By KYIV. Dec 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The economics of exporting agricultural crops to Europe by road transport is such that it can be made profitable only if grain carriers find commercial cargo for transportation on their way back to Ukraine, Ihor Pylypenko, director of logistics at Agrain agricultural holding, has said.
At the Doing Agribusiness in Ukraine conference organized by the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB), he said that the agrarian group started exporting agricultural products in the second half of this summer, after obtaining a license to transport to Romania and Bulgaria.
According to him, trips of the group of companies over a distance of about 600 km across the territory of several countries can take about two weeks. At the same time, the holding managed to find goods in the EU countries for delivery to Ukraine on the way back, without which road transport would have occurred with zero margin, or even a slight loss.
"We exported grain – corn and wheat, and on the way back we took a cargo of fertilizers in big bags, from 18-22 tonnes per truck," Pylypenko said.
He said that road transport initially turned out to be quite unpredictable, and for their maximum success, caravans of five to seven trucks were carried out with the maximum support of lawyers who simultaneously prepared documents for guaranteed crossing of the border.
"In this case, the Shlyah electronic system helped a lot, where you can register and receive almost the entire package of documents necessary for crossing the border, as well as a hassle-free stay of drivers on a foreign business trip," he said during the conference.
Pylypenko said that Agrain’s road transport was also needed for the evacuation of personnel and equipment from the territories of Kharkiv region occupied by Russian troops, since three of the four agricultural enterprises of the group in this region fell under it. In total, tractors with trawls made more than 20 trips, sometimes under enemy fire, thanks to which employees and part of the equipment were taken out of the occupied territories.
The holding’s vehicle fleet consists of about 90 Scania tractors with semi-trailers for agricultural cargo. The company transports seeds, grains and oilseeds, oversized cargo (agricultural machinery and equipment), fuel and lubricants.
As reported, in December 2021, the State Service of Ukraine for Transport Safety (UkrTransSafety) implemented the possibility of digital registration of permits for the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) for international transportation in the Shlyah platform.
Agrain is engaged in the cultivation and storage of grain and oilseeds, as well as animal husbandry. Prior to the full-scale Russian invasion, it included 11 agricultural enterprises, cultivated about 110,000 hectares in Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Odesa and Cherkasy regions. The owner of the holding is SAS Investcompagnie (France).
