Madar News, published in 08/11/2022 at 1:43 am
Madar News
Istanbul – (AFP) – A senior official in United nations On Wednesday, the first shipments of wheat will begin to leave Ukrainian ports next week under an agreement reached with Russia and Turkey.
Frederick Kenny, the temporary UN coordinator at the Joint Center in Istanbul, which oversees the implementation of the agreement, told reporters that the first 12 shipments that left the three Black Sea ports included in the deal were carrying corn or other foodstuffs.
He added that Ukraine’s corn silos were full when Russia invaded its neighbor in February.
“We are dealing with three ports whose activities have completely stopped,” he said.
“The silos were full of corn and it was loaded onto ships that were moored in the ports,” he said. “It is necessary to get those ships out to bring in new ships… that can handle the food crisis,” he added.
The agreement signed by the warring sides, UN and Turkish officials last month in Istanbul was hailed as a huge opportunity to tackle the global food crisis caused by the war.
Kenny said 12 ships that set sail from Ukraine in the first week carried 370,000 tons of corn and food.
He announced that this allowed the Ukrainian port authorities to organize the operation and to allow the entry of new ships to transport wheat from this year’s harvest.
“In fact, we moved on to shipments of wheat,” he added.
“We gave the green light to the first ship bound” to Ukraine through the Bosphorus, he said. It will happen next week.”
The agreement faced a first setback with the failure of the first ship that left Ukraine, flying the flag of Sierra Leone, to reach its destination in Lebanon due to a contractual dispute.
Ukrainian officials said the owners of the Razzoni are now looking for a new customer to buy 26,000 tons of corn on board.
The ship has been anchored off the Turkish Mediterranean port of Mersin since the beginning of the week.
Maritime traffic websites showed that Razzoni docked Wednesday in the Turkish port of Mersin.
Middle East Eye news website quoted a shipping agent as saying that a Turkish buyer of corn had been found.
On the other hand, Kenny stressed that the Istanbul Center did not interfere in contractual disputes and focused on its mission of safe sailing for ships through a specific corridor to avoid mines planted in the Black Sea.
Ships coming from and departing from the Bosphorus are subject to inspection.
“We are seeing steady progress in the number of ships coming and going,” he said. It’s a good start.”
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