There are 94 vessels in the queue for inspection in the "grain corridor", which has a negative effect on purchase prices

The situation with inspections in Turkey of ships heading to Ukrainian ports through the grain corridor remains difficult, as no more than 6 inspections are carried out per day at the entrance and exit, which is half of the approved plan and leads to an increase in the queue for inspection to 94 ships, - informs Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.

On March 27, three ships with food for Asian countries were sent from the ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdenny, in particular the ASL ILEANA bulker with 54,600 tons of wheat for Bangladesh, which remains the main consumer of Ukrainian wheat and has received 710,000 tons of grain since the start of the grain corridor. And if the Russians had not blocked the inspections, the volume of deliveries could have been much higher.

According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, since August 1, 2022, 848 ships left the ports of Greater Odessa, which exported 25.9 million tons of food to the countries of Asia, Europe and Africa. Currently, 19 ships are loading 680,000 tons of agricultural products in the ports, and three more ships are moving along the grain corridor for loading.

The waiting period in the queue for loading is 30-40 days, which reduces farmers' profits by $25-35/ton and increases the costs of Ukrainian enterprises, which is what Russia, which is waging war on Ukraine and its citizens on all fronts, is trying to achieve.

According to the State Customs Service, Ukraine exported 36.92 million tons of grain and leguminous crops in the 2022/23 fiscal year as of March 27, 2023 (44.849 million tons on this date last year), of which 4.6 million tons in March, namely:

• wheat – 12.6 million tons (1.28 million tons in March),
• barley – 2.26 million tons (0.21 million tons),
• corn - 21.7 million tons (3.1 million tons).

In order to reach the predicted USDA indicators, only 0.9 million tons of wheat and 1.8 million tons of corn need to be exported by the end of the season, so in the April report of the USDA, the world balances for wheat and corn may be significantly changed, especially for Ukraine. At least another 3.3 million tons of grain will be loaded onto the 94 vessels lined up for inspection, so wheat and corn exports will amount to approximately 3-4 million tons, which will reduce ending stocks to a minimum.