The closure of the Black Sea corridor for Ukraine’s grains and the more recent bombing of Ukraine’s Danube ports have put increasing pressure on Romania’s grain route: the land transportation (road and railway) and Constanta Port.

Constanta Port is already preparing to handle more Ukrainian grain, but the investments made so far in expanding the port’s capacity might not be sufficient. 

It is estimated that Romania will need to transfer 27mn tonnes of grain and agricultural products from Ukraine in the coming marketing year, up from 18mn tonnes in the previous year. 

"We are ready for a larger quantity of Ukrainian grain," Dan Dolghin, a director at Comvex, one of the companies at Constanta that receive grain from trains, barges and trucks to load them onto ships, told AFP. Dolghin points to a €3mn investment his company made last summer to speed up its barge unloading capacity.

Constanta Port’s nameplate capacity is 25mn tonnes per year. The weak point, according to port operators, is the slow uploading speed.

However, the port might not be the bottleneck after the Russians signalled intentions to bomb Ukraine’s Danube ports where the barges were until recently loaded for Constanta.

Most of the merchandise might have to be sent to Constanta, under the new circumstances, by road or railway. Romania has launched projects to strengthen the land transport connectivity with Ukraine but it’s not clear whether the capacity increased dramatically.

Moldova, which harvested a wheat crop twice as large as last year (1.2mn tonnes) and will start harvesting sunflower soon, faces problems as well although its exports are comparatively smaller.

Its only port on the Danube, Giurgiulesti, is built on Ukrainian land under an arrangement with its neighbour and is located close to Reni port – already being bombed by Russian forces.

Moldavskie Vedomosti quoted by G4media writes that large traffic jams are forming at checkpoints in the south of Moldova, near Giurgiulesti.