Russia continues to artificially hinder the inspection of courts in the Bosphorus

UkrAgroConsult

The number of new fleets to be loaded as part of the “grain initiative” has significantly decreased due to the fact that Russia is sabotaging inspections.

This is reported on Facebook by the Ministry of Infrastructure.

It is noted that last week 25 vessels exported 1.1 million tons of agricultural products to countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. In particular, 54,000 tons of wheat were sent to Sri Lanka, 57,000 tons to Bangladesh, and another 90,000 tons are expected by Kenya, Tunisia, and Egypt.

If compared with the previous week, the volume of exports through the ports of Greater Odessa increased by 152 thousand tons. At the same time, the rate of arrival of new vessels for loading continues to decrease. Over the past week, the ports of Great Odesa received only 16 ships, the year before last – 25.

The Ministry of Infrastructure notes that the tendency to decrease ship calls for agricultural exports is due to Russia’s actions in the inspection zone in the Bosphorus. For the third month in a row, the Russians have purposefully sabotaged inspections under various unfounded and sometimes even absurd pretexts. Because of this, as of February 12, 145 ships are waiting in line for inspection by the Joint Coordination Center, of which 122 are headed to Ukrainian ports for agricultural products.

Currently, there are 18 ships in the ports of Odesa region. 584.5 thousand tons of Ukrainian food are loaded onto them. At the same time, only one vessel moves along the “grain corridor” after the inspection.

In order to increase the volume of exports in the current conditions and reduce idle time, it was decided to increase the tonnage of vessels participating in the initiative. In particular, for grain – from 20,000 tons to 25,000 tons, and for oil – from 6,000 tons to 10,000 tons. Taking into account that the average number of inspections of the incoming fleet is only 2.5 vessels per day, an increase in volume should be expected in one and a half months.

“We hope that the issue of stalling inspections will be resolved by the efforts of our partners and the entire civilized world. Ukraine has the right to free commercial shipping according to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the world has the right to uninterrupted access to food. Russia should stop imposing on everything its discriminatory policy to the world,” the ministry added.

Let us remind you that Ukraine exported 5.5 million tons of grain, oil crops and their processing products in January of this year.

Tags: Ukraine, Russia, export, grain, war