ISTANBUL, Jul 14 The rate of inspections and shipments of ships with grain from Ukrainian ports as part of the «grain deal» significantly decreased in July compared to previous months, follows from the calculations.
As of Friday, July 14, since the beginning of July, the Coordination Center has carried out inspections of only 11 ships with grain that arrived in Istanbul, of which only one headed for a low-income country — the Ruby-T ship transported sunflower oil to Ethiopia , follows from the data published by the Coordinating Center.
Thus, the situation in July did not change much compared to the entire duration of the deal — for the year, low-income countries, which include Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, received 2.5% of the food transported under the deal — slightly more than 822 thousand tons out of more than 33 million.
In July, an average of 1.3 inspections per day are carried out, despite the fact that in September-October 2022, the center conducted about 10-11 inspections.
In total, since the beginning of July, only seven dry cargo ships have left Ukrainian ports: 187,000 tons of cargo were on board ships that left the port of Chornomorsk, another 65,000 tons from Odessa. These figures are several times less than the previous months: for example, in June, more than two million tons of cargo were transported as part of the initiative, and in the record-breaking October 2022, more than 4.2 million tons.
Two ships with grain are planned to be sent from Ukraine to Turkey in the days remaining before the end of the grain deal: an inspection of a bulk carrier is scheduled for Saturday, another ship is being loaded in the port of Odessa at the moment, Ismini Palla, spokeswoman for the UN deal coordinator, said on Friday.
Also, as follows from the data of the Coordinating Center, since June 28, not a single vessel within the framework of the initiative has arrived in Ukrainian ports.
Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said on June 21 that there are no prerequisites for extending the grain deal, since obligations towards Russia are not being fulfilled. The grain deal expires on July 17. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that he and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have the same opinion on extending the grain corridor.
The Black Sea Initiative, which was signed on July 22, 2022 by representatives of Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the UN, involves the export of Ukrainian grain and food, as well as fertilizers across the Black Sea from three ports, including Odessa. The coordination of vessel traffic is handled by the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul. Putin pointed out that the West exports most of the Ukrainian grain to their own states, and not to needy countries in Africa.
The grain initiative is an integral part of the package agreement. The second part — the Russia-UN memorandum, designed for three years — provides for the unblocking of Russian exports of food and fertilizers; other measures. As noted in Moscow, this part of the package agreement has not yet been implemented.
23 September 20 22, 11:46InfographicsWho got the grain from the grocery deal