Over the past day, on August 27, 11 vessels with a total volume of 45,000 tons passed through the mouth of Bystre and the Romanian Sulina canal in the direction of the Ukrainian Danube ports ("Izmail", "Reni" and "Ust-Dunaisk"). This is a record figure since February 24, the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia.
In particular, 7 ships passed through the Bystre mouth of the Danube - Black Sea waterway and 4 through the Romanian Sulina Canal.
"Since March, we have already managed to transport more than 4 million tons of grain through the Danube ports - at the moment; this is more than all other modes of transport.
The dynamics of increase are significant. If in March our ports processed only 16.5 thousand tons of agricultural products for export, then already in July, the figure was almost 1.4 million tons.
These are excellent results but not definitive. Even with the stable operation of the Initiative for the safe transportation of agricultural products through the Black Sea, the Ministry of Infrastructure continues to improve export logistics on the Danube. In particular, we are creating conditions for unimpeded rail connections between ports, including providing direct rail connections.
Under systematic investments and implementation of the modernization program of ports on the Danube, it is possible to increase their capacity to 25 million tons of cargo per year. By the way, a joint project of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the EBRD on studying export logistics in Bessarabia has already started. In two months, we will receive proposals for planning public, public-private and private investments, international projects, and projects funded by international financial organizations," said Oleksandr Kubrakov, Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine.
It will be recalled that at the beginning of July, the Bystre mouth of the Danube-Black Sea waterway became available to pass vessels transporting agricultural products. This happened thanks to the liberation of Snake (Zmiiny) Island by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Until then, access to Ukrainian Danube ports was possible only through the Sulina Canal, which passes through the territory of Romania.
