News

Creating a safe alternative shipping route for the Black Sea region

Several countries, including the U.S., are trying to find an alternative shipping route for Ukrainian grain since Russia left the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

Antonina Broyaka is an ag economist from Ukraine and visiting professor at K-State.  She says the Danube River, which borders Romania and Ukraine, may be option. “But the capacity at those parts are not as large as Black Sea ports.”

The US, Turkey, Ukraine, Romania and other NATO countries are trying to find a solution after Russia backed out of the grain corridor.

She tells Brownfield it won’t increase exports by much, about 4 million metric tons. “We need to consider and negotiate with Romania all of our movements, and the river is not very deep, so there is not deep navigation.”

She says transporting grain across Europe is a challenge partly due to export bans from Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Hungary until September 15. “If they keep this ban, it will make our transit through Europe very complicated.”

Broyaka says a vessel that was loaded with grain before the war began left the Black Sea region on Wednesday and was unharmed by Russia’s navy.  She says that could signal good news for ships leaving that region.