By BRUSSELS. May 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Some 20 million tonnes of grains must leave Ukraine in less than three months, using the EU infrastructure, European Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean has said.
On Thursday in Brussels, Vălean presented an action plan prepared by the European Commission aimed at helping Ukraine export its agrocultural products. This is about the use of optimal supply chains, the so-called "Solidarity Lanes."
According to the European Commission, the operation of Ukrainian ports is currently blocked, in this regard, grain and other agricultural products can no longer be transported to their destination. "The situation is threatening global food security and there is an urgent need to establish alternative logistics routes using all relevant transport modes," the European Commission said.
According to the European Commissioner, the export of 20 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain through the EU infrastructure is a huge task.
"This is a gigantesque challenge, so it is essential to coordinate and optimize the logistic chains, put in place new routes, and avoid, as much as possible, the bottlenecks. Our communication addresses the emergency solutions but also medium and long time measures to better connect and integrate Ukraine’s infrastructure with the EU one. For both short-term and long-term solutions, we will work with the Ukrainian authorities and in close collaboration, especially with the neighbouring Member States, who spared no effort in helping during this crisis," Vălean said.
In addition to using the European infrastructure, in some EU countries the idea of creating a humanitarian corridor for the export of goods from Ukraine through Belarus to the ports of the Baltic countries was also discussed.
However, European Commissioner for the Environment Virginijus Sinkevičius told BNS on Thursday that the possibility of transporting Ukrainian grain through Belarus to Brussels is not being considered.
Sinkevičius said this means that priority should be given to trains coming from transshipment stations to EU seaports, logistics corridors should be created, and the largest possible capacities should be provided in seaports to transport Ukrainian crops to markets.
Commenting on the plan presented by the Commission, he said the measures proposed by the commission are primarily addressed to the Baltic countries, Poland and Romania, since they are closest to Ukraine.
According to the European Commissioner, before the start of the military operation, some 90% of all Ukrainian grain was transported through ports, and grain exports accounted for about 20% of the country’s total export earnings. Now in Ukraine there are more than 40 million tonnes of grain, some 50% of which should be exported in the coming months.
