USAID Economic Resilience Activity (USAID ERA) delivered a front-end loader to Kernel. The equipment will be used at the company’s terminals for the transshipment of agricultural products in Odesa region. One such loader can load about 1,500 tons of grain per day. 

Recently, the USAID ERA delivered three generators to the Kernel company – with a capacity of 800 kW. 500 kW and 200 kW, and a cabinet of automatic reserve input. They will ensure the uninterrupted operation of Kernel enterprises in Odesa without reducing the productivity of assets, even in the absence of a centralized electricity supply. 

In October, the USAID ERA  purchased 19 powerful generators for the needs of agricultural exporting companies. 

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.

On November 28, the USAID Economic Resilience Activity (USAID ERA delivered to the company “Private enterprise “Fenix Agro” scales for weighing road transport with grain. The scales will be used at the company’s facilities in the Cherkasy region – at grain warehouses in Uman. Now, the company is making a concrete foundation – a base-site for installing scales. They plan to complete these works by the end of January 2024. Then they will be able to use the scales. 

 The company had no scales suitable for weighing grain cars and rented scales from partner companies, spending time (because you had to go to the scales), fuel and money to pay for these services. The new scales will allow us to properly organize the reception, storage and shipment of grain from warehouses used by the company to large grain trucks, including directly for export. After the installation of scales, it will be able to weigh up to 750 tons of grain per day. 

PE “Fenix Agro” has operated since 2010 as a specialized trader and supplier serving a large agricultural community of farmers united in the First Ukrainian Agrarian Cooperative (PUSK), whose total land bank is more than 200,000 hectares. The cooperative unites 74 farmers in the central and western regions of Ukraine. The staff of PE “Fenix Agro” is more than 120 employees. 

Since 2020, the company has started selling grain crops for export. First of all, they sell agricultural products of the cooperative – corn, wheat, rapeseed, sunflower. The enterprise is rapidly increasing grain exports, as well as supplying feed raw materials and fuel for agricultural partners. Since March 2022, the enterprise has started active export activities and sold almost 16,000 tons of agricultural products for export. In the incomplete year of 2023, export volumes increased to 80,000 tons. The company plans to increase export volumes in the future. 

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.  

USAID’s Economic Resilience Activity (ERA) has delivered three 600-kilowatt generators to IMC, one of Ukraine’s top ten agricultural holding companies. The generators will be used at the company’s grain elevatorsin Chernihiv, Poltava, and Sumy Oblasts, to enable them to remain operational during power outages.   

The generators will enable IMC to remain resilient in the face of power challenges that are expected during the 2023-2024 winter. A repetition of the previous year’s occurrences, Russia`s attacks on the energy infrastructure, are expected to cause periodic power outages. These, sometimes last for several days, which completely disrupted the entire production process and the export of grain. A such, the delivery of the generators is a timely assistance that will ultimately support the resilience of Ukraine’s economy.   

Additionally, USAID ERA provided IMC with three scales for weighing automobile transport at the company’s elevators. 

Background: Assistance to agricultural producers and infrastructure companies is under 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.    

USAID, through the Economic Resilience Activity (ERA) purchased and delivered a front-end telescopic loader fto the agricultural products trader Zlata Trade, whichoperates in southern and central Ukraine. This equipment will enable Zlata Trade to optimize the operation of one ofits (grain) elevators. 

According to the company’s estimates, operating the telescopic loader will increase its grain shipments by 500 tons per day. 

Zlata Trade currently uses loaders that are over 15 years old in its elevators. When this equipment breaks down – which happens frequently and unpredictably – it affects the entire supply chain. The new telehandler provided by USAID will therefore help to ensure the stable operation of the elevator, and sustain its grain trade.  

Background: Assistance to agricultural producers and infrastructure companies is under 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.    

USAID Economic Resilience Activity (USAID ERA) purchased and delivered truck scales to Ukrainian agricultural companies to help them increase their export capacities. 

The truck scales were delivered to subsidiaries of the IMK Group in Chernihiv, Poltava and Sumy oblasts. The scales will be used in the grain drying complex of these locations with capacity of storing up to 100,000 tons in total. Previously, the company had small scales with limited capacity which only allowed for weighingg small trucks that are used for internal transportation of grain. 

Previously, exports were shipped by transshipment at elevators (either company-owned or owned by a third-party), with grain being loaded onto railcars at these elevators. The new scales will allow IMC to load grain onto large grain trucks in the warehouses and then ship it for export. According to the company, with the new scales and other equipment received from USAID (front-end telescopic loaders, generators), its export capacity will increase by 100,000 tons annually. 

Another USAID beneficiary in Cherkasy Oblast needed a new truck scale to ensure uninterrupted grain handling operations at its transshipment point. In 2022, the company’s truck scale was burnt during a missile attack, causing a significant decrease in exports. The farmers could not continue harvesting corn, which led to an increase in the idle time of combines and cars, as well as production costs. 

The installation of the new scales will allow the company to transship and load grain into maxi bags, increasing storage and packaging capacity export volumes while reducing the cost of exporting the grain. According to estimates, exports will increase by 10 percent. 

On October 10, TAK-AGRO holding company also received truck scales from USAID ERA. The company installed the scales at its transshipment point in Kyiv Oblast. The scales which the company used before could weigh vehicles of only up to 10 tons. Therefore, to weigh the 25-ton grain trucks used by the holding company, drivers had to travel to another branch of the company located 25 kilometers away. Now, each weighing operation saves the costs required to cover the total of 50 km of road (fuel costs, depreciation, and human resources). 

 The procurement of the equipment was undertaken within the Agriculture Resilience Initiative (AGRI) – Ukraine, implemented by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), in order to mitigate trade crisis exacerbated by Russia’s cruel war against Ukraine. It aims to help Ukraine increase its capacity to produce, store, transport, and export grain.