CONSTANTA, ROMANIA \u2014 With Ukraine\u2019s seaports blockaded or captured by Russian forces, neighboring Romania\u2019s Black Sea port of Constanta has emerged as a main conduit for the war-torn country\u2019s grain exports amid a growing world food crisis.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Romania\u2019s biggest port, home to Europe\u2019s fastest-loading grain terminal, and has processed nearly a million tons of grain from Ukraine \u2014 one of the world\u2019s biggest exporters of wheat and corn \u2014 since the Feb. 24 invasion.<\/p>\n
But port operators say that maintaining, let alone increasing, the volume they handle could soon be impossible without concerted European Union support and investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we want to keep helping Ukrainian farmers, we need help to increase our handling capacities,\u201d said Dan Dolghin, director of cereal operations at the Black Sea port\u2019s main Comvex operator.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo single operator can invest in infrastructure that will become redundant once the war ends,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Comvex can process up to 72,000 metric tons of cereals per day. That and Constanta\u2019s proximity by land to Ukraine, and by sea to the Suez Canal, make it the best current route for Ukrainian agricultural exports. Other alternatives include road and rail shipments across Ukraine\u2019s western border into Poland and its Baltic Sea ports.<\/p>\n
Just days into the Russian invasion, Comvex invested in a new unloading facility, anticipating that the neighboring country would have to reroute its agricultural exports.<\/p>\n
This enabled the port over the past four months to ship close to a million tons of Ukrainian grain, most of it arriving by barge down the Danube River. But with 20 times that amount still blocked in Ukraine and the summer harvest season fast approaching in Romania itself and other countries that use Constanta for their exports, Dolghin said it\u2019s likely the pace of Ukrainian grain shipping through his port will slow.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the summer harvest in Romania gathers momentum, all port operators will turn to Romanian cereals,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s deputy agricultural minister, Markian Dmytrasevych, is also worried.<\/p>\n
In an address to the European Parliament earlier this month, Dmytrasevych said that when Constanta operators turn to European grain suppliers in the summer \u201cit will further complicate the export of Ukrainian products.\u201d<\/p>\n
Romanian and other EU officials have also voiced concern, lining up in recent weeks to pledge support.<\/p>\n
On a recent visit to Kyiv with the leaders of France, Germany and Italy, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said his country was seeking possible ways of overcoming the \u201cweaponization of grain exports by Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a relevant part of the solution to the food insecurity generated by Russia, Romania is actively involved in facilitating the transit of Ukraine exports and in serving as a hub for grain,\u201d to reach traditional markets in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Asia, he said.<\/p>\n
The solutions discussed in Kyiv, Iohannis said, included speeding up Danube barge shipments, increasing the speed of their unloading at Romanian ports, new border crossings for trucks with Ukrainian grain and reopening a decommissioned railway linking Romania with Ukraine and Moldova.<\/p>\n
A Romanian analyst said finding alternative routes for Ukraine\u2019s grain exports goes beyond private logistics companies or any single country, echoing Iohannis\u2019s call in Kyiv for an international \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d to tackle the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation in Ukraine will not be solved soon; the conflict may end tomorrow but tensions will last. \u2026 That is why new transport routes must be considered and consolidated,\u201d said George Vulcanescu.<\/p>\n
He said that in that sense there are just three financially viable routes for Ukrainian exports \u2014 via Romania, Poland or the Baltic states.<\/p>\n
However, he added, \u201cport operators need financial support from Romanian authorities, but the funding should come from the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vulcanescu said a combination of fast and \u201cminimal, not maximal\u201d investment is needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig investment cannot be done quickly \u2014 we need to look for fast solutions for expanding the (existing) storage and handling capacities of Romanian ports,\u201d he added. \u201cIf we want to help Ukraine now, we need to look for smaller investment to improve the infrastructure we already have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Comvex\u2019s Dolghin said the operator wants to help as much as possible, but added: \u201cWe hope to see concrete action, not only statements in support of the port operators.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Source: Voice of America<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CONSTANTA, ROMANIA \u2014 With Ukraine\u2019s seaports blockaded or captured by Russian forces, neighboring Romania\u2019s Black Sea port of Constanta has emerged as a main conduit for the war-torn country\u2019s grain exports amid a growing world food crisis.It\u2019s Romania…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n