Page 29 - UKRRptJuly18

Agriculture and Rural Development has decided to resume wheat imports from Ukraine after allaying concerns about biosecurity procedures, the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) has announced. In 2015, Vietnam temporarily stopped buying wheat from Ukraine. After a Vietnamese delegation visited Ukraine in April 2018 to learn about Ukraine's biosecurity procedures for wheat shipped abroad, UNIAN reports.
Ukraine-US trade quadruples in volume . The volume of bilateral trade and investments between Ukraine and the USA has quadrupled over the past year, President Petro Poroshenko has announced. He said it resulted from his visits to Washington last year at which he met with US President Donald Trump, the secretary of commerce and the secretary of state, “and we agreed to dramatically increase cooperation with the United States,” Ukrinform reports.
Ukrainian-Danish trade grows. On the eve of his visit to Denmark, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman announced that in 2017 the volume of bilateral trade in goods and services grew by 14.4% to $540.6mn, and in the first quarter of 2018 it amounted to $136.9mn (an increase of 22.7%). More than 150 Danish companies are already operating in Ukraine, in particular in the field of agribusiness, logistics and trade, the main sectors being agriculture, IT, energy and light industry.
Coal imports almost tripled in January-May of this year , compared to the same five months in 2017, reports the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry. Coal imports jumped because the government complied with a protest blockade of rail lines from the Donbas, ending coal purchases from Ukrainian mines controlled by separatists. Of the 2.8mn tons of imported coal, 72% was from Russia, 22% from the US, and 5% from South Africa. There is speculation that some ‘Russian’ coal is actually Donbas coal that makes a U-turn through Southern Russia. The Ministry did not provide a cost for the coal imports.
Iran wants to triple imports of Ukrainian food, to $1.5bn, Victor Sheremeti, Ukraine’s deputy minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, reports after meeting with in Iranian delegation to Kyiv last week. Ukraine’s largest food market, Iran imported $528mn from Ukraine last year. Since 1980, Iran’s population has doubled to 82mn. With half the population under 35 and three quarters living in cities, the government is under pressure to lock in food imports. Regarding Ukraine, Iran is interested in cooking oils, corn, barley and soybeans. UIA flies four times a week from from Kyiv Boryspil to Tehran, a four hour flight. A follow up bilateral trade meeting will be held this month in Tehran.
Ukraine has switched from strawberry importer from strawberry exporter,
reports Ukraine’s Agribusiness Club. Thanks to expertise acquired by Ukrainians working in Poland’s strawberry fields, Ukraine’s fresh strawberry exports have jumped from 184 tons in 2012 to 1,800 tons last year. Due to the surge in domestic production, imports collapsed, from 1,286 tons in 2012 to 153 tons last year. Pointing a path for Ukraine, Poland is the world’s largest exporter of frozen strawberries, exporting $177mn last year, or 19% of the world trade. Spain is the world’s largest export of fresh strawberries, exporting $634mn, or 25% of the world trade.
Ukraine now rivals Argentina as the world’s second largest honey exporter, Anna Burka, consultant to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, writes on Facebook. China has 19% of world honey exports. Ukraine and Argentina each account for 10%. Over the last five years,
29 UKRAINE Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com