12 million tons of grain shipped through ‘grain corridor’

ANKARA

More than 12 million tons of grain have been transported by 501 ships through the Black Sea up to Nov. 28 thanks to the Istanbul Initiative. More than 200 of the ships leaving the Ukrainian ports with grain cargo have been transferred to the designated ports.

Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements on July 22 for a Black Sea corridor that cleared the way for the export of grain out of three Ukrainian ports, as well as for shipments of Russian grain and fertilizer.

A Joint Coordination Center was established in Istanbul which was followed by the departure of the first ship loaded with grain from Odessa Port on Aug. 1.

The Sierra Leone-flagged dry cargo ship Razoni, which was the first ship to leave from the Ukrainian ports within the scope of the agreement covering 120 days, sailed towards the Lebanese port of Tripoli with 26,000 tons of corn.

Four days after Razoni’s departure, three ships named Panama-flagged Navistar Ireland, Maltese-flagged Rojen, Italy and Turkish ship Polarnet left the ports of Odessa and Chernomorsk with approximately 60 thousand tons of grain.

Then Vissils; Mustafa Necati, Star Helena, Glory, Riva Wind, Sacura, Arizona, Ocean Lion, Rahmi Yağcı, Sormovskiy 121 started their sailings, and the number of ships leaving as of Aug. 13 reached 17. Most of the ships reached ports in Türkiye such as Tekirdağ, İskenderun and İzmir.

Within two weeks after the departure of the first ship, the number of ships leaving Ukrainian ports had reached 25, the amount of grain transported exceeded 800,000 tons.

The agreement not only included the departure of ships from Ukrainian ports, but also the shipment of grain to Ukrainian ports by vessels controlled in Istanbul. In this context, the first ship to go to Ukraine after being controlled from the Bosphorus was the Barbados-flagged Fulmar S. The vessel picked up 12,000 tons of corn from the Chernomorsk Port and transported to Izmir.