Since the agreement to resume grain exports by ship, 17 ships have left Ukrainian ports with a total of 475,000 tons of agricultural goods. So far, the destinations have been Turkey, for example, or in the Middle East region. Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain exporters. Russia had blocked ports since the invasion of Ukraine began in late February, causing exports to come to an almost complete standstill. Africa in particular was affected. The agreement was reached between Moscow and Kyiv, mediated by Turkey.
The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) has chartered the freighter “Brave Commander”. The German Press Agency had already reported on Sunday that the “Brave Commander” was the first grain freighter to leave the southern Ukrainian port of Piwdennyj with wheat for Africa on behalf of the United Nations. The dpa referred to a message from the governor of the Odessa region, Maxym Marchenko, on Telegram. This has obviously turned out to be premature. According to other agency reports, the “Brave Commander” was still being loaded on Sunday.
According to Deputy Infrastructure Minister Yury Vaskov, Ukraine can export three million tons of grain by sea in September. This could be increased to four million tons per month in the future. 30 ships from outside have signed up for the next two weeks to load grain for export in Ukraine, Waskov said on Tuesday.
Source: Nachrichten
