Ukraine: uncertainty despite grain corridor
Two dozen ships have left the largest Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea since 22.Leave July. On this day, an agreement was signed in Istanbul, mediated by the United Nations and Turkey, to allow grain exports from Ukraine to resume after months of blockade by Russian warships and Ukrainian sea mines. One of the first ships to leave was freighted by the UN to 23.000 tons of wheat to starving people in Ethiopia. In total, more than 600.000 tons of grain made their way to the world market, according to the interim balance sheet of the State Seaport Administration of Ukraine. The port authority's plans are ambitious: soon 100 ships a month are to leave the Ukrainian ports of Odessa, Pivdenny and Chornomorsk. But you are still miles away from that.
Shipping companies hesitate
Apart from the freighter that left for Ethiopia on behalf of the UN, only four other ships have entered the ports of Odessa region to pick up grain in accordance with newly concluded contracts. The rest were ships that had been stuck in the harbors for months before. "Things are very slow with new contracts," says Pavlo Martyshev of the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) in an interview with DW. "Market participants don't really trust the Russians and are expecting surprises," Martyshev said, alluding to the Russian missile strike on the port of Odessa just one day after the agreement was signed.