Exports via the Ukrainian sea corridor reached 26 million tons

As of February 23, the ports of Great Odesa were waiting for 111 more ships

For almost 7 months of the Ukrainian sea corridor’s operation (since August 2023), 854 vessels have exported 26 million tons of cargo from the ports of Greater Odesa to 42 countries. This is stated in the report of the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine.

More than 18 million tons of these volumes are products of Ukrainian farmers.

As of February 23, the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Pivdennyi were expecting 111 more vessels to arrive, which will export 3.3 million tons of cargo after loading.

According to Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister for Recovery and Minister of Community, Territorial Development and Infrastructure of Ukraine, exports through the Ukrainian corridor have almost reached pre-war levels of exports from the three ports of Greater Odesa.

«In December, 6.8 million tons were exported by sea, in January – 6.7 million tons. Although February is the shortest month of the year, we still hope to keep the export figure no lower than in previous months. A stably functioning corridor is important both for the economy of Ukraine and for the food security of the world,» he said.

As the department noted, the Ukrainian corridor and Danube ports today provide more than 90% of agricultural exports.

«Given the situation with the blocking of our exports on the western border, we are preparing to increase agricultural exports through the Danube bypassing the border with Poland. UDP is already preparing barge caravans that can transport more than 2,000 trucks per month,» said Kubrakov.

In addition, the vice prime minister said, Ukraine intends to resume the operation of container terminals in the ports of Greater Odesa as soon as possible, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

«As soon as possible, we will switch to export-import with the help of containers and container terminals, which will be operational again on the Black Sea,» noted Oleksandr Kubrakov at the forum «Ukraine. Year 2024» in Kyiv.

According to him, it is planned to remove some more barriers in the near future, which will allow exporting more cargo through the Ukrainian sea corridor, primarily grain and metallurgical products.

As for other plans for the development of cross-border infrastructure, Deputy Prime Minister Kubrakov mentioned the opening of new checkpoints for vehicles with Moldova, Romania, Hungary, and Poland this year. In 2024, construction will also begin on the first major section of the Mostyska-Sknyliv European railroad, which will connect the Ukrainian railroad to the European network. In addition, the development of the Danube cluster will continue.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2023, 430 vessels were accepted for loading through the Ukrainian sea corridor, 400 vessels were shipped, exporting 12.8 million tons of cargo. It was the corridor’s operation that largely made it possible to increase cargo transshipment in Ukrainian ports by 5% y/y – to 62 million tons last year, although only the port of Odesa showed a 9% increase in transshipment to 8.4 million tons in the period under review.