The agreement sealed on Friday in Istanbul between Russia and Ukraine for grain export opens the way to unblock three Ukrainian ports in the Ukrainian region of Odessa, but still cargo ships and their crews have to be found and insured, a costly process.
(Read: Ukraine and Russia sign grain export agreement with Turkey and the UN)
In addition, the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, affirmed on Friday that the UN is responsible for guaranteeing the agreement on exports of Ukrainian grain and said he feared Russian “provocations”.
(You are interested in: Ukraine will only sign an agreement on grains with the UN and Turkey)
According to a United Nations official, Antonio Guterres, “safe corridors” will be created so that merchant ships can circulate through the Black Sea. Furthermore, “both parties [Rusia y Ucrania] They promised not to attack each other.
The objective is to be able to remove between 20 and 25 million tons of grain blocked in the silos of Ukraine. To implement the agreement, a coordination and control center will be created in Istanbul, where delegates from the four parties involved will establish the ship rotation schedule.
The agreement will be signed for four months and will be automatically renewed, so it is expected to evacuate about 8 million tons per month, so this time should be enough to evacuate the stocks.
A joint command and control center will be established in Istanbul, Turkey’s capital, to monitor operations and resolve any disputes. It will be carried out by delegates from the parties involved: a Ukrainian, a Russian, a Turk and a UN representative, who will be assisted by their respective teams.
At the latest it will be resolved in fifteen days, and I believe that operations will be able to start from that moment
For Guterres, the coordination center will be formed in the next few days and will establish the rotation schedule of ships in the Black Sea. “I can’t give you a precise date,” Guterres said on Friday.
An agreement was also reached to facilitate the export of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers at the request of Moscow, which wanted to ensure that Western sanctions would not affect them directly or indirectly.
Russia made this a sine qua non condition for signing the agreement.
What does the agreement provide?
According to Paul Tourret, director of the Higher Institute of Maritime Economy (Isemar) in France, the ships used will be bulk carriers, mostly Turkish or Greek. These usually carry between 20,000 and 70,000 tons of grain each.
Container ships from the main European shipowners may also be used to export products already processed in Ukraine, such as flour or pasta, according to industry sources.
The ships will have to be inspected in Istanbul by representatives of the four parties before setting sail for Ukraine to ensure they are not carrying weapons.
shipping costs
According to Ukraine, exports could start from the port of Odessa and its satellites of Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk.
The question will be raised as to how insurers will model this risk and assume it
Since the beginning of the war, a large part of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov is no longer covered by marine insurers. Ships will need “additional coverage that has yet to be negotiated,” explains Sylvain Gauden of insurer Scor.
“It will be necessary to see how the corridor is organized, and the subscribers will have to understand very well what security measures and military means exist to guarantee that the ships can pass safely,” he explains.
In the past, the additional costs to take into account to pass through the Black Sea ranged between 5 and 7% of the insured value of the ship, explains Gauden to give an idea of the magnitude of the cost. Cargo insurance typically costs 0.2-0.5% of its value, and up to 1% for older ships, he adds.
“Because we are in a conflict zone, we move to pricing on a case-by-case basis and on commodities, and they can skyrocket very quickly,” adds Mathieu Berrurier, CEO of broker Eyssautier Verlingue.
“Ensuring crew safety will be crucial if we want this agreement to move quickly,” the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) reacted. “Doubts remain about how (…) we can create effective crews for the region’s ships to meet the deadlines,” he added.
Surveillance and control
The inspection of the grain-carrying ships is a demand from Moscow, which wanted to make sure that weapons were not simultaneously delivered to Ukraine.
These controls will not be carried out at sea as planned for practical reasons, but will be carried out in Turkey, probably in Istanbul, which has two important commercial ports, at the entrance to the Bosphorus (Haydarpasa) and in the Sea of Marmara ( Ambarli).
Directed by representatives of the four parties, the inspections will take place at the departure and arrival of the vessels.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from EFE and AFP
More world news
– Steve Bannon, former Trump adviser, found guilty of contempt of Congress
– Fires in Spain: Madrid, Galicia and the most affected places
– Woman won the lottery and shared it with strangers
#agreement #Russia #Ukraine #export #grain #work