More than 9.2 million tons of grain has been transported by 408 ships through the “grain corridor” created by Turkey’s efforts to eliminate the risk of a “food crisis” due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
As a result of Turkey’s intense diplomatic efforts, the “Joint Coordination Center” was established in Istanbul in coordination with the United Nations (UN) last July. The safe transfer of grain products began to be followed from here.
As a result of the meetings of the Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar with the relevant parties and the intensive work of the Joint Coordination Center, the first ship loaded with grain departed from Odessa Port on 1 August.
26 Thousand Tons Of Corn Was Transported With The First Ship
The Sierra Leone-flagged dry cargo ship Razoni, which is the first ship to leave the Ukrainian ports within the scope of the agreement covering 120 days, sailed towards the Lebanese Tripoli Port with 26 thousand tons of corn.
Four days after Razoni’s departure, Panama-flagged Navistar Ireland, Malta-flagged Rojen, Italy and Turkish ship Polarnet set sail for Kocaeli. The three ships left the ports of Odessa and Chernomorsk with about 60,000 tons of grain.
Following these, Mustafa Necati, Star Helena, Glory, Riva Wind, Sacura, Arizona, Ocean Lion, Rahmi Yağcı, Sormovskiy started their 121 cruise, and the number of ships leaving as of 13 August reached 17. Most of the ships in question reached ports in Turkey such as Tekirdağ, İskenderun and İzmir.
Within two weeks after the departure of the first ship, the number of ships leaving the Ukrainian ports reached 25, while the amount of grain transported exceeded 800 thousand tons.
Ships To Ukrainian Ports
The agreement, which was reached as a result of the efforts to prevent a food crisis around the world, included not only the departure of ships in Ukrainian ports, but also the shipment of grain to Ukrainian ports by ships controlled in Istanbul.
In this context, the first ship to go to Ukraine after being controlled from the Bosphorus was the Barbados-flagged Fulmar S. The ship picked up 12 thousand tons of corn from the Chernomorsk Port and transported it to Izmir.
While the number of ships leaving Ukrainian ports reached 408 as of yesterday, the amount of grain products such as wheat, corn and barley shipped exceeded 9 million 200 thousand tons. The transfer of 195 of the ships leaving the Ukrainian ports with grain cargo to the designated ports has been completed.
