Ukrainian minister reports record exports via corridors, says volumes near pre-war levels
Photo: Reni Seaport Administration

Ukraine reached a record during the large-scale invasion in terms of physical export volumes. In January, domestic manufacturers exported 12 million tons of products, reported the press service of the Ministry of Economy.

"We are very close to reaching pre-war physical export volumes. In January 2024, Ukraine exported 12 million tons of products. This is only two million tons less than in pre-war January 2022. Of these, 8.7 million tons were exported by sea," said Economy Minister Yuliya Svyrydenko.

Also, in 2024, for the first time, a ship insured against war risks under Unity insurance, created by the Ukrainian government together with partners, will be involved in export operations.

The cost of insurance amounted to 0.75% of the value of the vessel, which is much cheaper than under the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

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The Unity ship insurance program, which Ukraine implements jointly with Marsh McLennan and a pool of insurance companies led by ASCOT, is designed to reduce the cost of insuring sea transportation of grain and other important food products in the country's territorial waters. The total amount of coverage under the program is $50 million.
This insurance mechanism will make it possible to reduce the cost of grain insurance by an average of approximately 2.5 percentage points from the cost of the insurance tariff. This, in turn, will allow grain traders to save about 100-140 hryvnias ($2.66-3.73) per ton of cargo, and in general it will bring up to 4 billion hryvnias ($106.5 million) to agricultural producers.
Ukraine expects that similar insurance instruments will be extended to other types of exports in the future.

Ukraine resumed sea imports thanks to the launch of a new transport corridor in the Black Sea without Russia's participation. As the process went on, insurance rates in the corridor began to drop significantly.

In August 2023, Ukraine opened a new sea route from Odesa, which was initially used to evacuate civilian vessels stuck in the Ukrainian ports of Chornomorsk, Odesa and Pivdennyi since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion.

On September 17, the new transport corridor for Ukrainian ports began operating in both directions, allowing for both exports from and imports into Ukraine.

It also allowed Ukraine to unblock sea exports for metallurgists. Several ships with metal products had been in the Pivdennyi port since the beginning of the full-scale invasion and were able to leave the port in early September 2023.

Economy MinistryExportgrain corridorYulia Svyrydenkoinsurance