At Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta, dockers have been working for months to ship Ukrainian grain in addition to their usual cargoes from Romania and its landlocked neighbors. Shipments are constantly arriving. The grain, which is poured onto conveyor belts at Constanta’s terminals, sweetens the air and covers workers seeking shade under steel silos in a thin layer of gold dust. The export route is one of the few left open to Ukraine, which before the conflict with Russia was one of the world’s leading suppliers of grain. Exporters have shipped 1.46 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain through Constanta since Russia invaded the country in February and the war halted shipments from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. FIRST GRAIN SHIP LEAVING UKRAINE PASSES INSPECTION, WORLD EXPECTS MORE The first grain ship to leave the Ukrainian port of Odessa since the start of the war under a safe transit agreement set sail on Monday. Operators in Romania expect to continue to ship Ukrainian grain as it will take time to fully implement this agreement. Wheat arrives by road, rail or barge from Ukraine’s Danube River ports of Reni and Izmail. The safe transit agreement has been seen as a ray of hope in a worsening global food crisis. Turkey, which brokered the deal along with the United Nations, expects about one grain ship to leave Ukrainian ports every day for as long as the deal is in place. Trains carrying Ukrainian grain are pictured entering the grain terminal at the Port of Constanta, in Constanta, Romania, August 1, 2022. (Inquam Photos/George Calin via REUTERS/Reuters) Romanian port company Comvex said it would load two ships later this week — one carrying 30,500 tonnes of Ukrainian and Romanian corn bound for Libya and the second 45,000 tonnes of Ukrainian corn bound for Iran. “Everything depends on how the Istanbul agreement works and the quantities that Ukrainian ports can ship,” Comvex director Viorel Panait told Reuters. “We wish with all our hearts that they can restore their chain flows. But we are here, ready to help.” Comvex invested 4 million euros ($4.09 million) in a second barge unloading platform that came into operation at the end of July and increased its total processing capacity to 84,000 tons inbound and 70,000 tons per day. Last year, the port of Constanta shipped a record 25.2 million tons of grain from Romania and the neighboring countries of Serbia, Hungary, Moldova and Austria. Known as the breadbasket of Europe, Ukraine hopes to export 20 million tonnes of grain in silos and 40 million tonnes of the harvest now underway, initially from Odessa and nearby Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk, to help build its new crop. Congestion As of late June, Comvex had handled about 70 percent of Ukrainian grain and other goods coming through Constanta, including nearly 800,000 tons of iron ore. It plans to invest 60 million euros this year and next to boost operations, Panait said. Transport from Ukraine has been hampered by rail infrastructure problems and low water levels in the Danube after weeks of high temperatures and drought, meaning barges cannot carry full loads. Port authorities said 183,581 tonnes of grain are currently headed to Constanta, which will also continue to export other Ukrainian products not covered by the safe transit agreement, including steel products, iron ore and pipes. WAR IN UKRAINE DISRUPTS KEY SUPPLY CHAINS – AND LIVES The Constanta Port Business Association, which is also run by Panait, said the ten dockers handling Ukrainian goods in addition to their regular customers would need 340 million euros worth of investment in equipment to boost processing speed. They asked for European Union funds and government loan guarantees. In July, the Romanian government told Reuters it was considering a pilot program to acquire equipment “to increase the speed of operation at grain terminals.” It is also working to restore 35 port rail lines and remove hundreds of rusted wagons clogging the tracks.
