PJSC Vitamins in Ukraine, and in August 2012 it created the subsidiary Sopharma Ukraine LLC (Kyiv) to optimize its trading business.
Ovostar Union, a leading egg producer in Ukraine, cut egg sales by 17% in 2019, to 1.147 billion eggs.
According to a company report on its website, egg production last year fell by 2.35, to 1.587 billion. The share of exported eggs of total sales grew by 4 percentage points in 2019, to 46%, and exports totaled 525 million eggs compared with 587 million in 2018.
“The decrease of shell eggs sales is accounted for by the significant reduction of trading operations in 2019. Average price of eggs in UAH terms fell by 12% y-o-y and reached UAH 1.606/egg, while in U.S. dollar terms the decrease was 7% y-o-y and the price for the year was $0.062/egg (2018: UAH 1.819/egg or $0.067/egg respectively),” the company said.
In 2019 the volume of eggs processed was 577 million, which by 9% exceeds the level of the previous year.
The volume of dry egg products output grew slightly y-o-y and reached 2,969 tonnes. The output of liquid egg products increased by 12% y-o-y up to 13,904 tonnes.
State-owned enterprise Ukrspyrt intends to sell 440,600 decaliters of alcohol in January 2020 against 255,170 decaliters in the same period in 2019 and associates this with the results of fight against production of counterfeit alcohol.
“These figures indicate not the fact that we began to produce or consume more alcohol in the country, but the fight against the shadow turnover of alcohol. The state focused on the elimination of counterfeit alcohol production schemes that previously existed at the plants of the enterprise. We are closely monitoring the cost of alcohol and the correct purchase of raw materials. And if we see any violations, we immediately change the heads of the plants. And this is already yielding results,” acting head of Ukrspyrt Serhiy Bleskun said.
According to Ukrspyrt, in January 2020 ten factories of the state-owned enterprise will work, while seven were operating in the same period last year.
In addition, the enterprise noted that in November-December 2019 the heads of six plants were changed, and video surveillance cameras with online broadcasting were installed at six plants.
Now the company is being prepared for transfer to the State Property Fund.
As reported, the law on the abolition of state monopoly on alcohol production from July 1, 2020, supported by the Verkhovna Rada on December 3, was signed by the president of Ukraine at the end of December 2019.
Ovostar Union agricultural group of companies, one of the leading producers of eggs in Ukraine, in January-September 2019 reduced egg sales by 15.9% compared to the same period in 2018, to 888 million pieces, due to a decrease in trading activity.
According to the group’s report on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, egg production during this period declined by 0.9%, to 1.191 billion pieces.
Egg exports for the nine months of this year were down by 0.7%, to 440 million eggs. The share of exports in the total volume of egg sales was 50% compared to 42% for the same period in 2018.
More than half of Ukrainians do not approve of the lifting of the moratorium on agricultural land sales, and 64% believe that this issue should be resolved in a referendum, according to a study conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS)on September 16-19, 2019. According to the survey, 52% of respondents do not approve of the instructions of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to lift the moratorium (ban) on the sale of agricultural land until October this year and the introduction of land sale until December this year. Some 35% of those surveyed are positive about this order, while 13% of respondents had difficulty answering the question.
Some 64% of respondents believe that the issue of agricultural land sale should be solved only in an all-Ukrainian referendum, and 26% believe that the issue should be resolved by the president, the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers, while 10% of respondents could not answer the question.
Director General of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) Volodymyr Paniotto noted that the number of opponents of land sale has decreased over the year – 72% were against the land sale in November 2018.
The survey was conducted by CATI method (computer-assisted telephone interviews) based on a random sampling of mobile phone numbers. The sample is representative of the adult population of Ukraine (18 years and older). The sample does not include territories temporarily not controlled by the authorities of Ukraine – the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. During the survey, 1,500 interviews were conducted. The sampling error with a probability of 0.95 does not exceed 2.6%.
