Romanian Port Overwhelmed As Grain Ships Reroute Around War Zone

Ships off Romania's Black Sea coast wait on June 8 to enter the Sulina Canal, a waterway less than 5 kilometers from Romania's border with Ukraine. 

 

The Sulina Canal where it enters the Black Sea

According to a June 17 AFP report, nearly 100 boats are currently queueing to enter the canal as nearby Ukrainian ports remain blocked due to the presence of Russian naval vessels on a war footing in the Black Sea.

A ship moored in the Sulina Canal on June 7

The massive backlog on this Romanian canal has resulted in calls to speed up the processing of ships, especially those carrying essential food grains. Exporters want longer hours for port operations, higher speed limits on the canal, and the allowance for ships to navigate the waterway at night. 

Port cranes at Tulcea, near where the Sulina Canal meets the Danube River

The limited capabilities of Romanian ports has resulted in a huge buildup of both ships, trucks, and trains, which queue on Ukraine's borders to export grain. Ukraine's railway lines are wider than most of the rest of Europe, resulting in sluggish transport speeds from the country's western border. 

Young locals relax at a port on the Sulina Canal. 

International observers warn that a food crisis is looming as a result of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, especially in some African countries that rely mostly on shipments from Russia and Ukraine for their grain supply. The UN has warned of a "hurricane of hunger" if grain transport out of Europe cannot be sped up. 



 

A cargo ship seen from a Romanian pilot vessel

A pilot boat captain told AFP that since war broke out their workload navigating ships into the Sulina Canal "has increased a lot," adding, "we are hard at work from sunrise to sunset." A reported 400 boats passed through the Sulina Canal, last month, triple the traffic of May 2021. 

A small vessel on the Sulina Canal

Despite massive efforts to get grain out of Ukraine and to market, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov told the Financial Times that "all of our activity won't cover even 20 percent of what we could do through the Black Sea ports."

 

Barley is loaded onto a vessel in the Russian port of Rostov-on-Don on June 11. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the looming food crisis on sanctions against Russian exports. 


 

A Romanian pilot boat crewman is seen in front of a ship preparing to enter the Sulina Canal. 

A director of a Romanian port operations company told Al-Jazeera that "Considering the large grain volumes that are in need of export from Ukraine, I believe this has to be a conjugated effort of all the European operators that have the capacity to participate." He added, "There is no place for ego here."