Having exported 4.65 million tons of agricultural products, NIBULON is ranked first among Ukrainian exporters. 
During the last marketing years the number of agricultural products exporters has been increasing. Last year was not an exception. In 2016/2017 MY, competition between traders in the domestic market increased. In particular, we are talking about expansion of activity of international companies in Ukraine. Despite annual increase in the number of exporters, NIBULON Group manages to maintain its market share and its leadership; this indicates a really high level of competitiveness of our company.
“Quick reaction to changes in domestic and foreign markets and flexible approach to decision-making are the advantages of our company. It is possible due to a strong and high-capacity logistics system created by our company; in particular, it contains a multilevel system of quality control and management. Thus, we can form broader export product range in comparison with competitors. This creates advantages for us in cooperation with end consumers of agricultural products”, explained Volodymyr Slavinskyi, a grain wholesale manager.
As for the geographical spread of NIBULON’s exports, the company maintains its reputation of a reliable supplier of grain and oilseeds to the main markets of the world: countries of Africa, Middle East, Europe, South-East Asia, China, and India. The company remains a partner of leading government buyers of high-quality products, in particular: General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) in Egypt and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Jordan. The company’s specialists appreciate cooperation with all traditional partners and are ready for new challenges.
New markets and strengthening of positions in existing ones allowed the company to increase freight turnover and expand the list of partners in countries of destination. According to Dmytro Furda, a grain wholesale manager, expansion of export horizons became possible primarily due to constant control over the products quality, as well as due to high standards of foreign economic contracts execution focused on unique needs of individual consumers.  For example, NBULON successfully shipped Ukrainian corn to Jordan, the demand for which was almost absent due to quality risks and strong competition between the USA, Argentina and Brazil. As a result, local companies began to pay more attention to Ukrainian corn as a worthy alternative to overseas counterpart. The company also managed to build trade relations with producers of bioethanol in European countries and establish direct supplies of domestic corn to the plants producing “green” fuel.
In addition to increase in influence in the markets (Middle East, North Africa, EU countries), the company continues its development as a first-class exporter of high-quality products in South-East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and West Africa. At the end of 2016/17 MY, NIBULON was one of the few companies which shipped corn to Kenya (about 70 thousand tons). Shortly before, Kenya abolished the import duty for Ukrainian corn as a result of intergovernmental negotiations and hard work of Ukrainian diplomats on the initiative of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine. In addition, the company constantly increases its export volumes to China and improves the production culture in order to meet strict phytosanitary requirements of this country regarding quality and condition of products shipped for export.
“There is high potential for increasing exports in Asian countries. The population of this region grows very quickly; consequently, the need for various types of food products also increases. In addition the stable economic situation in the leading countries of South-East Asia (China, Indonesia, Malaysia) contributes to changes in the structure of food consumption, bringing it closer to the usual standards of the West; it also contributes to increase in imports of agricultural commodities and creates prospects for Ukrainian exporters”, added Volodymyr Slavinskyi.   
All the above-mentioned directions are promising for Ukraine but, at the same time, they require constant improvement of production techniques, improvement of quality indicators, and cost reduction to maintain achieved positions and to continue trade expansion.
“Undoubtedly, record harvest in the world over the past 3-4 years and active position of Latin American countries on increase in production tempos have generated numerous carry-over creating pressure on prices.  Increase in competition both inside the country and outside stimulates market participants to improve quality of their services and pay more attention to the need to reduce the production costs; it would allow competing with cheap offers of other exporting countries”, stressed Dmytro Furda.
In his opinion, the start of a new season has become multifaceted – dynamic for some crops and inert for others. Everything is conditioned by the world market conjuncture which doesn’t remain unchanged. The exports of barley has surpassed all our expectations. Since the beginning of 2017, Saudi Arabia Grains Organization has become the new and only state body for import of this crop and has introduced a new open tender system to replace the old one which was considered insufficiently transparent. Having registered in the tender with other international traders, NIBULON won certain volumes and has already started to ship them as part of the tender obligations. According to Dmytro Furda, this tender system will be beneficial and will make the Kingdom’s market more accessible for Ukrainian goods not only this season but in the future one.
“Ukrainian exporters are forced to start the 2017/18 MY in rather difficult conditions. Due to unfavorable weather conditions in spring and summer, the harvesting campaign of early grain and oilseeds started with a delay; the gross yield of early and late crops is likely to be lower than last year and will not meet the expectations of many market participants. Consequently, we can expect further growth of competition in the domestic market. But we are ready for this as NIBULON’s strategy aimed at cooperation with agricultural commodities producers allows us to protect market positions even if competition in ports is increased”, summarized Volodymyr Slavinskyi.