Ukraine Considers Using New Routes In The Black Sea For Grain Exports, Association Wants NATO Ship Guards

Illustration of tankers passing through the Black Sea. (Wikimedia Commons/Mostafameraji)

JAKARTA - Ukraine is considering using the recently tested Black Sea export corridor for seed shipments, after the first successful evacuation of a ship along the route last week, a senior agricultural official said.

Russia is known to have blockaded Ukraine's port since its invasion in February 2022, then threatened to treat all ships as potential military targets, after withdrawing from the UN and Turkish-brokered Black Sea seed export deal last month.

In response, Ukraine announced "humanitarian corridors" using the west coast of the Black Sea near Romania and Bulgaria. A Hong Kong-flagged container ship trapped in Odesa port since the invasion, crossed the route last week without fire.

"Only one commercial vessel has passed it so far, (and this) has shown readiness to move through alternative routes," Denys Marchuk, deputy head of the Agrarian Council, Ukraine's largest agribusiness group, told national television.

"Furthermore, there will be movement of 7-8 ships again... then maybe in the future these alternative routes will become corridors for the movement of ships carrying grain cargo and oil seeds," he said.

Meanwhile, the UK's Financial Times newspaper said Kyiv was finalizing a scheme with a global insurance company to cover seed ships traveling to and from ports in the Black Sea, citing Ukrainian Deputy Economy Minister Oleksandr Gryban.

It is known, Ukraine is the world's main producer and exporter of seeds. The country typically sends millions of metric tons of food from the ports of the Black Sea in Odesa and Mykolaiv.

However, Ukraine should rely on ports in the Danube River delta in the southwestern corner of the country, since Russia left its part in a year-long Black Sea deal.

To pull ship owners into Ukrainian ports that have been attacked by Russian troops, Marchuk said Ukraine had allocated 20 billion hryvnias (547 million US dollars) for ship insurance.

However, Mykola Gorbachov, head of Ukraine's grain traders union, UGA, said despite compensation mechanisms for possible losses, he doubted many ship owners were ready to cross the corridors temporarily.

"In particular, it takes at least two to three days to load ships at ports in Odesa Raya. If during that time the port infrastructure is again hit by enemy attacks, there is a risk of damage to ships and cargo," he explained in a statement.

Gorbachov continued, it would be better to find a mechanism to ensure the security of civilian ships in the temporary corridor by providing, for example, military escort.

"NATO ships will be able to respond to threats, including missile attacks on port infrastructure," he said.