The agreement on the export of grain via the Black Sea has been extended for 120 days. This was decided on Thursday morning in Istanbul in consultations between the United Nations, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine.
Turkey and the UN continue to guarantee control of grain shipments from Ukrainian ports through the Black Sea and the Bosphorus to the Mediterranean.
UN chief Guitterres said he welcomed the agreement to extend the Black Sea grain deal for four months. The agreement, originally reached in July, creates a protected sea corridor in the war zone for exports from three ports in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Zelensky wanted a permanent agreement that would also apply to other ports, the ports in the Mykolaiv region. This will now be decided in four months. “Since July, Ukraine has exported more than 10 million tons of food by sea. We can increase exports by several million tons per month," he said.
In the Romanian port city of Constanzia, a floating transhipment installation was commissioned this week to transfer Ukrainian grain and raw materials directly from ship-to-ship.
With the commissioning of this 'Danube corridor', it is no longer necessary to first transport the loads from Ukraine to Constanzia by truck. This reduces the transhipment period from sometimes two weeks to three days.