According to a high-ranking official from the railways, there has been an increase in the amount of rail freight cars traveling to the ports of Ukraine’s Odesa region in the past week due to the efficient operation of the alternative Black Sea export route. This was announced on Thursday evening.

Valeriy Tkachov, the deputy director of the commercial department at Ukrainian Railways, reported on Facebook that the quantity of grain cars bound for Odesa ports has risen by 26.3% in the past week, from 4,227 to 5,341.

He stated that the ports’ silos receive a daily average of 970 car unloads.

The previous week saw an increase of approximately 50% in the number of cars.

In August, Ukraine initiated a “humanitarian corridor” for vessels heading to African and Asian markets in an attempt to bypass a de facto blockade in the Black Sea. This blockade was put in place after Russia withdrew from an agreement that had previously safeguarded Kyiv’s maritime exports during the conflict.

Subsequently, a high-ranking agricultural representative stated that the path – which traverses Ukraine’s southwestern Black Sea coastline, enters Romanian waters, and continues to Turkey – would also be utilized for transporting grain.

On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov announced that 91 ships have transported 3.3 million tons of agricultural and metal products since the corridor began operating in August.

The agricultural business association of UCAB reported an increase of 15% in Ukrainian grain exports, reaching 4.8 million metric tons in October, due to the implementation of a new corridor.

The government of Ukraine anticipates a harvest of 79 million tons of grain and oilseeds in 2023, with a surplus of approximately 50 million tons available for export in 2023/24.