Ukrainian ports on the River Danube increased shipments of export grain 1.6 times in May, compared with April.

This was announced by the Ukrainian Seaports Authority’s deputy head for liaisons with the authorities Dmytro Barynov, the CFTS portal reports, citing the Rail Insider publication.

According to Barynov, Ukrainian ports on the River Danube shipped 1.3 million tons last month, but this is still an insufficient volume compared with the volume of shipments before the Russian military invasion and the Russian blockade of Ukraine’s main ports.

“Ports on the River Danube shipped only 400,000 tons of cargo in March, 800,000 tons in April, and 1.3 million tons in May, and we are trying to increase it to 1.5 million tons in June,” Barynov said.

He noted that all Ukrainian ports shipped 5 million tons before the war. “It is currently less than a third of the pre-war volume. It is impossible to compare seaports with Danube ports,” he said.

According to him, there is a possibility of building large unloading complexes on the River Danube in the long-term future, which will further increase grain transshipment. However, this requires the appropriate funding.