On February 23, the ports of Greater Odessa were waiting for another 111 ships
During almost 7 months of operation of the Ukrainian sea corridor (since August 2023), 854 ships exported 26 million tons of cargo from the ports of Greater Odessa to 42 countries. This is stated in the report of the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine.
More than 18 million tons of these volumes are products of Ukrainian farmers.
As of February 23, the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi were expecting the arrival of another 111 ships, which will export 3.3 million tons of cargo after loading.
According to Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister of Recovery and Minister of Community, Territorial Development and Infrastructure of Ukraine, exports through the Ukrainian corridor have almost reached pre-war levels of exports from the three ports of Greater Odessa.
«In December, 6.8 million tons were exported by sea, in January – 6.7 million tons. Although February is the shortest month of the year, we still hope to maintain the value of exports no lower than in previous months. A stably functioning corridor is important for both Ukraine's economy and the world's food security,” he said.
As the department noted, the Ukrainian corridor and Danube ports today provide more than 90% of agricultural exports.
«Given the situation of blocking our exports on the western border, we are preparing to increase agricultural exports through the Danube, bypassing the border with Poland. The UDP is already preparing caravans of barges that can transport more than 2,000 trucks per month,” said Kubrakov.
Furthermore, the deputy prime minister said, Ukraine intends to resume the operation of container terminals in Greater Odessa ports as soon as possible, Interfax-Ukrainereports .
«As soon as possible, we will switch to export-import with the help of containers and container terminals, which will again operate in the Black Sea», noted Oleksandr Kubrakov on the forum «Ukraine. Year 2024» in Kyiv.
According to him, it is planned to remove some more barriers in the near future, which will allow exporting more cargo through the Ukrainian maritime corridor, mainly grains and metallurgical products.
As for other plans for the development of cross-border infrastructure, Deputy Prime Minister Kubrakov mentioned the opening of new vehicle checkpoints with Moldova, Romania, Hungary and Poland this year. In 2024, construction will also begin on the first major section of the European railway Mostyska-Sknyliv, which will connect the Ukrainian railway to the European network. Furthermore, the development of the Danube cluster will continue.
As previously reported by Compraço, in 2023, 430 ships were accepted for loading through the Ukrainian maritime corridor, 400 ships were embarked, exporting 12.8 million tons of cargo. It was the operation of the corridor that largely made it possible to increase cargo transshipment in Ukrainian ports by 5% in annual terms – to 62 million tons last year, although only the port of Odesa showed a 9% increase in transshipment to 8.4 million tons last year. period under analysis.
