In the absence of infrastructure, freight remains pending several weeks at the borders of Poland, Romania or Bulgaria.
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The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, was in New York on Monday, June 6, to meet the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Gutteres, and UN agencies. The goal: to consider a common operation to protect the routing of Ukrainian wheat. Europeans would like to make an agreement allowing the cargos to leave the port of Odessa, via the Black Sea, which supposes the downstream of Russia and Turkey. And also a demining of the port. However, “there is no question that, under the guise of a maritime corridor for humanitarian reasons, we weaken the security situation of Ukraine”, warned Mr. Michel, on May 31, bound for Moscow.
Monday, while the United States and Europe warned Russia, in the United Nations, against alleged sexual violence committed by his army and his auxiliaries in Ukraine, Mr. Michel rushed by denouncing Strongly “the only responsibility” of Moscow in the food crisis, causing – exceptional – the departure of the room of the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassili Nebenzia, replaced by an assistant.
In the immediate future, Europeans will therefore continue to favor land routes, via the port of Constanta, in Romania, or that of Varna, in Bulgaria. With a probable duration of the operation now estimated at … eight months. The hypothesis of organizing a passage through Belarus, targeted by sanctions, seems definitively dismissed.
Food security was one of the challenges of the Summit of Heads of State and Government on May 30 and 31 in Brussels. The president of Senegal, Macky Sall, who this year held the rotating presidency of the African Union this year, participated in this meeting. “The worst is before us,” he said.
“Gigantic challenge”
The transport commissioner, Adina Valean, already evoked, in mid-May, a “gigantic challenge” for Europeans, who keep the hope of evacuating 20 million tonnes of cereals by July. The Commission has developed logistics routes and also tries to facilitate the storage capacities of Ukrainian farmers by organizing temporary storage, in the European Union (EU), their products.
Problem: the wagons and trucks are pending, for two or even four weeks, at the borders of Poland, Romania or Bulgaria, for lack of the necessary infrastructure. The spacing of rails, different between networks, requires transhipment before loading towards the EU.
Bringing Ukrainian products from European ports to their final destination represents another challenge: it would take 10,000 barges and 300 large ships to convey 20 million tonnes of cereals. A platform has been set up to facilitate contacts between players in the Ukrainian and European market. Brussels also hopes to bring the entire sector to reserve rail niche for Ukrainian exports.
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