Vessel inspections fall to lowest level in January

The number of Ukrainian grain vessels departing Istanbul after inspections dropped in January to its lowest rate since the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI) was launched in July, with Ukraine blaming Russian inspection teams for intentional delays, AgriCensus wrote on 26 January.

During January, the inspection pace was 2.7 vessels/day but had dropped even lower to just 2.5 ships/day in recent days, the 26 January report said. This was a 40% fall compared to the September-October 2022 period.

"This was considered one of the lowest indicators for all the months of the existence of the 'grain initiative'. It is predominantly due to the blocking of the grain corridor by Russian inspectors," a note from the agriculture ministry said.

The overall export flow had dropped markedly, with January's total now standing at 2.4M tonnes of agriculture products, compared to 4.2M tonnes back in October, the report said.

The waiting time for inbound inspections was 20 days on average, with some vessels waiting up to 40 days.

The BSGI was agreed between Ukraine, Turkey, Russia and the United Nations (UN) to guarantee safe passage for vessels leaving the key deep water Black Sea ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny. It was extended on 17 November for 120 days.

Meanwhile, the priority given to large tonnage vessels using the grain corridor when passing through the Bosphorus Strait had been extended, APK-Inform reported the Ukraine Ministry of Agrarian Policy as saying.

The extension – introduced by the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) which facilitates the implementation of the BSGI –applied to ships with a payload of not less than 15,000 tonnes for all types of food products, excluding oilseeds, the 20 January report said. A 6,000 tonne payload for oilseeds also had priority.

As of 18 January, 121 vessels were awaiting inspection in the Bosphorus, AgriCensus wrote.

Exports under the BSGI reached 17.8M tonnes from August until mid-January, according to UN data reported by World Grain on 19 January.

Ukraine proposes allowing metal exports

A proposal by the Ukraine government to include metals to the list of export goods allowed through the Black Sea Grain export corridor received a lukewarm response from the grain sector, AgriCensus reported on 19 January.

“We will focus on building more storage for agricultural goods but what we need to do from a strategic point of view is to open sea ports. It’s not just about agriculture, it’s about steel,” Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko told Bloomberg during the World Economic Forum annual meeting at Davos.

One of the key strategic contributors to the Ukrainian economy, the metal industry had been impacted by Russia's invasion of the country last February, AgriCensus wrote.

Allowing metals to be shipped from the Great Odessa ports – Pivdennyi, Odessa and Chornomorsk – could potentially help minimise logistic costs and increase trade flow, according to the report. However, the proposal received a lukewarm response from the grain trade, which believed expanding the corridor to include metals could bring challenges.

Grain trade representatives said they did not see how it could be done as it was harder to make the case that metal exports had the same importance to global health as grains, AgriCensus wrote. In addition, any changes to the grain deal would have to be discussed with all interested parties including Russia which, as a major competitor to Ukraine in the metals industry, would be unlikely to agree to the proposal.

With every vessel using the grain corridor required to be inspected twice at Istanbul –once on the way in and again on the way out – another potential challenge could include exacerbating the current bottlenecks of ships.

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