Romania may limit the transit of Ukrainian grain to the port of Constanta

The Romanian authorities are considering measures to provide local farmers with priority access to the Black Sea port of Constanta during the harvest period, which could limit the flow of grain from Ukraine, Reuters reports with reference to a source in the country's MSG.

"At the negotiations with Brussels and Kyiv, optimization of commercial grain flows to the port of Constanta will be proposed, designed to protect local farmers during the harvest period. It is not yet specified what measures will be taken, as an analysis of the expected volumes of deliveries is being conducted, which will help to optimize flows," Reuters said.

Harvesting in Romania usually begins in July, when the grain corridor from the Black Sea ports of Ukraine may stop working, and continues until October.

Romania is one of the five Eastern European countries to which grain supplies from Ukraine have increased significantly since the Russian invasion. Because of this, the European Commission introduced temporary restrictions on the import of Ukrainian grain.

The capacity of the port of Konstanz allows to process almost 25 million tons of export grain per year, and in case of closing the "grain corridor" from Ukraine, the port could handle more than 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain.

It will be recalled that the port operator Comvex recently stated that the volume of transshipment of Ukrainian grain through the port of Constanta may decrease due to the increase of own grain production in Romania in the current season.