One of Ukraine’s most committed business partners, Austria, has been a longtime investor into its economy bringing businesses of all sizes and all sectors.
Austria ranked sixth in terms of direct investment in Ukraine, which amounted to $1.3 billion as of July, according to the State Statistics Service. Most Austrian businesses have been in Ukraine for the long haul despite the country’s weak economy and corrupt business environment.
Two Austrian pharmaceutical companies – Lannacher Heilmittel and Gerot Pharmazeutika – left the market this year, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
There are some 500 Austrian companies that have business interests in Ukraine, of which 55 have local offices, according to Advantage Austria, a state agency that promotes Austrian economy abroad.
However, the Austrian Embassy in Kyiv estimates the number of operating businesses to be closer to 150.
Betting on pigs
One Austrian entrepreneur decided to bet on pig farming right in the heart of Ukraine. Living in Ukraine’s Tymoshivka village in Cherkasy Oblast, some 200 kilometers from Kyiv, Austrian Thomas Brunner has been breeding pigs already for six years at his agricultural company Agro Plus 2006.
Coming from Austria, a country with some of the highest shares of organic agricultural land in the world, Brunner quit his job in the corporate sector to run a pig farm without the use of antibiotics.
Although the European Union banned the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in animal food back in 2006, they are still used for animal health treatment.
Since its establishment, Agro Plus farm has grown from 150 sows imported from Austria to some 5,000 pigs. Brunner is particularly proud of his innovative, non-antibiotics approach balanced out by high quality feed and better conditions for his livestock.
“Antibiotics just cover mistakes of poor management and low quality feed,” Brunner says. “From birth, our piglets are under health control. We check how well their intestines are developing. We feed them with organic corn, barley, and wheat without additives. It’s more work, but it pays off in quality of pork and the pigs’ genetics.”
The company now sells its products only in Ukraine, but plans to expand. Brunner wants to build a slaughterhouse, start selling produce under the company’s own brand name, and obtain European certifications so that it can export livestock and pork abroad. It recently started to deliver pork to a Ukrainian deli meat producer Ham.Lo.
Energy efficiency
An Austrian engineering and consultancy firm iC Consulenten opened its Ukraine branch in 2013 even though it has been doing some work in the country before. Today their Kyiv office has 12 people who run projects in cooperation with private enterprises, municipalities, and international donors.
For example, iC Ukraine has worked with German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation on a number of projects to improve energy efficiency in municipal buildings like kindergartens and schools, as well as to promote energy reforms in Ukraine.
Elena Rybak, managing director of iC Consulenten’s Ukraine office, said that the country has shown progress in energy efficiency but still lags behind developed countries.
“We see the change in the sector of commercial real estate,” Rybak said. “Today investors require international energy efficiency standards in the design and construction of business centers and shopping malls.”
iC Consulenten also recently won a tender on public transport modernization in Lviv.
Rybak says that the market of energy efficiency service providers in Ukraine is underdeveloped. And although there are a number of international engineering consultancy firms working in Ukraine, none of them are permanently present in the country, and they usually work only on a project-to-project basis, according to Rybak.
Clean water
BWT, is another Austrian business operating in Ukraine which aims at improving the quality of drinking water and reducing plastic bottle waste in Ukraine since it offers environmentally friendly water treatment products for consumers.
For example, it equips pharmaceutical companies with ultrapure water systems for manufacturing. Starting this year, BWT has also been working closely with coffee and beer makers.
“Poor water quality can greatly affect the taste of coffee,” Evgeniy Doroshenko, managing director at BWT Ukraine, said. “And we see that more coffee makers begin to pay attention to this.”
The company has been on the market since 2007 and, despite Ukraine’s economic and political turbulence, it is seeing its business growing fast.
“Ukrainians are starting to understand the importance of clean drinking water, and this culture has to be developed further,” Doroshenko says.
