Constanta, Romania (AP) — Ukraine’s ports have been blocked or seized by Russian forces, and the nearby port of Constanta on Romania’s Black Sea coast has become an important vehicle for grain exports from the war-torn country amid the growing global food crisis. .
It is Romania’s largest port and is home to Europe’s fastest grain loading terminal. Since the invasion on February 24, it has processed about one million tons of grain from Ukraine, one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat and corn.
But port operators say it may soon be impossible to maintain, especially increase, the volumes they handle without the joint support and investment of the European Union.
“If we want to continue helping Ukrainian farmers, we need help increasing our transshipment capacity,” said Dan Dolgin, head of grain operations at Comvex, the main operator in the Black Sea port.
“No operator can invest in infrastructure that will be useless after the war,” he said.
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Comvex can process up to 72,000 tons of grain per day. This and Constanta’s proximity to Ukraine by land and the Suez Canal by sea make it the best available route for Ukrainian agricultural exports. Other alternatives include road and rail transport on Ukraine’s western border with Poland and its ports on the Baltic Sea.
Attempts to lift Russia’s blockade have failed, and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that up to 181 million people in 41 countries could face a food crisis or more severe hunger this year due to the war in Ukraine.
Just days after Russia’s invasion, Comvex invested in a new abatement plant, hoping the neighboring country would have to reorient its agricultural exports.
This has allowed the port to ship nearly a million tons of Ukrainian grain over the past four months, most of which arrived in barges along the Danube. But with 20 times more blockages in Ukraine and Romania rapidly approaching him and other countries that use Constanta for export during the summer harvest, Dolgin said the pace of transporting Ukrainian grain to its port is likely to slow.
“As the Romanian summer harvest increases, all port operators will switch to Romanian grains,” he warned.
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Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Agriculture Markian Dmitrasevich is also worried.
Speaking to the European Parliament earlier this month, Dmitrasevich said that operators in Constanta turning to European grain suppliers in the summer will “make it more difficult to export Ukrainian products”.
Romanian and other EU officials have also expressed their concerns in recent weeks, lining up to pledge support.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, during a recent visit to Kiev with the leaders of France, Germany and Italy, said his country was looking for possible ways to overcome Russia’s “arming of grain exports”.
“As part of the solution to the food insecurity caused by Russia, Romania is actively involved in facilitating the transit of Ukrainian exports and acts as a hub for grain to enter the traditional markets of the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Asia,” he says.
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Solutions discussed in Kiev include accelerating the delivery of Danube barges, accelerating reductions in Romanian ports, new border crossings for Ukrainian grain trucks, and reopening a decommissioned railway connecting Romania to Ukraine and Moldova, Iohannis said.
The Romanian analyst said it was more than private logistics companies or any other country finding alternative routes for Ukraine’s grain exports, reiterating Iohannis’ call for an international “coalition of the willing” to resolve the issue in Kiev.
“The situation in Ukraine will not be resolved in the near future; The war may end tomorrow, but tensions remain. … That is why new transport routes need to be evaluated and strengthened,” said George Vulcanescu.
In this sense, he said, there are only three routes that are financially profitable for Ukrainian exports – via Romania, Poland or the Baltic countries.
However, he added, “port operators need financial support from Romanian authorities, but funding must come from the European Union.”
Vulcanescu said a combination of fast and “minimum, not maximum” investment is required.
“Large investments cannot be made quickly – we need to find quick solutions to expand the (existing) storage and handling capacities of Romanian ports.” “If we want to help Ukraine today, we need to find smaller investments to improve the infrastructure we already have,” he said.
Comvex’s Dolgin said the operator wanted to help as much as possible, but added: “We hope to see concrete actions, not just statements supporting port operators.”
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Source: Breitbart
