By Pavel Polityuk
KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine must be ready to export grain almost exclusively via its Danube River ports because Russia is effectively blocking Black Sea shipments, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority said on Tuesday.
The United Nations and Turkey brokered a deal between Moscow and Kyiv last July on the safe passage of Black Sea grain to help tackle a global food crisis worsened by Russia’s invasion of its neighbour and a blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
Moscow has threatened not to extend the deal beyond July 18 unless a series of demands are met, including the removal of obstacles to Russian grain and fertiliser exports. It says that promises of help with those exports have not materialised.
“With Russia effectively blocking the operation of the grain corridor, we need to be ready to receive almost the entire export volume of the new harvest through the Danube ports,” Dmytro Barinov, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority’s deputy head, said on Facebook.
Ukraine is a major grain grower and exporter but production has fallen sharply since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
With a working grain corridor, about half of its agricultural exports are shipped via Black Sea ports, a quarter pass through its Danube ports and a quarter go via its western border.
ROMANIAN TRANSIT
The sea ports authority said this month three Ukrainian Danube river ports had exported a record 3 million tonnes of food in May.
Ukrainian transport officials say export volumes could be higher if the Bystre Canal on the Danube is deepened. A senior Ukrainian official said last month Kyiv wanted to start work on deepening the canal as early as this year.
Ukrainian officials have said transit via Romanian territory to Constanta port on the Black Sea will also be critically important if Russia quits the Black Sea grain deal.
Constanta has handled about a third of Ukrainian grain exports since Russia’s invasion, but Romanian officials are considering measures to give local farmers priority access to Constanta during the harvest season.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said he had told his Romanian counterpart the two countries could triple transit “through the development of border crossing points, ferry crossings and sea and river ports.”
He said on the Telegram messaging app that he had proposed steps be taken at the level of government including “the introduction of joint customs control, exchange of databases and other measures.”
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
