Page 38 - UKRRptDec18

Agency. Poroshenko said he hopes this agency will help rebuild war ravaged infrastructure in the Donbas.
Turkey and Ukraine have agreed to sign a free trade deal by the end of this year , the two presidents said on November 4 at a joint press conference in Istanbul. Capping a decade of trade talks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “Today, we have decided to complete the work of signing the Free Trade Agreement agreement by the end of the year. We believe that through this agreement we will be able to achieve our goal - a trade balance of $10bn."
With Egypt often ranking as Ukraine’s second largest wheat market, the port administrations of Ukraine, Alexandria and Damietta Egypt are creating a working group to raise cargo turnover above today’s level of 4.5mn tons. At a bilateral economic development meeting in Kyiv, Igor Tkachuk, head of the Odessa Branch of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, also expressed interest in the revival of passenger shipping between Odesa and Alexandria. Cargo freighters can sail the 2,035 km between the two ports in two and a half days.
Through September, Ukraine’s food exports to Saudi Arabia were up 17% y/y, to $363mn. Saudi’s Agrciulture Ministry has lifted a ban on imports from Ukraine of live sheep, goats and cows for breeding and slaughter.
Turkey and Ukraine are in 96% agreement on their free trade pact , President Poroshenko tells Turkey’s Anadolu news agency. For Turkey, the sticking point is imports of Ukrainian farm products. For Ukraine, the obstacle is imports of Turkish textiles. Poroshenko reaffirmed his commitment to sign the free pact by the end of this year with Turkey, one of Ukraine’s top five trade partners.
Ukraine has nearly doubled exports of tomato paste in the last five years,
making it the world’s 10th largest exporter of tomato products, François-Xavier Branthôme reports in Tomato News website. After the loss of the Russian market, Ukraine diversified, exporting to about 30 countries worldwide. Noting that Poland takes 44% of Ukraine’s exports, Tomato News reports that Ukraine “is now firmly settled in the lowest ranges of the worldwide price bracket for tomato products.”
38 UKRAINE Country Report December 2018 www.intellinews.com