Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov has said that the volume of grain transshipment in Danube ports has been increased to almost 1 million tons per month since March, the CFTS portal reports.
"With the opening of traffic through the canal in the Bystre estuary, we expect the transshipment volumes in ports to increase even more significantly. We are already seeing positive dynamics. Simultaneously, we are also increasing the logistical capacity of railways and roads. We have already doubled the volume of grain transportation by rail to over 800,000 tons and the cargo flow through automobile crossing points has increased by 2.6 times," he said.
However, Kubrakov emphasized that it is difficult for these tactical steps, which are aimed at resolving the food crisis, to quickly replace the volumes that were handled by seaports. Seaports accounted for more than 80% of the export of agricultural products before the Russian invasion.
"For example, we managed to export approximately 2.5 million tons of agricultural products in June, which is more than three times less than the monthly requirement. We still need to export about 20 million tons of grain from the previous harvest. We could have achieved this task without seaports if we had time. However, we are being pressed by the new harvest, for which we need to make room in our granaries by exporting the quantities that are blocked there," he said.
He added that Ukraine needed to export about 20 million tons of grain from the previous harvest.
"At the last negotiations in Istanbul, we noticed some progress, which we expect to develop into a full-fledged agreement with security guarantees from the international community. It is already obvious to the whole world that global food security depends on these negotiations, and it is also a matter of life and death for millions of people in Africa and Asia. According to United Nations estimates, there are more than 400 million such people," the minister of infrastructure said.
