13 June 2022 12:02 am
Ukraine has established two routes through Poland and Romania to export grain and avert a global food crisis although bottlenecks have slowed the supply chain, Kyiv’s deputy foreign minister said on Sunday.
Ukraine is the world’s fourth-largest grain exporter and it says there are some 30 million tonnes of grain stored in Ukrainian-held territory which it is trying to export via road, river and rail.
Deputy Foreign Minister Dmytro Senik said global food security was at risk because Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had halted Kyiv’s Black Sea grain exports but added that the country was in talks with Baltic states to add a third corridor for food exports.
The Ukrainian rail system operates on a different gauge where the grain has to be transferred to different trains at the border where there are not many transfer or storage facilities.Re-routing grain to Romania involves transport by rail to ports on the Danube river and loading cargoes onto barges for sailing towards the port of Constanta, a complex and costly process.
“Those routes are not perfect because it creates certain bottlenecks, but we are doing our best to develop those routes in the meantime,” Senik said.
Moscow denies hitting civilian and agricultural targets and blames sanctions on Russia and sea mines set by Ukraine for the drop in food exports and rising global prices. It is also a major exporter of grain. The conflict between the countries also dominated proceedings at the Singapore meeting, the Shangri-La Dialogue held on Saturday.
SINGAPORE, June 12 Reuters