Latvian capital’s port receives first train with Ukrainian agricultural products

The first test train with Ukrainian agricultural products has arrived and been unloaded at the port of Riga, the Latvian Railways said in a statement.

1423 tons of rapeseed from Ukraine were delivered in 54 containers at the port of Riga via the Kaunas intermodal railway terminal.

"Containers from Ukraine were shipped on September 25, on October 8 they were reloaded in Kaunas onto the SIA LDZ CARGO platforms, and on October 11 the platforms reached the Port of Riga and cargo unloading was started at the Riga universal terminal," the statement reads.

Railway transportation was organised by SIA LDZ CARGO in cooperation with the Client – SIA LTG Cargo Ukraina, within the framework of the cooperation agreement concluded in November 2022.

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the terminals of the port of Riga have been actively working to transport Ukrainian grain products, but until now they came to the port by road, which in terms of efficiency and volume cannot be compared to rail transportation.

"We hope that this first test will prove successful for the entire logistics chain, and in the future, we will receive trains with Ukrainian grain in the Port of Riga on a regular basis," Ansis Zeltiņš, the Freeport of Riga CEO, was quoted as saying.

The port of Riga terminal is equipped and ready to receive grain container trains from Ukraine, has the necessary technologies for container handling, as well as warehouses and infrastructure for storing and loading cargo.