Like a giant elephant trunk, a huge hose sweeps above the hold of a ship in Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta, spilling tons of corn into the vessel before it sets sail. Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s seaports has forced the country’s exporters to look for alternatives to move their precious cargo.
So now the country’s grain is loaded onto trains, lorries or barges in the small Danube ports of Reni and Izmail in the southwest, for transport to the Romanian port. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has transformed Constanta into a vital maritime export hub for Ukraine’s crops.
Before the war, Ukraine exported 4.5 million tonnes of agricultural produce per month through its ports -– 12 percent of the world’s wheat, 15 percent of its corn and 50 percent of its sunflower oil.
“We need to make sure the grain gets to consumers’ tables without delay to avoid the risk of famine,” said Viorel Panait, chief executive of Comvex, which handles Constanta’s bulk raw materials.
We hope to accelerate the pace… because, given the unfortunate situation that our Ukrainian neighbours are going through, we must help them as much as we can,” he told AFP
Neighbouring Bulgaria said this week it was willing to help export Ukrainian grain from its Black Sea port of Varna — and is getting to work upgrading its infrastructure.
In the meantime, Constanta is moving the cargo as fast as it can. The Lady Dimine, the ship being loaded with corn, is the second grain vessel since last week to moor at Pier 80, bound for Portugal once loaded.
The first ship, loaded with 70,000 tonnes of Ukrainian corn, left Constanta last Friday, and a third is scheduled in six days. Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Constanta had overtaken France’s Le Havre last year to become Europe’s hub for grain exports, said the port’s director, Florin Goidea.
Now, he said: “Our goal is to ship the goods as quickly as possible and thus support the Ukrainian economy.”
His office offered a breathtaking view of the work at the dockside, bristling with cranes and ship loaders.The war in Ukraine is a challenge but also an opportunity,” Goidea said.
Source: eNCA
In other news – I hate gay men’: Chaos at the shopping centre as homophobic friend shoots Musa Xulu dead
It was supposed to be a day of joy, but it turned into the worst day of their lives. Musa Xulu (25) from Inanda Glebe, north of Durban in KZN, went to a shopping centre with two friends on Freedom Day to buy items for a friend’s birthday.
But when they arrived, one of the men who had been with Musa in the car told him he hated gays. Then he pulled out a gun and shot him. Learn more
