Eleven grain ships leave Ukrainian ports in past two days

Eleven ships with Ukrainian agricultural products have departed from Ukraine's Black Sea ports as part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative over the past two days.

The Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry's press service said this in a post on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

"Over the past two days, 11 vessels exported 422,000 tonnes of agricultural products to Africa, Asia and Europe from the ports of Greater Odesa. Among them are the ALANDA STAR bulker with 30,800 tonnes of wheat for Egypt and the EUROCHAMPION tanker with 45,000 tonnes of [sunflower] oil for India," the report reads.

The ministry said Russia's delaying the inspection of ships in the Bosphorus under various pretexts remains the key obstacle in the operation of the "grain corridor." This led to a stable queue of over 90 ships, million-dollar losses for cargo owners and under-export of at least 5-6 million tonnes during the year.

As of December 27, 96 ships were waiting for inspection in the Bosphorus, including 71 ships waiting to enter ports and 25 already loaded with agricultural products. Six out of ten scheduled inspections take place every day.

"In addition to reducing the number of inspection groups, the Russian side resorted to the tactic of delaying the inspections themselves due to requirements to check the parameters of vessels that are not regulated by the documents of the Joint Coordination Center and have nothing to do with the subject of the inspection. Due to such actions, the number of vessels moving for the loading of Ukrainian agricultural products is reduced," the ministry said.

The bulk carrier BRAVE M with 28,000 tonnes of grain to Libya has recently left the port of Odesa. Before that, the vessel waited a month for an inspection in the corridor to enter the port for loading.

Since August 1, 605 ships have departed from Ukraine's Black Sea ports and delivered 15.9 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain and foodstuffs to countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.