Six ships (SEAJOY, LADY ZEHMA, SAFFET AGA, SIMAS, MICHALLIS and KARTERIA) departed from the seaports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Pivdenny with 183,000 tons of Ukrainian agricultural products.
As reported on the official page of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine on Facebook, among them is the vessel KARTERIA, chartered by the UN World Food Program to help the population of Yemen.
“In less than a month of the initiative’s operation, we have exported almost one and a half million tons of agricultural products, and this is a fairly significant result. However, we must reach 100-150 ships per month and with a total throughput of 5 million tons per month from the three ports of Greater Odessa,” the message is quoted as saying. Minister of Infrastructure Alexander Kubrakov.
He also noted that Ukraine is strengthening the humanitarian part of the initiative – on board the bulk carrier KARTERIA there are 37.5 thousand tons of wheat for Yemen, which is in a state of humanitarian catastrophe. There, according to the UN, 16 million people suffer from hunger.
“We understand our global mission and responsibility to countries that need Ukrainian food. The caravan that left today is Ukraine’s next step towards the civilized world,” the minister commented.
According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, during the implementation of the Initiative for the Safe Transportation of Agricultural Products, 61 ships have already departed from Ukrainian ports. There are about 1.5 million tons of agricultural products on board.
The Mariupol Investment Group (MIG, UTA Group), which owned the UkrTransAgro sea terminal in Mariupol before the Russian military invasion, has resumed trading agricultural products through the Danube ports.
The grain trader in the current 2022/2023 marketing year (MY, July-June) has already shipped 3.14 thousand tons of wheat on barges, according to the organization’s Facebook page.
“For our company, this is an important event, since we are returning to business after losing access to the territories and the terminal itself in Mariupol (…) Now we are at the stage of formation and improvement of business processes, which will allow us to reach the design capacity for shipping up to 15 thousand tons per month. We hope that soon we will gather our former team of specialists, who are now in different parts of Ukraine,” UTA Group quotes its head Pavel Plotnikov.
The company clarified that in July this year it rented a granary with a capacity of 5 thousand tons in order to accumulate agricultural products for further export, while in the first month of operation it processed a total of 5.5 thousand tons of wheat.
As reported, the marine terminal of UkrTransAgro LLC (Mariupol, Donetsk region), which is part of the Mariupol Investment Group (MIG, UTA Group), stopped working immediately after the Russian military invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
UkrTransAgro LLC and UTA Logistic LLC are part of MIG, founded in 2007 by Oleksandr Savchuk to consolidate assets. Later, Savchuk divided the management of the main (Azovmash group) and promising (MIG) business areas.
In 2010 MIG was transformed into the management company “Mariupol Investment Group”.
MIG manages the Azov Shipyard, UkrTransAgro LLC, UTA Logistic LLC, Maritime Logistics LLC, Martlet LLC, TRK TV-7 LLC.
Transshipment of grain and oilseeds through the sea terminal of UkrTransAgro LLC in 2020/2021 MY decreased by 39% compared to 2019/2020 MY – to 430 thousand tons from 711 thousand tons.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS, Danube, INVESTMENT GROUP, MARIUPOL, PORTS
The ship Sormovskiy 121 from the port of Chornomorsk and the bulk carrier Star Laura from the port of Pivdenny (both in the Odessa region) formed the fifth caravan with Ukrainian agricultural products, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine reported on Facebook on Friday.
According to his release, the total tonnage of the caravan is over 63,000 tons.
“Star Laura became the first Panamax-class ship to leave the port of Pivdenny since the beginning of the “grain initiative”, and the third in the general list of giant ships that sailed along the “grain corridor,” the ministry noted.
The Ministry of Infrastructure also indicated that “Chernomorsk” and “Pivdenny” will take two more ships for loading – Brave Commander and Petrel S, which will be loaded with more than 40 thousand tons of grain.
As reported, on July 22, 2022, in Istanbul, representatives of Ukraine, Turkey and UN Secretary-General António Guterres signed the Initiative for the safe transportation of grain and food from the Ukrainian ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Pivdenny.
As part of the implementation of the agreements, 12 ships with agricultural products have already left Ukrainian ports for seven countries of the world with 370,000 tons of agricultural products, while two ships entered Ukrainian ports.
Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Sunday that the first ship with grain on board could leave the Black Sea ports of Ukraine on Monday.
“Negotiations are ongoing. There is a possibility that the first ship will set off tomorrow morning,” Turkish TV channel TRT Haber quotes him as saying.
In Istanbul on July 22, with the participation of the UN, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine, two documents were signed on the creation of a corridor for the export of grain from three Black Sea ports – Chernomorsk, Odessa and Yuzhny.
The Ukrainian Sea Ports Administration (USPA) reports on the ongoing preparation of the ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny for the resumption of work in connection with the signing on July 22 in Istanbul of the Initiative for the export of grain and related food products by sea.
“Considering the above, we inform you that the event and the exit of ships to the indicated seaports will be carried out by forming a caravan, which will be accompanied by a leading ship,” the USPA posted on Facebook on Saturday.
In order to draw up plans for the formation of caravans, USPA asks to submit applications for the inclusion of ships by e-mail.
During the signing of the Initiative and immediately after it, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that ship traffic could resume in the coming days.
As part of EU sanctions, the Bulgarian authorities imposed a ban on entry into their ports for ships from Russia, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Sunday.
“All ships flying the Russian flag, as well as ships that changed the Russian flag or registration to any other state after February 24, are denied access to the sea and river ports of Bulgaria,” AP quotes excerpts from a statement by the Bulgarian Maritime Administration.
AP specifies that the Bulgarian authorities will make an exception for ships in distress or in need of humanitarian assistance, as well as ships carrying energy, food and medicine to the EU.
On the eve it became known about a similar order of the Italian authorities. At the same time, Russian cargo ships, which are currently in Italy, were ordered by the authorities to go to sea as soon as they complete their current operations.
Earlier in April, the EU introduced another package of sanctions against the Russian Federation, ordering, in particular, to close ports for ships from Russia. At the same time, exceptions are provided for the transportation of a number of goods, for example, energy carriers, agricultural products.
