An ESL Shipping handysize bulker has delivered the first seaborne grain cargo shipped from Ukraine since the country was brutally invaded by Russia on 24 February.
The Finnish owner’s 20,500-dwt bulk carrier Alppila (built 2011) loaded 18,000 tonnes of Ukrainian corn in a Baltic port and delivered it to the Spanish port of A Coruna on Monday.
Cargo consignee Agafac, a regional animal feed producer, told CNN the voyage was the beginning of a “new maritime route” that aims to avoid Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports on the Black Sea.
