Four days later, NBL-90 non-self-propelled vessel accompanied by the modern 121 M project Nodari Chanturiia tug arrived at the company’s transshipment terminal in Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi with 400 tons of Kherson watermelons. From here the watermelons will be delivered to Silpo supermarkets (Fozzy Group) in Kyiv.
NIBULON’s fleet is transporting tasty Kherson watermelons to Kyiv for the third consecutive year. Each year, this event is the top news item in information agencies and becomes the most important topic in the country. Oleksiy Vadaturskyy, NIBULON’s General Director, invites all Ukrainian carriers to join NIBULON and to transport watermelons together to make this activity a common practice rather than the top news item on TV.
“Regular watermelon transportation by river can become like city public transport in terms of regularity, by making radical changes in the legislation to make river transport in Ukraine competitive with road and rail transport, which is the worldwide norm. In that case, between 100 and 300 tons of watermelons could be transported from Kherson region daily”, states Oleksiy Vadaturskyy.  
The excessive tax burden on Ukrainian inland water transport must be reduced.  This burden prevents the development of cargo shipping on inland waterways. To develop the sector, it is extremely important to cancel the excise tax on fuel or compensate this tax during river cargo and passenger transport, to cancel payments for raising movable bridges and passing through the Dnipro Cascade locks as well as rental payments for special water use. All these are normal measures worldwide, as none of the countries faces this excessive and unreasonable tax burden for inland water transport.
NIBULON would be pleased to transport watermelons to Kyiv and unload them near Khreshchatyk St. or Andriivskyi Uzviz. However, in the current situation, this transportation would cause a considerable increase in watermelon prices for Kyiv citizens. The company would have to pay additional costs for transportation, port dues when calling at a port, payments for loading/unloading operations, weighing, and others. At present, NIBULON provides its transshipment terminals free of charge for 4 days to load/unload watermelons at Hola Prystan and Pereiaslav Khmelnytskyi. The company does this despite it being a once-off watermelon transport along the Dnipro River. NIBULON owns the transshipment terminals and its fleet. As it transports agricultural commodities downstream, the company’s fleet can transport other products upstream. Consequently, NIBULON is the only Ukrainian company undertaking this type of transportation. This is a social project for NIBULON as the transportation is not profitable.
“Who wants to demonstrate the profitability of watermelon transportation? NIBULON is ready to rent its vessel for two weeks. You will quickly see that river transport, which is the cheapest mode of transport in the world, is the most expensive one in our country. Prove its profitability by actions instead of making pompous statements for the sake of your popularity”, announces NIBULON’s General Director. “Today the company helps the agrarian sector to transport these watermelons along the Dnipro River. We would like the company’s opinion to be finally considered. Unfortunately, neither the current Minister of Infrastructure nor the former Verkhovna Rada supported NIBULON’s initiatives to develop Ukrainian shipping and shipbuilding and to create equal conditions for Ukrainian and foreign companies to transport cargoes on the rivers. We sincerely hope that the newly elected state authorities and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will solve these urgent issues. The state must support Ukrainian shipbuilding, which will result in economic benefits to transport cargo by river. The development of shipping is extremely necessary and has an important impact on the development of other sectors of the Ukrainian economy. We are for the construction of a Ukrainian fleet on the Dnipro River. We want the Dnipro to become economically attractive. We want the state to protect a Ukrainian shipbuilder and a Ukrainian sailor.”