Turkey and the UN continue to guarantee the supervision of grain shipments from the Ukrainian ports through the Black Sea and the Bosporus to the Mediterranean.
UN chief Guterres expressed his satisfaction with the agreement to extend the grain deal for the Black Sea by four months. The agreement, originally reached in July, establishes a protected sea corridor in the conflict zone for exports from three Ukrainian ports.
Ukrainian President Zelensky sought a permanent agreement that would also apply to other ports, specifically the ports in the Mykolaiv region. A decision on this will be made in four months. āSince July, Ukraine has exported more than 10 million tons of food by sea. We can increase exports by several million tons per month,ā he said.
This week, a floating transshipment facility was put into operation in the Romanian port city of ConstanČa to directly transfer Ukrainian grain and raw materials from ship to ship.
With the commissioning of this āDanube corridor,ā it is no longer necessary to first transport the cargo from Ukraine by truck to ConstanČa. This reduces the transshipment period from sometimes two weeks to three days.