NIBULON invested USD 23 million in the project. NIBULON’s General Director Oleksiy Vadaturskyy said that during inauguration of the facility.
According to him, the terminal’s capacities will allow it to receive up to 300 thousand tons of grain per year. Upon construction of the terminal in Ternivka, NIBULON’s total elevator capacity will attain 2 million tons.
“This object is economically beneficial to agricultural producers, since they can receive up to USD 10 for each ton of grain by reducing their logistics costs. In addition, due to the fact that we will remove up to 12.5 thousand trucks per year from the roads and will transport our cargoes by water transport, Zaporizhzhia region can save at least UAH 300 million for road repairs. First of all, in Zaporizhzhia, where trucks were moving straight through the city”, said Oleksiy Vadaturskyy.
He also added that the preparation for the putting into operation of the terminal had also included work with access waterways. ”Due to mud accumulation and shallowing, Ukraine loses up to 100 km of waterways every year. On this site we have managed to clear 15 km of waterway. There will operate large-tonnage vessels with draft of up to 4 m. That is, these are vessels of the sea class”, said NIBULON’s General Director.
According to the acting head of Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration Ella Slepian, due to the terminal, 120 new jobs will be created in Ternivka, and the local budget will receive UAH 5 million of taxes each year.
“It is a very socially responsible business; it does a lot for the community. I would like to wish our region to have more such investors. We gladly welcome them, we give them the green light”, she said.
Former head of the region Kostiantyn Bryl added that the region had created all the conditions to prevent bureaucratic and corrupt barriers to the construction.
Oleksiy Vadaturskyy confirmed that the investment climate created for the company in Zaporizhzhia region had contributed to the realization of the project. “The activity of our company is like a litmus test of the region’s investment attractiveness. 8 new facilities have been constructed in Kherson region after our first terminal, and 10 ones have been constructed in Zaporizhzhia region. When we arrive at a region, it is a signal to others: if NIBULON can do it, then you can enter”, he said.
According to the President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Gennadiy Chyzhykov, an inflow of investments in the economy begins with such companies as NIBULON, which invest in their homeland. “If foreign investors see that a Ukrainian company invests, it is a signal that it feels comfortable, it believes in this country, and it is making money here. And this is an invitation to foreigners: you can also do it”, said Gennadiy Chyzhykov.
“You become one more gate in order to export Ukrainian high-quality products to the international market. You appear on the map as the point and the world reckons with it. And this is indeed the victory of NIBULON’s management and team, the victory of local authorities that supported you on this very difficult road. And this is the victory of all the locals present here, who had opened their hearts, believed in this project”, said Gennadiy Chyzhykov.
According to the Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Volodymyr Topchii, the implementation of such projects as the development of river agrarian infrastructure is a significant investment in the future development of not only agriculture, but also the economy as a whole. He also added that the records yields and exports of Ukrainian farmers would be impossible without such infrastructure projects as NIBULON’s ones.
The project aimed at reviving navigation on the Dnipro and the Southern Buh Rivers, within which NIBULON builds river transshipment terminals, at first was supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Maria Ogorodnikova, associate director, senior banker of the EBRD in Ukraine said that the bank hoped to continue working with NIBULON and be part of NIBULON’s huge work in order to develop Ukraine’s agrarian sector.
“We work with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank and the International Finance Corporation. It would be impossible to implement this investment project without such trust of first-class foreign investors”, said Oleksiy Vadaturskyy.
According to the President of the Ukrainian Grain Association Mykola Gorbachov, the work carried out by NIBULON is not tied to the political situation or ambitions of officials, but it is aimed at the development and growth of the country regardless of the political course.
“There have been a lot of political changes, changes of ministers in Ukraine for many years. No one remembers how many ministers were, nobody remembers what they were doing. But everyone knows that NIBULON was building and investing. And the company has what to be proud of”, he stressed.
The company plans to start designing and constructing two more river transshipment terminals: in Marianske (Apostolove district, Dnipropetrovsk region) and Kurylivka (Petrykivka district, Dnipropetrovsk region).