Companies in Ukraine see problems pile up, but most tough it out
By Marc Jones and Olena Harmash
KYIV/LONDON (Reuters) — German supermarket chain Metro and its 3,400 employees in Ukraine have worked hard to get their business back to where it was before Russia's full-scale invasion two years ago.
After a sales slump of 10.4% in 2022 — when the overall economy collapsed by almost a third as war caused havoc — revenue rebounded by almost the same amount last year as domestic consumption recovered. Now Metro faces a new test, as protests by Polish farmers blockading the borders with Ukraine disrupt supplies coming in — one of several challenges foreign and domestic firms face as they navigate doing business in a country at war. «The war has taught us to respond flexibly,» Olena Vdowychenko, head of the supermarket giant's Ukraine business, told Reuters.
According to Vdowychenko, around 18 of her company's trucks have been stuck each week at the Polish border in recent months, sometimes for three to four days. «This is a big problem for Ukrainian businesses,» she said, explaining it was pushing up costs everywhere.
Capital controls restricting the movement of profits out of the country, difficulties in getting insurance and wavering U.S. financial and military support have been issues for corporate Ukraine for months, if not longer. To make matters worse, border disruptions in 2023 by Polish truckers have been replaced by similar actions by farmers upset at cheap Ukrainian grain taking their market share. Russia's military also has the upper hand in the battlefield in the east and south, putting key mining operations out of action or at risk, and a new mobilisation bill aimed at recruiting up to 500,000 more Ukrainians threatens staff levels.
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