First Ukrainian Ship Under Grain Deal Won’t Arrive Lebanon on Time

The Ukrainian Embassy in Lebanon said the first grain ship to leave a Ukrainian port under a deal struck last month will not arrive in Lebanon on Sunday as planned.

The Razoni left Odessa on the Black Sea early last Monday carrying 26,527 tons of corn and was due to dock in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli on Sunday, Ukrainian and Lebanese port officials said. But the Ukrainian Embassy in Lebanon told Reuters on Sunday that the ship had been "delayed" and "will not arrive today," without giving a new arrival date or the reason for the postponement. Shipping data on MarineTraffic.com showed the Razoni off the Turkish coast on Sunday morning. The ship's bill of lading, a copy of which was seen by Reuters on Sunday, gave an expected arrival date of Tuesday and listed the cargo destination as "on order", which typically means a ship's cargo can be transferred from one owner to another. Lebanon's transportation, agriculture and economy ministers told Reuters last week that they did not know who had bought the grain in Razoni. The shipment was made possible after Turkey and the United Nations brokered a grain and fertilizer export deal between Moscow and Kiev last month - a rare diplomatic breakthrough in a protracted war of attrition. The UN had warned that halting grain shipments from Ukraine through the Russian-dominated Black Sea could lead to famine outbreaks around the world. The Joint Coordination Center (JCC), which oversees Ukraine's grain exports, said the ship would be used as a trial run and information from the Razoni's crew would be used to fine-tune procedures for future shipments.   Source: investing.com