The plan of the central Executive foresees taking the grain by train and moving it to Spanish docks to store it in silos and then proceed to export it to other countries
Spain will lead an initiative, in which France, Poland and Luxembourg will also participate, to take cereals out of Ukraine by train and transfer them to Spanish ports to store them in silos and then proceed to export them to other countries, mainly in the Mediterranean. The grain can be stored in the silos that have several ports in the Mediterranean, such as those of Cartagena, Tarragona and Barcelona.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, presented this Thursday to European leaders the initiative on which the Ministry of Transport has been working especially, seeking technical solutions for the different types of road, and which involves the collaboration of public and private companies from the four countries, to which the president thanked for their support.
Government sources have explained that with this Spain wants to contribute, even if it is in a symbolic way, to face the food crisis that is causing the Ukrainian cereal to be blocked as a result of the Russian invasion.
The president himself has underlined in a press conference the seriousness of the situation and the food crisis that is resulting from the fact that there are 20 million tons of grain stranded in Ukraine as a result of the Ukrainian ports being closed due to the conflict.
In the absence of the efforts of the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, to resolve this situation prosper or that Russia heed the calls to unblock the ports in the Black Sea, “we cannot stand still,” he defended, thus justifying the step given by Spain.
In this sense, it has been possible to weave a solidarity project of public-private collaboration with the other three countries and that plans to transport the Ukrainian grain to the Polish border and then proceed to transport it via Germany, Luxembourg and France to Spain.
Transfer by train and storage in silos
The transfer will last about six days and involves unloading grain from Ukrainian trains onto Polish trains, thanks to Spanish technology, and again transferring it to European trains to continue its journey to its final destination.
In Spain, the grain will be stored in the silos that have several ports in the Mediterranean such as those of Cartagena, Tarragona or Barcelona. Once there, Ukraine will proceed to export it to those countries that require it. Sources have stressed that this will mostly help North African countries, which are already suffering the effects of Ukraine’s grain export problems.
The plan will start on July 15, with 600 tons, and from August more trains will be used to increase transport, with an eye toward reaching 5,000 or 6,000 tons by September. In this first pilot phase, according to sources, it is expected to reach 8,000 tons.
The intention is that the initiative is maintained beyond this initial phase and that more trains can be included to increase the output of the grain. Although modest compared to other similar ongoing initiatives, mainly the German one, the Government highlights Spain’s willingness to contribute to alleviating this situation and makes it clear that it will only cost thousands of euros.
On the other hand, Sánchez warned of the “false Russian narrative” that tries to accuse the EU and its member states of being responsible for the food crisis situation as a result of the sanctions they have imposed on Russia for the invasion, of the It’s been just four months.
“If there is someone to blame for the war, it is Putin,” he defended, stressing that the sanctions adopted “in no case affect Ukrainian or Russian food exports.”
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