Sixty-eight vessels with 1.2 mln tonnes of cargoes still docked at Ukrainian ports - Sea Ports Authority

MOSCOW. Aug 2 (Interfax) - Sixty-eight vessels loaded with 1.2 million tonnes of cargoes remain blocked at Ukrainian ports, Ukrainian media outlets quoted the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority as saying on social media on Monday.

"Two-thirds of them are food products, which are being awaited all over the world. The holds of the vessels currently docked at the Pivdennyi [Yuzhnyi], Odesa and Chornomorsk ports are loaded with 480,000 tonnes of grain, [vegetable] oil and corn. Another million tonnes of grain is being stored in grain silos and warehouses of Ukrainian ports," the authority said.

When commenting on the departure on Monday of the first vessel with 26,000 tonnes of corn escorted by a lead ship under the Istanbul initiative signed with Turkey and the United Nations, the authority said that another 16 vessels currently docked at the Larger Odesa ports are now awaiting departure.

"Simultaneously, we have received requests for the arrival of new vessels to transport agricultural products. Within the next few weeks, we plan to return to the full agricultural export handling capacity [of the ports] with the support of partners," the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority quoted its head, Oleksiy Vostrikov, as saying.

The authority is already accepting requests from vessel owners planning to participate in such convoys, Vostrikov said. The procedure for forming convoys of vessels, which will be escorted by a lead ship, has also been drawn up.