UGA Proposes to Change Railway Tariffs for Grain Transportation to Danube Ports

The Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) proposed to the government to change the tariffs for the transportation of agricultural products by rail for the ports of the Danube. The press service of the association reported this. This step is necessary to make Danube ports competitive.

The problem with ports on the Danube is that over the past 30 years, they have not been given much attention. The degradation of roads and the lack of a special tariff for railroads to transport goods to these ports made them uncompetitive. The current equipment cannot provide sufficient port capacity, and investors are not ready to invest in its reconstruction since there is no understanding of how the port will work in peacetime.

UGA believes that the change in tariffs for grain transportation to the Danube ports can improve the situation. This would allow them to compete with the Black Sea ports even in peacetime. The UGA did not announce a specific formula for calculating the tariff but said that they propose to introduce the possibility of using funds from the State Inland Waterways Fund to compensate for the difference in the cost of transportation.

UGA also believes that it is necessary to create special tariffs for the rental of wagons and speed up trains that will follow to the ports of the Danube. In addition, it is necessary to ensure the passage of Ukrainian locomotives and locomotive crews through the territory of Moldova. All these steps will help reduce the cost of transportation and add commercial attractiveness to the ports of Izmail, Reni, and Ust-Dunaysk.

UGA also proposed holding intergovernmental negotiations between Ukraine and Moldova to reduce the cost of grain transit to the Danube ports. Economic calculations show that it is impossible to use the section's advantages since transportation by the transit part of 129 km in Moldova is three times more expensive than the same distance in Ukraine. As of April 2023, such transit will cost $12 per ton of grain, excluding VAT.