Romania’s plan to boost Ukraine grain transit very achievable, minister says

As infrastructure projects progress, Romania’s goal of increasing the monthly transit capacity for Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta to four million metric tons is getting closer, according to the minister of transport, who announced on Thursday.

According to Minister Sorin Grindeanu, who was speaking following a meeting with officials from Ukraine, Moldova, the European Commission, and the United States to evaluate Ukraine’s most significant alternative export route for grains, the amount of grain that passed through Romania in October alone was a record three million tons.

“This shows there is room to reach 4 million tons,” added the economist. He also mentioned that a project that was sponsored by the European Union and aimed to permit passage on the Sulina canal of the Danube River, which leads to Constanta, around the clock had been completed and would become operational pending the training of any necessary staff members.

Moldova, which shares a border with Romania and Ukraine, was likewise working to improve its railroad infrastructure and checkpoints to facilitate traffic.

According to Oleksandr Kubrakov, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, the number of products exported via Romania has been over three million tons on average since the beginning of 2023. Of these, fifty percent were grain. Road checks have been significantly improved, but the current train infrastructure has not been utilized to its maximum potential.

With grains coming by road, train, or barge over the Danube, Constanta has become Ukraine’s major alternative export route since Russia invaded in February 2022. Ukraine is one of the top grain producers in the world, and Constanta has become the most significant alternative export route for Ukraine.

During January and October, the port administration informed Reuters that Ukraine delivered 11.7 million tons of grain through Constanta. This figure represents an increase from 10.5 million tons at the end of September to 8.6 million tons last year.

“The Danube corridor is the most effective of the solidarity lanes that the European Commission has put in place after the attack that Russia launched against Ukraine,” said Magda Kopczynska, the director general for mobility and transport at the European Commission.

“It will remain so not only now during the war, but it needs to remain an important connecting element when it comes to the transport integration of Ukraine and Moldova with the European Union.”