NARRATIVE – The Romanian port and the longest river in Europe have become the preferred routes for the export of grain from Ukraine.
In Bucharest
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, and the blockade operated by Moscow from the Sea of Azov – closed to navigation from the start of the offensive – to the port of Odessa, on the Black Sea , the port of Constanta, in Romania, has become a providential hub – practically the only one by sea – for Ukrainian exports, especially cereals.
For the time being, they are still largely transported to Constanta via the two small Danube ports of Reni and Izmail, located in the extreme south-west of Ukraine, on the border with Romania. But the quantities are tiny compared to what Ukraine delivered in normal times, via Odessa and the Sea of Azov, when 60% of the country’s port activity related to the grain trade.
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Another part of these cereals arrives in the port of Constanta by heavy goods vehicles, but the traffic is more and more congested. The roads have hardly been modernized for over thirty years and are…