Constanta, providential Romanian port for Ukrainian cereals

Like an enormous elephant’s trunk, the tube runs through the ship, dumping tons of corn: the Lady Dimine prepares to set sail from ConstanceRomanian port of Black Seaturned into a providential sea outlet for Ukrainian agricultural products.

The grain ship of more than 160 meters in length and a capacity of 26,000 tons is the second in five days to moor at pier number 80 to receive a valuable cargo of golden grains from the neighboring country, whose ports are blocked by the Russian invader .

What is at stake is vital for the many countries dependent on these Ukrainian exports, which before the war exported by sea 4.5 million tons of agricultural production per month, or 12% of wheat, 15% of corn and 50% of oil. sunflower worldwide.

The blockade is total, from the sea of Azovclosed to navigation since the beginning of the war, to the Ukrainian port of Odessaon the Black Sea, which in normal times represents 60% of the country’s port activity.

Alternative solution

Among the replacement solutions, Romania appears as an ideal candidate. Member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)with its waters therefore protected, the country is also the second largest exporter of wheat in the European Union (EU)after France, and has adequate infrastructure.

“A third ship is going to set sail in two days, and we hope to pick up the pace later.” trust Viorel PanaitCEO of Comvexthe first cereal operator in Konstanz.

“Given the unfortunate situation that our Ukrainian neighbors are suffering from, we must help them however we can” add.

But before reaching the port, the cereals have a long way to go. They are loaded on trains, trucks or barges in the small ports of the Danube from Reni and Izmaillocated in the extreme south-west of Ukraine, on the border with Romania.

To fill a 70,000-ton ship like the one that left Constance last week for the first time, you have to have 49 trains or as many barges, Panait details.

Or thousands of trucks, with the risk of creating a huge traffic jam in the maze of intersecting roads in Constanta. An “puzzle” for Florin Goideadirector of the port.

The government has found a solution: rehabilitate 95 railways dating from the communist era and blocked for years by hundreds of rusty cars.

“This 200 million lei (40 million euro, US$43 million) project is very important as it will free up road traffic to the port” and it will allow reserves to be increased, emphasizes Goidea in his office, with an impressive view over the cove, bristling with cranes, machinery for loading ships and other steel structures.

“The war in Ukraine is a challenge, but also an opportunity”, says the director and specifies that this port became in 2021 in “the European pole for cereal exports, ahead of Le Havre”in France.

“Risk of famine”

230 km to the north, another Romanian port could also become an alternative for Ukrainian exports, that of Galati on the Danube.

It is linked to Moldova by only five kilometers of railway, which is the same gauge as that used in the old USSR and its satellites, and therefore in Ukraine.

The renovation of this line will allow it to be used to transport goods and agricultural products. But for these to be accessible, transportation must be fast and inexpensive, explains the president of Comvex.

“We must ensure that they reach the table of consumers quickly, to avoid the risk of famine”He says.