First cargo of Ukrainian corn since start of war loaded in Romanian port: Ukrlandfarming

The first cargo of Ukrainian corn since the Russian invasion of that country on Feb. 24 has been loaded for export in Romania, Ukrlandfarming, the company loading and selling the grain, said April 28.

The Panamax-sized cargo was loaded with Ukrainian corn in the Romanian port of Constanta, a Ukrlandfarming trader told S&P Global Commodity Insights. The ship was slated to sail late April 28, the trader said. Its destination was not disclosed.

The ship was loaded and sold on FOB basis, said the trader. A producer of grain, oilseeds, poultry and eggs, Ukrlandfarming has been shipping corn to Romania by rail from its elevators in Ukraine to finally load 71.2 million mt of corn, the company said.

The export of goods out of the Ukrainian Black Sea ports in the Odessa and Mykolaev regions stopped after the Russian invasion.. As a result, Ukraine had to look for alternative routes, railways in particular. However, the export potential by rail is limited to 450,000-700,000 mt/month of grain, according to market sources, compared with 5 million-6 million mt/month before the war. Lower export potential puts pressure on domestic prices while providing support to the international market.

Exports by rail are constrained mainly by the number of wagons and the capacities of border-crossing points with EU countries, Poland and Romania in particular, because of differing rail gauges, which requires reloading of goods on different wagons.