Minister of Transport and Communications Marius Skuodis: Lithuania is ready to transport part of the Ukrainian grain harvest
Minister of Transport and Communications Marius Skuodis met with Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solsky today and discussed cooperation on the transportation of Ukrainian grain harvest by rail. In order to open up logistics channels for Ukrainian grain exports to European and world markets as soon as possible, a pilot transport by rail via Poland to the Port of Klaipėda is planned in the near future.
“Together we are looking for optimal solutions to export part of the cargo from Ukraine through the Port of Klaipėda. This week, the first pilot cargo from Ukraine is planned,” Minister of Transport and Communications M. Skuodis said after meeting with the Ukrainian minister today.
The route offered to Ukrainian partners runs from the Medyka terminal (on the Polish-Ukrainian border) to the Port of Klaipėda in Lithuania. Lithuanian freight transport company LTG Cargo is fully prepared for the transportation of this cargo and a few weeks ago submitted offers to Ukrainian companies regarding grain transportation.
According to Lietuvos geležinkeliai, currently two terminals in Medyka are each able to pass one train per day. With this capacity, around 1 million tonnes of grain could be transported per year. In the absence of any restrictions in Poland, the capacity already available to Lietuvos geležinkeliai today would allow twice as much to be transported, and in the near future the capacity could be increased to more than 3 million tonnes of grain per year.
This route of transport of grain is logistically complex due to the different railway gauges: Ukraine and Lithuania use wide gauge, while Poland has narrow gauge, which would result in the replacement of wagon rolling stock at the border.
According to Minister M. Skuodis, in order to solve the freight delivery challenges, it was agreed with the Polish infrastructure manager that the Lithuanian-Polish border station near Trakiškiai could work around the clock.
Last year, the Port of Klaipėda loaded 3.34 million tonnes of grain, and the year before — 4.6 million tonnes. LTG Cargo transported about 2.4 million tonnes of grain in 2021, of which local transportation amounted to about 1.8 million tonnes.
Ukraine aims to export up to 20 million tonnes of wheat and maize of last year in the short term.
Last updated: 26-04-2022
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