On Monday, August 1, for the first time in five months, a ship loaded with Ukrainian food left the port of Odessa. This was announced by the head of the Ministry of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov.

The vessel RAZONI under the flag of Sierra Leone is heading to the port of Tripoli in Lebanon with 26,000 tons of Ukrainian corn.

The Minister Kubrakov noted that Ukraine is the 4th largest exporter of corn in the world, so the possibility of exporting it through ports is a huge success for ensuring global food security.

Today, Ukraine, together with partners, is taking another step towards preventing world hunger. The unblocking of ports will provide at least $1 billion in foreign exchange earnings for the economy and an opportunity for the agricultural sector to plan the sowing season next year.

Oleksandr Kubrakov, Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine

According to him, in the ports of Big Odessa, 16 more ships are already waiting for their turn to leave.

“These are the ships that have been blocked since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. In parallel, we will receive applications for the arrival of new vessels for loading agricultural products. In the coming weeks, with the support of our partners, we plan to reach the full capacity of transshipment of agricultural products,” the minister said.

According to the speaker of the Odessa Regional Military Admnistration Sergey Bratchuk, the safety of cargo transportation was confirmed by our guarantor partners - the UN and Turkey.

On July 22 in Istanbul, as a result of a quadripartite meeting of Ukraine, Turkey, the UN and Russia, an agreement was signed according to which grain and other food products will be legally imported from Ukrainian ports.

The arrival of the first ship in the territorial waters of Turkey is expected on August 3, then the ships will head to Africa.