Ukraine's Agro-Region receives 25 grain hopper cars under USAID project
MOSCOW. May 21 (Interfax) - Ukraine's Agro-Region Group, which is owned by Swedish investment group East Capital, has received 25 grain hopper cars under the United States Agency for International Development's Economic Resilience Activity (USAID ERA) support program for Ukraine.
"We thank the USAID ERA project for the strategic support and promotion of the resilience of Ukrainian agribusiness. The main help was the provision of 25 railcars to transport grain, thanks to which Agro-Region itself invested in another 15 grain wagons," Ukrainian media reported the group as saying on social media.
USAID ERA said on social media that the hopper cars were provided to grain exporter AR Borispol LLC, a division of Agro-Region Group. The company has already begun using these 25 freight cars, which have enabled it to reduce grain logistics costs by 25%.
AR Borispol has a full range of equipment for receiving, storing, drying and unloading grain. To ensure the company's stable operations, USAID also provided two powerful generators for the autonomous operation of its elevator and truck scales, which will accelerate loading and unloading.
"Our own fleet of 40 grain wagons will make it possible to increase grain exports by at least 60,000 tonnes per year. The support of international partners is important to our company and we are prepared to jointly invest in new projects to develop Ukraine's export potential. We are currently assessing not only investment in logistics, but also in other projects - expansion of elevators, oil crop processing, biogas and dairy farms," Agro-Region investment director Taras Ivanishin was reported as saying.
Agro-Region is a group of 11 companies that grow grain and oil crops in Chernigov, Khmelnitsky, Kiev and Zhitomir regions. They grow corn, wheat, rapeseed, soybean, barley, sunflower seed and oats. The group has three elevators in Borispol, Miropol and Zavorichi total combined capacity for about 160,000 tonnes, and a dairy farm in the Borispol district of Kiev region.
Sweden's East Capital Asset Management AB has been the group's beneficiary since 2007.
The USAID ERA program provides assistance to Ukraine in restoring and developing its export infrastructure.