Ukraine Considering Farming Exports from Romanian Black Sea Port of Constanta

LVIV, Ukraine, March 30 (Reuters) – Ukraine is in talks with Romania on shipping its farming exports via the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta, as Russia’s invasion has blocked off Ukrainian ports, Ukraine’s agriculture ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. 

Ukraine, among the world’s leading exporters of grain and vegetable oils, has enough stocks to meet its food needs for two years but will lose $1.5 billion a month in farming exports due to the Russian invasion, the ministry said. 

Romania’s agriculture ministry confirmed the talks over how to help Ukraine deliver its exports through Constanta port “as soon as possible”.

Constanta port has the capacity to handle additional shipments, officials said.

Romania shares borders of the Black Sea – a major shipping artery for grain and oil – with Bulgaria, Turkey and Ukraine, which Russia invaded over a month ago by land, air and sea.

Traffic of goods through Constanta and other Romanian ports was up 8% this year compared with the same period of 2021, data showed. In terms of volumes, the daily average of transiting goods has risen by 30,000 tones per day on average in March to 160,000 tones per day. 

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets and Luiza Ilie in Bucharest; writing by Matthias Williams, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Ed Osmond)

Subscribe for Daily Maritime Insights

Sign up for gCaptain’s newsletter and never miss an update

— trusted by our 107,809 members