By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Ukraine has hinted that efforts are at top gear to load the first ship of grain heading to Africa since the invasion of the country by Russia in February.
The Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine on Thursday said it is expecting the arrival at Pivdenny maritime merchant port of a vessel for loading grain on Friday.
“Tomorrow, the Brave Commander vessel (under the flag of Liberia) is expected to arrive at Pivdenny port to load more than 23,000 tonnes of wheat to fight hunger in East Africa,” the ministry said on the Telegram channel on Thursday.
The ship was chartered under the UN World Food Program and will be sent through the port of Djibouti to Ethiopia.
The lifting of the stranded grain from Ukraine follows a deal brokered by the United Nations, Ukraine, Turkey and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a safe transportation of grain and food from the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdenny. Russia had before the pact blocked the movement of the grain.
As part of the implementation of the agreements, twelve ships are already heading from the Ukrainian ports with agricultural products to seven countries of the world. There are 370,000 tonnes of agricultural products on board.
The first vessel with Ukrainian corn has already arrived at the Turkish port for unloading.
