Seaports need to be restored to restore supplies.
From — due to the mining of the Black Sea and the fears of ship owners and insurers, not a single merchant ship should now go to Ukraine. And ships that arrived before February 24 do not leave Ukrainian ports. We found out what alternative ways Ukrainian exporters are trying to bypass the supply channels blocked by Russia, reports the Chronicle.info with reference to Focus.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the main problem for domestic exporters was the blocking of the Black Sea ports by the Russian army, which made it impossible to export by sea.
«Either because of the mining of the Black Sea, or because of the fear of shipowners and insurers regarding the potential danger to the fleet and personnel, not a single merchant ship is now going to Ukraine, ”comments Orest Matviychuk, senior lawyer at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang. — Ukrainian ports also do not leave ships that arrived before February 24, 2022. In this regard, international traders and exporters began to look for alternative channels for export».
Detours. How grain is delivered from Ukraine abroad
Foreign trade did not stop during the war. Ukraine produces much more agricultural products than its own needs, and therefore can export quite large volumes of food without jeopardizing its food security. There are practically no significant administrative restrictions on the export of grain, sunflower oil and many other agricultural products from Ukraine. That is, export, in fact, is carried out as in peacetime. The main task is to find alternative supply channels.
«Exporters now have two main routes: by rail to the western borders of the country, and further to European ports — or by barge transportation along the Danube to seaports of Romania», — says Svetlana Litvin, an analyst at the Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business (UCAB).
Dmitry Onosovsky, lawyer, senior lawyer of UCC «De Jure» Among the alternative routes, he lists export to Poland by land — by road freight or by rail to the border, shipments in the Danube ports of Reni, Izmail and Chilia, as well as export to Constanta (Romania) for further transportation by sea.
Why new export channels from Ukraine are so narrow
According to Svetlana Lytvyn, a number of problems hinder the export of alternative routes. Firstly, technical difficulties, such as different widths of railway tracks in Ukraine and the EU, due to which it is necessary to reload products or change the width of wheels, lack of wagons, barges, unpreparedness of railway operators and other participants in the EU supply chain to our grain volumes and etc.
«There are not enough transfer terminals on the railway. Automotive exports face the problem of Ukrainian trucks complying with environmental regulations in Europe, although neighboring European countries are already introducing temporary easing of environmental requirements for Ukrainian trucks. Meanwhile, in the Danube ports of Ukraine there are not enough barges to ship all the products», continues the list of obstacles Dmitry Onosovsky.
Lytvyn notes that due to the above problems, the capacity of these routes cannot replace the seaports — now it is maximum 1 million tons per month, which is 5-6 times less than the capacity of seaports.
Lost export opportunities from Ukraine
Before the war, the share of agricultural products in the structure of Ukrainian exports reached 40%. Due to the difficulties created by the occupying state, the volume of exports of agricultural products from Ukraine has already significantly decreased compared to the pre-war period.
«Usually, with the help of seaports, Ukraine was able to export about 5 million tons of grain and 500-600 thousand tons of sunflower oil per month, but according to the results of March 2022, only 220 thousand tons of grain and 15 .8 thousand tons of vegetable oil», — Svetlana Litvin clarifies. Thus, as the interlocutor of Focus notes, even with the maximum throughput of all alternative export routes, the surplus corn available in Ukraine will be exported for more than a year, and even then in the absence of exports of other grains».
Earlier, Andriy Stavnitser, director of the TIS port in Yuzhny (Odessa region), told the media that the crop that is now in Ukraine will have to be exported for 40 months under the conditions of the sea blockade.
&# 171;The increase in the capacity of alternative routes is slow and gradual, concludes Onosovsky. — In order to increase export capacities, it is necessary to provide assistance to border countries, including the attraction of their transport capacities, trucks and barges on the Danube». However, the interviewed experts are sure that the only way to restore pre-war export volumes is to unblock Ukrainian seaports. But for this it is necessary to stop Russian aggression.