In the spring, Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian State railways) will present a pilot project for early planning of freight traffic, according to the Ukrainian Club of Agri-Business (UCAB).

The project of early responsible planning of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC (UZ) freight transportation should be implemented by June 1, 2022.

Such terms were announced by representatives of UZ during a meeting of the working group on logistics at the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, UCAB reports.

During the meeting Andriy Miroshnikov, Director of the Commercial Work Department of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC, assured that a pilot project on grain transportation planning could be implemented within 1.5-2 months, ie by June 1, 2022, changes in approaches to transportation should be made. Ukrzaliznytsia ”and to balance supply and demand in railway freight logistics.

For their part, leading agricultural associations have supported the implementation of this project of early responsible freight planning by Ukrzaliznytsia, ready to join the working group on its joint development and expect the project to start at the national level in the new 2022/2023 marketing year.

At the end of 2021, the idea of ​​implementing the concept of early responsible planning of railway transportation for grain cargo was presented in connection with the situation that arose last season, when rates rose to 6 and above UAH 1,000 per grain truck. As a result, in the autumn of 2021, farmers overpaid at least UAH 3 billion.

Currently, grain market operators continue to overpay for the fact that we have a mismatch between Ukrzaliznytsia's ability to transport cargo to ports and the actual needs of the market. Therefore, the idea of ​​early planning, which was previously voiced by the Chairman of the Board of JSC "Ukrzaliznytsia" Alexander Kamyshin, was unanimously supported by market participants, including members of UCAB.

If we have early responsible planning of shipments and transportations that correspond to capacity and are based on planning the movement of cars to ports, only then will we be able to correct the situation with breach of contract and not repeat the story when farmers have to overpay billions of hryvnias for inefficient transportation.

Roman Slastyon, General Director of UCAB