November 2012. The next vessel is being prepared for shipment at the transshipment terminal. It is a motor vessel “TUPI MAIDEN” to be bound for Kenya. People of this Eastern African country suffer from hunger caused by drought. In Kenya there work the UN humanitarian centres that provide sufferers with water and food. The motor vessel will deliver 10 thousand tons of sorghum to the African continent.
This cargo to Kenya is a result of the UN cooperation with NIBULON. For more than five years, within the UN World Food Program, the Ukrainian company has been supplying high quality wheat and sorghum to the countries where hunger exists. During this time NIBULON has already delivered almost 800 thousand tons of grain. It is the only Ukrainian company that participates in the World Food Program. NIBULON is able to satisfy the requirements as to product quality and efficiency of commodity delivery.
A number of highly qualified specialists are responsible for product quality. The production and technological laboratory of the transshipment terminal works 24 hours a day. “The motor vessel will not wait for. We must work efficiently, perform all the analyses qualitatively and give the results”, assures Galyna Prudka, the laboratory head.
Galyna and the specialists of her laboratory control quality during taking and shipment of grain. “The production and technological laboratory is a peculiar pride of the company”, says Oleksandr Hohlov, a deputy general director of quality assurance and product storage, “ Our laboratory was certified to perform measurements in compliance with the certification sector of SE Mykolayiv Regional Center of Standardization, Metrology and Certification, was accredited by the National Accreditation Agency of Ukraine to carry out physical-chemical and molecular-genetic tests of grain, leguminous, and oil crops, and acknowledged by the Grain and Feed Trade Association (GAFTA) to determine micotoxins content in grain”.
The international recognition and cooperation with international and state agents during grain export stimulate NIBULON to improve knowledge level, competence of specialists during participation in the international programs to determine quality of grain and oil crops, GMO content, safety indices, etc.
“The international market forms the requirements for agricultural commodity quality. We strive for being the first to adopt and implement these methods in Ukraine”, says Oleksandr Hohlov.
Oleksandr’s career development is an illustration of ample opportunities to be given to the young and talented specialists by NIBULON. The first workplace of a graduate of Odesa National Academy of Food Technologies (ONAFT) became the terminal of “Vitove” branch, Cherkasy region. To be more precise, a construction site of “Vitove” branch.
“I purposefully wanted to work there, to watch the elevator complex creation. During the construction I myself controlled assembly and putting into operation of modern foreign equipment for taking, storage and shipment of grain”, recollects Oleksandr Hohlov.
However, “Vitove” branch turned out to be not the first construction site for Oleksandr. In several months he was appointed the director of NIBULON’s transshipment terminal in Kamyanka-Dniprovs’ka town (Zaporizhzhya region) which construction started at the end of 2009.
The head of production and technological laboratory Galyna Prudka is also a graduate of ONAFT. “I think that for 8 years of work in NIBULON I have grown professionally”, mentions Galyna. Her career development and successes prove that NIBULON ensures gender equality for its employees.
While working in the company, Galyna communicates with specialists of different countries who visit the transshipment terminal’s laboratory in order to become familiar with its activities and to adopt the experience. “Foreigners are impressed by our level of equipment and labour organization. Many people call our laboratory one of the best they have ever seen”. Galyna Prudka has visited transshipment terminals and grain laboratories of Egypt, Lebanon and Libya.
“To comply with the demands, we tend to control quality of grain from a field (own products) to a port. The important thing is to determine chemical composition of grain including safety indices, GMO content, etc.”, Galyna Prudka tells that at present the company’s laboratory is able not only to ensure its own needs completely but also to offer services to other agricultural producers to determine quality of grain, leguminous and oil crops.
“Determination of quality indices, grain safety, presence of genetically modified organisms is conducted in our laboratory by using modern high-precision equipment and the best reagents”, stresses Ganna Kara, a deputy head of the laboratory.
Ganna is an engineer-chemist-technologist. She worked for the largest companies of Mykolayiv city, such as Ekvator plant, Mykolayiv perfumery and cosmetics complex “Alye Parusa”, Mykolayiv shipbuilding yard “Okean”.
In 2010 Lyudmyla Postoronko, a head of NIBULON’s chemical-technological laboratory, invited Ganna Kara to work for NIBULON when at the transshipment terminal there was being created a new laboratory. Together they were engaged in organization of workplaces, selection of equipment and reagents. Lyudmyla Postoronko, an experienced specialist, became one of the ideologists to create the new chemical-technological laboratory. Today she is proud of work of NIBULON’s experts,
“NIBULON’s chemical-technological laboratory is unique for Ukraine. Our specialists can determine all indices of wheat and bakery products, grain and oil crops, presence of micotoxins in products, indices of soils, air and water (underground, sewage and fresh water), presence of GMO, heavy metals in foodstuff; level of noise and radiation, motor transport exhaust gases can be also determined, etc.”
The laboratory’s specialists carry out analyses to determine GMO content in foodstuff and in agricultural raw materials. Firstly, there is performed a qualitative analysis of products and then a quantitative one, “Sometimes under the terms of the contract it is necessary to determine belonging of agricultural commodities to a certain line, and the laboratory conducts such a procedure successfully”, explains Ganna Kara.
A chemical research engineer of the chemical-technological laboratory Tetyana Pustovoichenko used to work at Chernomorskyy shipyard for almost 20 years and at the State Ecological Inspection for 2 years. She says she has chosen NIBULON because of its modern and perfect laboratory. Tetyana considers herself to be a real chemist by birth and values an opportunity to fulfill herself as a professional at the high-tech transshipment terminal,
“Modern chemistry is closely connected with other sciences and many economic sectors, it also concerns agriculture. You cannot do without chemical analysis while estimating quality of grain crops, determining a yield level of fields, quality of fresh water and atmospheric pressure”.
All the specialists of the chemical-technological laboratory have higher education and improve their professional skills undergoing refresher courses in the best laboratories of Ukraine and Europe. Among them there are a lot of youth who always strives for self-improvement and self-learning. NIBULON’s employees are provided with the best working conditions. Ganna Kara says that today it is not easy to find young and talented chemists. This profession is not popular among the youth, though, the demand increases according to economic development and growth of attention to environmental safety, “In order to reach a success, a young professional must have not only the required abilities but also a desire. It is necessary for a person to like his work”.
Vadym Rotaenko graduated from the university last year. He is proud that NIBULON’s chemical-technological laboratory became his first workplace, “Every working day is interesting and informative here. Chemist is a difficult profession which is very important and significant in different industry sectors and my knowledge has great value here”.
At present the chemical-technological laboratory has implemented and improves a new direction of chemical research, namely determination of oil product quality indices (diesel fuel and lubricating oil). The analysis is performed by using high quality reagents, up-to-date methods, and modern equipment produced by the USA, Switzerland, German, and Russia.
The company plans to develop chemical-technological researches to determine quality of grain, soils, water, and air.
General Director and NIBULON’s team congratulate chemists on their occupational holiday and wish them creative achievements and professional inspiration!