The Ukrainian Railways joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia) estimates the shortage of grain storage capacity in the country at a time of increasing crop harvests at 40-65 million tons.

This was announced by Ukrzaliznytsia’s Director of Business Development Andrii Riazantsev, the CFTS portal reports.

According to him, this applies primarily to areas adjacent to seaports.

“According to experts, the amount of funds needed to cover this shortage is up to USD 16 billion. According to our estimates, smooth transportation of grain during the year requires additional capacities for storage of about 13 million tons of cargo in areas adjacent to seaports, from where the cargo can then can be delivered to ports either by rail or by road during the peak season," Riazantsev said.

In addition, there is a significant from region to region. In some regions, there are storage facilities for only 20-30% of crop harvests.

At the same time, representatives of the Ukrainian Grain Association believe that efficient transportation of grain cargo requires not only development of port railway stations, but also improvement of infrastructure throughout the country. This will allow quick transportation of grain from any region. According to the Ukrainian Grain Association’s President Mykola Horbachov, about 1,000 grain elevators currently do not meet Ukrzaliznytsia’s transportation requirements. Therefore, new grain elevators and uniform location of these new grain elevators among regions are needed. “Businesses are ready to build grain elevators in the regions in those places where they will be effective. We want to identify these places together with Ukrzaliznytsia,” Horbachov said.

Representatives of the Ukrainian Grain Association also drew attention to the need to develop infrastructure on Ukraine’s western borders, through which grain cargo is exported to European countries such as Poland, Slovakia, and Belarus. According to the association, Ukraine is capable of exporting about 5 million tons of grain to Europe through its western borders every year. Therefore, it is necessary to provide capacities for storage of this volume of products at the borders, particularly at stations such as Kovel, Mostyska, and Mukacheve, which are located closer to the European railway gauge.

The Ukrainian Grain Association and Ukrzaliznytsia also noted that the increase in the volume of grain transportation is facilitated by an increase in the number of grain stations on routes. In addition, effective timetables are needed for transportation of grain cargoes from those stations that are not on the routes.