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A cargo ship left a Ukrainian port near Odessa on Tuesday with 3,000 tonnes of wheat on board destined for international markets, despite the continued Russian blockade in the Black Sea.
The ship is one of two Palau-flagged vessels that arrived in Chornomorsk over the weekend, two months after Moscow withdrew from a U.N.-brokered deal with Turkey allowing grain exports to leave Ukrainian ports via the Bosphorus.
“The ship Resilient Africa carrying 3,000 tons of wheat has left the port of Chornomorsk and is heading towards the Bosphorus,” said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov. He added that the second ship, the Aroyat, was “in port loaded with Ukrainian wheat destined for Egypt” and that the crews of both ships were from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Egypt and Ukraine.
Moscow’s attempts to stifle exports of grain and other food products from Ukraine, one of the world’s top suppliers, have roiled markets and raised prices for developing countries. Ukraine currently exports most via EU countries by truck and train or along the Danube, but these routes incur additional costs, harm competitiveness and represent only a small share of previous shipments. -war.
Chicago wheat futures fell more than 1 percent on Tuesday.
Marine Traffic, an online tracking site, showed Resilient Africa traveling Tuesday afternoon along the Ukrainian coast toward the Bosphorus. It is expected to dock in Israel in a week.
This route has been tested in recent weeks by five other cargo ships stuck in Ukrainian ports since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. After Moscow withdrew from the grain deal, Kiev encouraged shipping companies to use what it described as a safe corridor within range of its coastal artillery and running along the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria, both NATO members.
Resilient Africa and Aroyat are the first to test the route in both directions, docking in Ukraine, loading grain and leaving via the Bosphorus.
Russia did not immediately respond to the ship’s departure.
Ukraine has also redirected some of its exports through the Danube, although that route is slower and more expensive and Ukrainian ports and grain silos in the region have been targets of Russian airstrikes in recent weeks.
Kiev-based investment bank Dragon Capital said the alternative route led to a 20 percent increase in sales of food and agricultural products in August compared to the previous month. But sales remain 18 percent lower than in August 2022.
Ukrainian airstrikes in recent weeks have increasingly targeted the Russian navy based in Crimea, the peninsula it illegally occupied in 2014.
Neutralizing Moscow’s use of the peninsula as a military staging area is key to breaking the Black Sea blockade and strengthening Ukraine’s current counter-offensive to reconquer the occupied territory.
On Tuesday, Kiev also introduced new controls on grain exports in a bid to appease Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, which last week extended their ban on Ukrainian grain, saying it was flooding their markets and lowered prices for local farmers.
“Such control will help prevent market distortions in neighboring EU member states,” said Denys Shmyhal, the Prime Minister of Ukraine.
