A train loaded with grain from Ukraine has arrived in Spain as part of a pilot project to study the possibility of using rail transport when sea routes are blocked by the conflict with Russia, the government has announced Spanish Saturday. Ukraine is a major world grain producer and exporter. Almost all of its exports are traditionally made from its Black Sea ports. But Russia’s invasion of the country in late February severely disrupted Ukrainian grain exports, sending food prices skyrocketing.
A new step towards importing by rail
As part of a pilot project to study the feasibility of importing grain from Ukraine by rail, a freight train belonging to the Spanish public rail operator Renfe left Madrid on August 9 for the Polish town of Chelm, near the Ukrainian border. The train, made up of 25 containers each measuring 12 meters, was loaded with 600 tons of Ukrainian cereals, before starting the return journey of 2,400 kilometers.
He arrived in Barcelona on Thursday evening after calling at Lodz in central Poland and Duisburg in western Germany, Spain’s transport ministry said in a statement. “This project allows us to analyze the technical and economic feasibility of the rail transport of cereals, in addition to the maritime mode, at a time marked by the war in Ukraine”, underlined the ministry. It “showed that, in the current context, long-distance rail transport requires a great effort of coordination between the different actors involved in the process”, he added.
On July 22, Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement, backed by the United Nations and brokered by Turkey, to lift the naval blockade of Moscow and release millions of tonnes of blocked grain, helping to avert a food crisis. world. Since then, dozens of ships loaded with agricultural foodstuffs have left Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.