Page 68 - UKRRptOct20

9.1.4 ​Construction & Real estate sector news
The amount of new office space occupied in Kyiv during the first half of the year fell by 42%,​ compared to the first half of last year, CBRE Ukraine says in a new study. New office supply totalled 69,000 square meters, slightly more than double the amount for the first half of 2019. Caught between shrunken demand and a jump in vacancy rates to 12.4%, developers may delay the release of some of the 146,000 new square meters planned for the second half of this year. CBRE writes: “Since most new projects in the early stages of construction have been suspended or cancelled, the new supply is likely to decrease significantly between 2023-2024.” IT accounts for 29% of new rentals, the largest sector in Kyiv.
9.1.6​ Agriculture sector news
Dry weather and drought, especially in southern Ukraine, will cut this year’s grain harvest by 7mn tons, or 9% below last year’s bumper harvest of 75mn​ tons, Prime Minister Shmygal told the Cabinet yesterday. The ongoing corn harvest is coming in 1mn tons short. With corn expected to fall to 35mn tons, the Ukrainian Grain Association forecasts the nation’s total grain and oilseeds harvest will be 95.6mn tons, the second largest in Ukraine’s history. Exports will be 56mn tons.
Starting this month, up to €120mn in loan money for rural infrastructure, including irrigation, is available for small and medium farmers ​in southern Kherson region. The money is part of a larger, €400mn rural lending facility extended to the area by the European Investment Bank, reports Stefan Rosenow, team leader for the project. Separately, the EBRD is working with the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources to modernize irrigation systems of the lower Dniester in Odesa region.
Ukraine was the world’s third largest potato producer last year, ​reports Potato Business. The ranking was: China – 93mn tons; India – 51mn tons; and Ukraine – 23mn tons. The Economy plans to ban the import of Russian potatoes. Although imports from Russia grew 43-fold last year, they only reached 250,000 tons, barely 1% of Ukrainian production.
Thanks to climate change, Polissia, the northern swath of Ukraine along the Belarus border, has started to grow crops traditionally associated with southern Ukraine​, Serhiy Ryzhuk, director of the Polissia Institute of Agriculture, tells Ukrinform. “Due to climate change, uncharacteristic crops came to us in Polissya,” says Ryzhuk, whose institute is part of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences. “If before flax, hops, potatoes, rye, millet, buckwheat were grown, now corn, soybeans, rapeseed and sunflowers have appeared here.”
Ukraine’s farm production was down 10% through August​, compared to the first eight months of last year, reports the State Statistics Service. As of September 1st, these harvest declines were registered: wheat harvest down 12%, to 25.1mn tons; barley down 14%, to 7.8mn tons; canola down 8.5%, to 2.6mn tons; and peas down 16%, to 489,000 tons. Overall, the Economy Ministry forecasts a 9.5% drop in the nation’s grain harvest this year, to 68mn tons.
68​ UKRAINE Country Report​ October 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com