Ukraine's Odessa port set to see first corn shipment since Russia's invasion

Ukraine plans to reopen its deep water ports on July 28, market sources said, enabling the departure of ships that have been stranded in Ukraine's deep sea ports, laden with corn, since Russia's invasion on Feb. 24.

The ships will leave in convoy, with one of the first scheduled to sail a Viterra vessel the MV Riva Wind, one of the sources said. Vessel tracking service Kpler showed that it had been docked in Ukraine since Feb. 17 with a corn cargo of some 53,000 mt. Viterra did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

The scheduled shipments come five days after the UN brokered a deal between the two countries, whose wheat and corn exports are a key component of grains supply to the Middle East and Africa. The recent increase in grain prices has helped to drive up inflation in those regions.

Prior to the war, Ukraine exported the vast majority of its grains through the deep water ports of Odessa, Pivdennyi, Chornomorsk and Nikolyaiv. For the last five months, the water around those ports has been blockaded by Russian warships and mined by Ukraine.

The announcement of the UN deal pushed down the price of wheat futures, but was met with skepticism by many traders in the Black Sea, who pointed to the reluctance of ship owners to visit the volatile region. Those concerns grew on July 23, after a Russian missile struck the port of Odessa.

Those traders now emphasize the additional trust necessary before those owners are prepared to send new ships to load from Ukraine's ports, rather than just allowing those already laden to leave.

"I think the outbound traffic will continue to get traction and the the first vessels will start moving soon," one market participant said. "After that, the real work begins," they added, explaining that it will be much harder to get new ships to visit Ukraine's deep water ports.