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.