Ukraine. Investments in the Danube Region. Are the Danube small ports ready for the new harvest?

In May 2023, grain and agricultural products export through  the Danube ports set a record being at 2.22 M mt. Since May 2022, transshipment volumes have almost tripled, thanks to the rapid development of the domestic logistics to the small Danube ports. Before the war, these ports were not actually used to transship significant volumes of grain and processed products.

Trade flows through the small Danube ports have been growing month by month due to unstable activity of the grain deal. In May 2023, 50.1% of the total agri commodity exports was shipped  through these ports. So big share in the total exports was registered only in July 2022 before the start of the grain corridor operations.    

Key investors in the development of the Danube region

Kernel and Nibulon companies were the leaders in investments in the transshipments capacities in the Danube ports of Izmail, Reni and Ust-Dunaisk. Other Ukrainian companies followed the strategy of these two biggest Ukrainian exporters. Authority of Sea Ports of Ukraine (AMPU) reported about $97M investments in the port capacities for January 2022-March 2023. The Minister of infrastructure of Ukraine earlier in the 2023 spring estimated the investments needed in these ports at $120 M.