SIA LDZ Cargo, a subsidiary of Latvian Railways, has delivered a test train carrying Ukrainian grain products to the Freeport of Riga.
The Rīgas Universālais Termināls company (RUT) received and unloaded the grain products, the CFTS portal reports.
According to the publication, 1,423 tons of rapeseed were delivered in 54 containers. The containers from Ukraine arrived at the Kaunas intermodal railway terminal, where they were loaded onto SIA LDZ Cargo platforms for transportation to Riga.
The Ukrainian rapeseed is currently being unloaded and stored in RUT's warehouses.
"Terminals in the Port of Riga have been actively working on the transportation of Ukrainian grain products since the beginning of the full-scale war, but until now they have been delivered to the port by road, which cannot be compared to delivery by rail. Several terminals in the Port of Riga would be fully prepared in terms of technological and infrastructural capabilities to receive and efficiently handle container trains with Ukrainian grain. We hope that this first test for the entire logistics chain will be passed and that from now on we will regularly receive trains with Ukrainian grain in the Port of Riga," said Ansis Zeltiņš, the CEO of the Freeport of Riga.
Reception of grain in containers is a new experience for the Port of Riga’s terminals. Edgars Rudzītis, the head of the department of liquid bulk cargo warehouses at the RUT company, emphasized that the terminal is ready to receive grain container trains from Ukraine and that it has the necessary technologies for handling containers, as well as warehouses and the appropriate infrastructure for liquid bulk cargo.
"This is the first cargo from Ukraine to be transported through our infrastructure in the last one and a half years, and I think it is a very important event. We have repeatedly confirmed that the capacity of the Latvian railway infrastructure and SIA LDZ Cargo allows us to transport and handle large volumes of cargo, including grain from Ukraine. In line with the current situation, we have created new freight transportation options and plan to develop these freight transportation solutions in the future so that grain and other products can be transported between Ukraine and Latvia regularly," said Rinalds Pļavnieks, board chairman of JSC Latvian Railways (VAS Latvijas dzelzceļš).
The containers were shipped from Ukraine on 25 September, they were reloaded onto SIA LDZ Cargo platforms in Kaunas on 8 October, the platforms arrived at the Port of Riga on 11 October, and unloading began at the Riga Universal Terminal.
SIA LDZ Cargo organized the rail transportation of the cargo in cooperation with its customer SIA LTG Cargo Ukraine under a cooperation agreement signed in November 2022.
