Cargo shipments at Ukraine’s Black Sea and Danube ports were 68% higher in January to June than in the same period of last year, a senior lawmaker said.

Six functioning ports processed 52.7 million tons of cargo compared with 31.3 million tons last year, Danylo Hetmantsev, head of the parliamentary finance committee, said on the Telegram messenger.

More than 63% of total shipments constitute agricultural products, he said.

In the first half of 2023, shipments were carried out under the wartime food export deal brokered by the United Nations.

After Moscow pulled out of the deal in July 2023, Kyiv managed to establish an alternative shipping corridor.

Hetmantsev said the deal had only envisaged agricultural exports from three Black Sea ports. This year, he said, 36% of total shipments accounted for other goods, including from the metals and mining industry.

Ukraine’s economy is export-led and access to external markets is key to supporting a recovery after gross domestic product fell by about a third in the first year of the full-scale Russian invasion.

GDP is expected to grow by about 3% this year after a 5.3% rise in 2023.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Andrew Heavens)