The export of grain from Ukraine could start quite soon with already provisioned ships that have been ready in the port of Odessa since the end of February. So says Drenthe farmer Kees Huizinga, who runs a large company south of Kiev.
However, he thinks it could take a few weeks to a month and a half before the freshly harvested grain can leave the country.
Huizinga was at a meeting yesterday with the Ukrainian Minister of Agriculture and about one hundred to one hundred and fifty farmers. “The minister sounded positive. He was there for three hours and explained everything.”
According to Huizinga, how quickly exports can get going again depends on what the Russians do. He actually hopes that the Russian missile attack on Odessa was a mistake. “Perhaps the decision from the top had not fully penetrated the soldiers when Odessa was fired on yesterday.” The United Nations and Turkey signed a deal with Russia and Ukraine on grain exports on Thursday.
Huizinga suspects that the attack will have little impact on the physical supplies of the ships. “A lab is broken, but I don’t believe much infrastructure has been damaged that prevents the ships from being filled.”
According to the farmer, ships full of maize and other grain have been waiting in the harbor since the end of February, when the war started. “They might be able to leave in a few days. We have yet to see, but let’s hope so.”
Preparations for the resumption of exports had already started, according to the minister, before the deal was closed, he said during the meeting with the farmers. “For example, mines in the sea have already been mapped,” says Huizinga.
In recent months, 30 percent of the normal export capacity has been taken from Ukraine by rail, road and two small ports, says Huizinga. What he normally exports in less than a week, now took four months to get out of the country. The alternative transport also entailed many additional costs.
The Dutch farmer estimates that he had to spend at least one million dollars extra on, among other things, 600,000 liters of diesel, which was on average 2.5 times more expensive than before the war, and on other transport costs. “Normally you pay 15 to 20 dollars per ton of grain, now it went to 85 dollars per ton.”