Ukraine is increasing the displacement of Grain Initiative ships in order to increase exports and reduce ship downtime in the current conditions of sabotage of ship inspections by the Russian side, the Ministry of Restoration reported.
“In particular, for grain – from 20,000 tonnes to 25,000 tonnes, and for oil – from 6,000 tonnes to 10,000 tonnes. Considering that the average number of inspections of the incoming fleet is only 2.5 ships per day, the increase should be expected in a month and a half,” the ministry said on Facebook on Monday.
It also indicated that the ports of Greater Odesa last week sent 1.1 million tonnes of agricultural products as part of the grain initiative.
“In particular, 54,000 tonnes of wheat were sent to Sri Lanka, 57,000 tonnes to Bangladesh, and 90,000 tonnes are expected in Kenya, Tunisia and Egypt,” the ministry said.
According to the ministry, exports via the grain corridor last week increased by 152,000 tonnes compared to the previous week, but the overall rate of new ships entering for loading continues to decline.
“Last week, the ports of Greater Odesa accepted only 16 ships, the day before last – 25,” the department added.
At the same time, as of February 12, some 145 vessels are already awaiting inspection by the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC), of which 122 are heading to Ukrainian ports for agricultural products.
For comparison, by January 18, 121 ships (28 with agricultural products on board, 93 ships that went to ports for loading) were waiting for the JCC inspection in the Bosphorus, 104 ships on January 13, some 98 on January 10, and 95 on December 26.
“For the third month in a row, Russians have been purposefully sabotaging inspections under various unfounded and sometimes absurd pretexts,” the ministry said.
There are 18 vessels in the ports of Greater Odesa. They load 584,500 tonnes of Ukrainian food. Only one vessel moves along the grain corridor after the inspection.
In total, since August 1, a total of 732 ships left the ports of Greater Odesa, which exported 21 million tonnes of Ukrainian food to the countries of Asia, Europe and Africa. According to the estimates of the Ministry of Restoration, this volume should have amounted to more than 35 million tonnes in the conditions of the normal functioning of the grain initiative.
