AGRI-Ukraine Export Logistics Support

AGRI International Market Linkages Senior Coordinator

AGRI-Ukraine Export Logistics Support
10 May 2024

Kyiv / Lviv / Odesa

ERA BACKGROUND 

Ukraine’s efforts to win the future – emerging from Russia’s full-scale war ready to accelerate its development as a sovereign, independent, democratic, and prosperous state – require a dynamic, inclusive economic recovery. Through partnerships with the government and robust private sector engagement, ERA has supported economic growth and resilience in Ukraine since 2018. Following Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and subsequent occupation of the part of Ukraine, ERA shifted from its focus on Eastern Ukraine to cover development priorities across the country that address Ukraine’s urgent needs in export logistics and infrastructural improvements.

AGRI-UKRAINE GRAIN EXPORT LOGISTICS

USAID’s Economic Resilience Activity (ERA) is one of USAID’s core partners implementing the $350 million Agriculture Resilience Initiative – Ukraine (AGRI-Ukraine) that was established in 2022 to bolster Ukrainian agricultural exports and alleviate the global food security crisis exacerbated by the war. Under AGRI-Ukraine, ERA partners with public and private companies to complement and leverage urgently-needed grain transportation and transshipment investments.

INFRASTRUCTURAL IMPROVEMENTS

ERA also directly supports the Government of Ukraine, including the State Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure of Ukraine (SARDI), the State Customs Service and Ukrainian Railways, to upgrade 42 of Ukraine’s border crossing points (BCPs). Modern and more efficient border infrastructure and customs procedures will reduce export costs and increase export capacity, enabling  Ukraine to scale trade and advance its path to EU integration.

About the job

The AGRI International Market Linkages Senior Coordinator is responsible for developing international trade market linkages, knowledge transfer solutions and capacity development, as well as coordinating AGRI International Market Linkages interventions with the Export, Technical and Operations teams to ensure they are implemented according to schedule, with attention to detail, and to a high standard of quality, as well as for monitoring and reporting on their progress. The AGRI International Market Linkages Senior Coordinator is based in Kyiv / Lviv / Odesa and reports to the AGRI Component Director or designate.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Market Linkages Development – Market Outreach, Organizing International Trade Visits & Developing Marketing Materials:

  • Gather, research, finalize, and regularly update data in USAID ERA’s Market Linkages database.
  • Develop customized marketing materials designed for publication and distributed inside Ukraine and internationally to stakeholders in the agricultural commodity global marketplace.
  • Work with agricultural export stakeholders in Ukraine to help develop three marketing partnerships that will facilitate international trade in the most cost-efficient manner recognizing current logistical challenges. Liaise and nurture relationships with international buyers of Ukrainian commodities in select markets.
  • Lead the organization for USAID ERA beneficiaries and participate in multiple international trade shows and events to maximize  market linkage opportunities.

Market Know-How Development – Stakeholder Capacity Building and Knowledge Transfer:

  • Communicate with, understand and be responsive to stakeholder needs in relation to demands for international trade applicable training programs, with particular focus on supply chain development, and commodity sales and marketing (specifically targeting MENA and EU markets).
  • Work with AGRI Export team members to select suitable training and education programs that will impact  stakeholders needs and enable them to be more competitive.
  • Help select training and education implementation partners where it is most needed
  • Assist to pre-select suitable candidates for designated training programs.
  • Coordinate with other USAID ERA teams to help organize training, education, and knowledge transfer events which may be conducted on-line, in-person inside Ukraine or in-person outside Ukraine.
  • Schedule and promote programs/courses that are certified to ensure participation optimization.

Monitoring Evaluation and Learning: in coordination with the MEL Team:

  • Support the MEL team in conducting  data collection to report against AGRI performance indicators.
  • Coordinate and analyze data to measure project impact and outcomes.
  • Support identification and synthesis of best practices and lessons learned for organizational sharing and learning.

Communication: in coordination with the Communications Team:

  • Contribute to written progress updates for communications and strategic program management.
  • Facilitate the organization of public events, trade missions visits, and work in close coordination with Admin/Logistics/Communications to make all necessary arrangements.

Other:

  • Collect and provide weekly written progress updates to the supervisor and team as required.
  • Review and analyze market reports to ensure clear and timely information is provided to management for prompt decision-making.
  • Maintain accurate project documentation and records.
  • Prepare accurate and timely field reports and other project documentation as required.
  • Keep respective activity records in the DAI corporate system (TAMIS).
  • Collaborate with other departments and teams to ensure alignment with overall goals and objectives.
  • Assist with ad hoc English-Ukrainian/other translation / interpretation when requested.
  • Where required monitor procurement and delivery progress and ensure that activities are aligned with the USAID ERA plans and performance indicators.

About you

  • Bachelor degree or higher in Project Management, Economics, Business/Public Administration, Sales and Marketing, or related fields.
  • Minimum five years (5) years of experience supporting sales and marketing or project coordination or management with an international organization is required.
  • Proficiency in office software applications (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc.)
  • Excellent professional communications and negotiation skills and who can relate to people at all levels of an organization.
  • Ability to work independently and in close cooperation with a team remotely.
  • An energetic, thinking-forward, and creative individual with high ethical standards and an appropriate professional image.
  • An extremely well-organized and self-directed individual with sound technical skills, analytical ability, good judgment, and strong operational focus with ability to plan and meet deadlines.
  • Multitask and manage a variety of tasks and initiatives simultaneously.
  • Experience working in teams is a plus, as the successful candidate may be asked to manage a team in the future.
  • The successful candidate must hold a valid passport and have permission to travel freely in Ukraine and out of Ukraine to potentially attend international trade and marketing related events as needed.
  • Fluent English and Ukrainian communication skills, both oral and written. Fluency in any other international languages relevant to the target geographies of AGRI’s international trade initiatives is a plus (e.g. Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Italian or Spanish).

WE OFFER

Contract length: 12-month employment agreement with a possibility of extension.

Benefits Package:

  • 28 calendar days of annual leave
  • 10 days of internal well-being paid leave per annum
  • Medical Insurance for ERA staff and their families
  • Life Insurance for ERA staff
  • Coverage of all expenses for the business trips
  • Military reservation is possible and granted if you are on a relevant military register

Start date: June 2024

Application process

All applicants must send a cover letter and updated CV (no longer than four pages) in English to ukraine@dai.com

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or status as a protected veteran.

Closing date for applications: May 25, 2024.

Find more about USAID ERA on DAI.com.

USAID ERA Equipment Supports Ukrainian Companies Operate During Power Outages   

AGRI-Ukraine Export Logistics Support
09 May 2024

Through Economic Resilience Activity (ERA), USAID delivered 10 diesel generators (from 80 to 544 kW), to 6 Ukrainian agrarian exporters to enable them to remain operational during power outages.  

ERA purchased three powerful generators for Nibulon at its branches in Odesa, Poltava and Cherkasy Oblasts. Nibulon’s branches do not have backup power systems, creating additional risks during the energy crisis caused by Russia’s shelling. Cherkasy and Poltava elevators have simultaneous grain storage capacities of 75,600 and 76,000 metric tons, respectively. The Odesa branch is designed to handle grain transshipped via sea and has a monthly capacity of 300,000 metric tons. These new generators with a 420 kW capacity each, will ensure full operations in the event of a power outage and continued logistics processes for grain storage and shipment. These three generators will increase Nibulon’s capacity by an estimated 52,000 tons per year in total. Earlier, USAID ERA provided Nibulon with 50 grain hopper wagons, grain testing equipment and samplers, two truck scales, two train scales, and three mobile grain loaders with two feed hoppers. Combined, this equipment enables Nibulon to reduce the cost of exporting grain, despite the loss of some assets due to Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.

Moreover, ERA delivered an 80 kW and a 420 kW generators to AR Boryspil in Kyiv Oblast. AR Boryspil is a grain and oilseed producer, and it owns 42,000 hectares of land and two modern elevator complexes in Kyiv and Zhytomyr Oblasts, which ensures the uninterrupted drying, storage, and shipment of high-quality grain. AR Boryspil estimates that with these two generators its export capacity will increase by 15,000 tons annually. Earlier, USAID ERA provided AR Boryspil with 25 grain wagons and two truck scales to boost company’s grain transportation capacity.  

Since February 2022, USAID ERA has delivered 37 generators to 17 AGRI companies to ensure exports of Ukrainian grain despite challenges caused by Russia’s war.   

USAID ERA is one of the key partners of USAID, which implements the Agricultural Sustainability Initiative of Ukraine (“AGRI-Ukraine”), budgeted at $350 million. This initiative was launched in 2022 with the aim of strengthening Ukrainian agricultural exports and mitigating the global food security crisis exacerbated by the war. As part of the “AGRI-Ukraine” initiative, USAID ERA cooperates with state and private enterprises to supplement and attract investments in transportation and transshipment of grain, which Ukraine desperately needs.  

More about the initiative at the link. 

Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority receives a pilot boat from USAID ERA

AGRI-Ukraine Export Logistics Support
03 May 2024

On May 2, 2024, USAID Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman; U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink; Assistant Administrator in USAID’s Bureau for Europe and Eurasia Erin Elizabeth McKee; and USAID/Ukraine Mission Director James Hope joined Deputy-Prime Minister of Restoration Oleksandr Kubrakov and representatives of the Ukrainian Sea Port Authority (USPA), Ukrainian Shipbuilding Manufacturing (UMS), and USAID’s Economic Resilience Activity (ERA) to test a new pilot boat on the Dnipro River in Kyiv. The pilot boat is the first of three boats to be provided to USPA through USAID ERA.

This first completed pilot boat can hold 12 passengers plus two crew members and was built by UMS, a Ukrainian company with more than 20 years of boat manufacturing experience. The boat will support seafaring operations on the Danube River by transporting maritime pilots between land and inbound/outbound ships, ultimately reducing delays and increasing the throughput capacity of moving cargo by up to one million tons per year.

The U.S. government is committed to helping Ukraine increase grain exports during the war and strengthen global food security.

Background: Assistance to agricultural producers and infrastructure companies is part of the Agriculture Resilience Initiative (AGRI) – Ukraine, implemented by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It aims to help Ukraine increase its capacity to produce, store, transport, and export grain.

An additional phytolaboratory for grain analysis opened on the Danube

AGRI-Ukraine Export Logistics Support
16 April 2024

On April 10, the Odesa Oblast Phytosanitary Laboratory opened a second remote branch on the Danube with three employees. USAID’s Economic Resilience Activity (USAID ERA) equipped the new laboratory with necessary equipment including, microscopes, laboratory scales, a bactericidal irradiator, a water treatment system, a set of weights, a laboratory hood, refrigerator, and consumables for conducting daily phytosanitary examinations such as Petri dishes, scissors, test tubes, gowns, and tips. 

This new laboratory will expedite the phytosanitary examination process of grain, ensure uninterrupted work of agricultural enterprises, and improve logistics for exporting Ukrainian grain on the Danube. 

“After Russia’s withdrawal from the “grain agreement”, security issues constrained grain shipment from the ports of Odesa. Companies pivoted and grain was shipped from the Southern ports (Izmail and Reni) instead, so opening an additional remote workplace was necessary. Every day, our main laboratory receives 20-150 samples for phytosanitary examination. The facility is only meant to handle 20 daily examinations, mainly samples of grain for export (corn, wheat, sunflower, rapeseed, soybean). Opening an additional remote location will help us speed up the analysis, because sample deliveries from the Danube to Odesa take a long time, delaying the ships in the port”, says the Acting Director of Odesa Oblast Phytosanitary Laboratory Kateryna Abuselidze. 

USAID ERA is one of the key partners of USAID, which implements the Agricultural Sustainability Initiative of Ukraine (“AGRI-Ukraine”), budgeted at $350 million. This initiative was launched in 2022 with the aim of strengthening Ukrainian agricultural exports and mitigating the global food security crisis exacerbated by the war. As part of the “AGRI-Ukraine” initiative, USAID ERA cooperates with state and private enterprises to supplement and attract investments in transportation and transshipment of grain, which Ukraine desperately needs. 

More about the initiative at the link.

Alternative logistics solutions aid farmers during the war

AGRI-Ukraine Export Logistics Support
26 March 2024

USAID, through the Economic Resilience Activity (ERA) assists NIBULON, one of the largest Ukrainian agribusinesses and a leader in the grain export market, implement alternative logistical solutions during the war. In order to export grain crops and ensure global food security, USAID ERA has purchased 50 grain wagons for NIBULON, to transport grain purchased from 2600 farms. 

NIBULON works with many agricultural enterprises supplying grain for export, including Nikol, based in Kherson Oblast. For over 20 years, Nikol has specialized in grain and oil crop cultivation. At the onset of the war, Nikol’s facilities were under occupation. Later, after the liberation, the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was attacked, and operations ceased again. Thousands of tons of the previous year’s grain harvest were stored in Nikol’s warehouses, but due to the branch’s shutdown, not a single kilogram was exported. This complex situation threatened not only the existence of the enterprise itself but also the livelihood of its employees and the well-being of over 500 families from whom Nikol leases land shares. 

In the summer of 2023, NIBULON resumed operations out of its Zelenodolska branch in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a very strategic location for Nikol. Thanks to the 50 grain wagons from the USAID ERA, rail exports became possible. Currently, NIBULON uses these wagons to transport grain, like from Nikol, from blocked river terminals to the ports of the Danube. From the ports, the grain is transshipped onto barges and transported to 25 countries around the world. 

With new grain wagons, NIBULON is able to offer Nikol better prices for grain. This income helps farmers pay wages, taxes, repay loans, and purchase fuel and fertilizers for the upcoming sowing campaign. 

“Thanks to assistance from USAID ERA in 2023, we resumed purchasing grain and continue to collaborate with more than 2600 farmers, which allowed us to export 3 million tons of grain through the Danube ports and the deep-water ports of Odessa within the calendar year. Transporting grain solely by trucks is very expensive. Combining road and rail as modes of transportation allows us to optimize logistics costs and offer farmers procurement prices where they can profit. Otherwise, we would have had to stop grain procurement, close river terminals, and that would mean over 500 job losses,” says Mykhailo Rizak, Deputy General Director for Interaction with Public Authorities at NIBULON. 

USAID ERA supports other agro-exporters too. In 2024, USAID ERA purchased 85 grain wagons for Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) Ukraine, one of the largest exporters of Ukrainian grain and oilseeds among foreign companies. All 85 wagons have already been delivered to LDC’s elevators. 

The procurement of equipment for agricultural companies takes place within the framework of the Agricultural Sustainability Initiative in Ukraine (AGRI-Ukraine), implemented by the USAID, to mitigate the global food crisis exacerbated by Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine. 

More about the initiative here.

On the eve of International Women’s Day, we celebrate the contributions women make to Ukraine’s economic development

AGRI-Ukraine Export Logistics Support
07 March 2024
“Like-minded People Inspire Me” 

Olha Vakarchuk is the Financial Director of a group of agricultural companies in the central part of Ukraine. Mrs. Vakarchuk is proud of her decision, nearly 20 years ago, to build her career in the agricultural field. She is a financier and economist by trade, schooled at the Vadym Hetman National University of Economics, and rose from Financial Controller to Director, serving at various companies. 

Shortly before the start of Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine, she received an offer to move from her Kyiv office to work in a village in Cherkasy Oblast. She made the brave decision and relocated to a small cozy village. 

“Managing a company from the office is one thing, but being in a village where you see farmers sowing wheat, grinding flour, or constructing an elevator outside your window is a whole new experience. My worldview has expanded”, shares Mrs. Vakarchuk, “Here, everything is in the palm of your hand, you feel and see everything deeply.” 

Ms. Vakarchuk explains how agriculture is not only about growing grains, but also about grain processing and logistics; it is a much broader field where many can attain professional fulfillment. In addition to financial reporting, Olha is responsible for communicating with Ukrainian and foreign partners, implementing new projects, and attracting assistance. 

“It doesn’t matter the gender of those around you. What is important is if they perform their work well, strive for development, and remain humane. When there are like-minded people with whom you look in the same direction, it is inspirational. This is precisely what motivates me to continue working in agriculture. Now, during the war, we are grateful to our partners for their support. Last year, our company received a grain transportation trailer and two generators from USAID Economic Resilience Activity. This affords us stability and enables us to continue to grow grain during the war.” 

​“The Ability to Influence Strategic Decisions Keep Me Going”  

Olena Krysenko has been working at IMK agricultural holding since their inception. Olena grew from a Sales Manager to a Commercial Director within the last 17 years. Currently, she is responsible for developing and implementing sales and procurement strategies, negotiating with key customers, and analyzing market trends.  

Ms. Krysenko explains how during wartime the two main challenges for agricultural businesses are changes in the price and demand for grain, which affects the company’s profitability, and the difficult access to sales markets. These factors force business entities to look for new logistics solutions and export routes. It’s these clever innovations, responding to challenges, that motivate me. 

“What I love most about my job is the opportunity to influence the company’s strategic decisions” says Olena. “In this difficult time for all of us, I am inspired by innovation and the introduction of new technologies in the agricultural sector, and by the fact that I contribute to the development of agricultural production, as well as the potential for expanding sales markets and developing new commercial activities” she continued.