France’s Transport Minister, Clement Beaune, has today announced the signing of an agreement with Romanian authorities designed to boost the export of grain from Ukraine to developing countries, particularly in the Mediterranean. According to Reuters, France is expected to help enhance the efficiency of the port of Galați, modernize border crossing points in northern Romania, max out the effective use of grain silos in the port of Constanța and boost the operability of this port and on the Sulina Canal. Ukraine’s Agriculture Minister has recently estimated his country’s grain exports could go up to 6.5 tons in October, which is double the volume reported in July after the gradual opening of Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea, based on the agreement signed in Istanbul. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has recently criticized the fact that only a small part of Ukrainian grain will be exported to poor countries based on this agreement, accounting for 2 of the 87 cargo ships that transported as much as 60 thousand tons of grain. However, analysts with the British Defense Ministry have disproved Putin’s statement, citing data centralized by the UN, according to which approximately 30% of Ukraine’s grain exports have reached low- and middle-income countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
