First Ukraine Grain Ship Docks In Turkey After Being Turned Away

By AFP News
08/10/22 

The Sierra Leone-flagged ship Razoni became the first grain ship to sail from Ukraine under a landmark new deal

The first grain ship to leave Ukraine under a UN-backed deal last week docked in Turkey on Wednesday, marine traffic sites showed, following a report that it has finally found a buyer for its maize.

The Sierra Leone-flagged vessel Razoni left the Ukrainian port of Odessa on August 1 carrying 26,000 tonnes of corn and had been expected to dock in the Lebanese port of Tripoli last weekend.

But Ukrainian officials said the shipment's five-month delay caused by Russia's invasion prompted the Lebanese buyer to cancel the deal once the ship was already at sea.

Marine traffic sites showed the Razoni docked in Turkey's Mediterranean Sea port of Mersin after spending several days anchored just off the coast.

The Middle East Eye news site cites a shipping agent as saying that a Turkish buyer has been found for the maize.

The "cargo sold.... It will (unload) at Mersin," Ahmed al-Fares of the Ashram Maritime Agency told the news site.

An agreement signed by the warring parties with UN and Turkish officials in Istanbul last month lifted a Russian blockade of Ukraine's ports and established safe corridors through the mines laid by Kyiv to ward off any amphibious assault by Moscow.

The top UN official overseeing the deal said on Wednesday that the first 12 ships to leave Ukrainian ports under the deal were mostly carrying corn instead of wheat because that was the harvest stored in silos at the time of Russia's invasion.

"We're actually transitioning to wheat," Frederick Kenney told reporters.

"We have cleared the first ship inbound" to Ukraine through the Bosphorus Strait to pick up the wheat, he said. "That should occur some time next week."

The first Ukraine grain cargo refused by buyer -Ukrainian embassy in Lebanon

Mon, August 8, 2022 

ISTANBUL, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The Razoni, the first ship to depart Ukraine under an U.N.-brokered deal, is looking for another port to unload its grain cargo as the initial Lebanese buyer refused delivery citing a more than five-month delay, Embassy of Ukraine in Lebanon said on Monday.

"According to the information provided by the shipper of the Ukrainian grain aboard the Razoni, the buyer in Lebanon refused to accept the cargo due to delays in delivery terms," the embassy said in a Facebook post.

"So the shipper is now looking for another consignee to offload his cargo either in Lebanon/Tripoli or any other country/port."

The Razoni left Odesa last week carrying 26,527 tonnes of corn. The ship was scheduled to arrive in Lebanon on Sunday but it changed its destination to Turkey's Mersin port and is currently at anchor off Turkey's southern coast, according to Refinitiv ship tracker data.

The United Nations and Turkey brokered the agreement last month after warnings the halt in Ukrainian grain shipments caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine could lead to severe food shortages and even outbreaks of famine in parts of the world.

So far, around 243,000 tonnes of corn has been exported from Ukraine on seven ships since the first departure on Aug. 1, according to a Reuters tally of data from Turkey's defence ministry. (Reporting by Natalia Zinets Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Aurora Ellis)