Ukraine Grain Exports Stuck in Bottlenecks at Danube Ports

Up to 70 ships are waiting to load grain at Ukrainian Danube ports due to bottlenecks caused by a shortage of pilots and priority given to other cargoes. The situation is particularly challenging because Russian attacks have blocked Ukraine's Black Sea ports, which handled 90% of the country's grain exports.

Ukraine relies on the Danube river ports as an alternative route for its grain exports, but these ports have much lower capacity than the Black Sea ports. As a result, only two to three vessels per day are able to pass through the Sulina Canal, while more than 50 vessels were waiting to do so as of August 25.

The delay is costly, with each day of delay estimated to cost up to $8,000. Katerina Kononenko, operations manager at Avalon shipping, said that poor weather conditions are expected to close the Sulina Canal for about two days, which would be a 'serious setback'.

Ukraine is one of the world's biggest grain exporters, and disruptions to its shipments can drive up global prices. The country exported 539,000 tons of grain from August 1 to August 21, compared with 1.73 million in the same period last year.