Greece offers its ports for Ukrainian grain exports

Greece is ready to provide an alternative route for the export of Ukrainian wheat and other grains through its northern ports of Thessaloniki and Alexandroupolis. The country has already discussed this plan with its EU partners and countries outside the bloc.

This was reported by Kathimerini, citing a statement by Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis during a meeting of foreign ministers at the EU Council held in Kyiv.

The newspaper writes that since the agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain through Turkey’s Black Sea ports, which was brokered by Turkey, is not working, a lot of behind-the-scenes work is devoted to finding alternatives, as Ukraine is vital for the world’s grain supply.

Gerapetrit told his EU counterparts that Greece is ready to contribute to the solution and emphasized the “huge consequences” of the collapse of the agreement with Russia, especially for the countries of the Global South.

The plan developed by Greece envisages the transportation of products by train through Romania and Bulgaria to the ports of Thessaloniki and Alexandroupolis, and Greek-owned commercial ships will play a very important role in the transportation of grain.

It is reported that although Greek ports are able to accept the necessary volumes of grain for transportation, there are limitations on the capacity of the railroad network in northern Greece, which was damaged by recent floods.

It is noted that there are alternative routes to the Greek plan through the Baltic and Adriatic Seas. The Baltic option is being pushed by Poland in cooperation with Lithuania, although a Polish port, such as Gdansk, is a much more likely export destination than the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda.

The Adriatic option is centered on the Croatian port of Rijeka, where grain is transported by train through Hungary and Slovakia.

As a reminder, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar said that a new route for the transportation of Ukrainian agricultural products could pass through the territorial waters of Bulgaria and Romania.

Tags: Ukraine, export, grain, Greece