The buyer refused Ukrainian corn, which is transported by the dry cargo ship Razoni, the first ship that left the port of Odessa. This was reported by the Embassy of Ukraine in Lebanon.
The diplomatic mission said the buyer refused to accept the shipment, citing a more than five-month delay in delivery. Now the shipper, whose ship has reached the Lebanese port of Tripoli, is looking for another buyer in Lebanon or in another country.
Director of the Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation Pavel Koval, in an interview with The Insider, did not rule out that the rejection of grain occurred at the request of Russia.
“It cannot be ruled out that there is some kind of soft request from Russia, they say, play with some ships. If the buyer had refused, he could have refused back in Odessa. Why refuse neutral waters near Tripoli or territorial waters? What are the grounds? The delay was more than five months. So everyone understands the reasons for the delay, force majeure – it is also force majeure in Africa, but for some reason this issue surfaced almost near the port of arrival. We did not rule out such provocations. Not military, but commercial – a hybrid war in all its glory. So far, there is a certain skepticism regarding such a rhythmic work of these grain corridors. It seems to me that these are Russia's attempts to create at least some platform for negotiations. They need negotiations. Attempts of such pressure will develop and promote some other platform based on these grain discussions. There is only one course – to lead to some kind of "Minsk-3" or "Minsk-4".
In turn, the Ukrainian trader of grains and legumes of the Prometheus group of companies, Vitaly Lavrov, notes in a commentary to The Insider that the buyer could not be satisfied with the quality of the grain.
“Force majeure in the form of war removes responsibility from the supplier as a deadline, but if they took pre-war contracts for execution, there may be many options. Maybe the quality really didn't work. For five months the goods lay in the holds – there can be anything you want. In any elevator, they must move from place to place. Below there is already, most likely, sad goods. There was a temperature difference of the metal. The goods stood in February, where there were sub-zero temperatures, then there was sun, where temperatures reached 40 degrees. Imagine what happened with these cargoes.”
On August 1, a ship with grain left the port of Odessa and headed for Lebanon. The cargo is owned by VA International Ukraine .
An agreement on the export of grain from Ukrainian ports was signed by Moscow and Kiev on July 22 in Istanbul with the participation of the UN. Grain will be delivered from three ports – Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny. The day after the signing of the treaty, Odessa was subjected to rocket fire, as a result of which a fire broke out in the local port.
According to the estimates of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, since the beginning of the war, Russia has stolen and exported hundreds of thousands of tons of Ukrainian grain. Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasily Bodnar said that Turkey buys the stolen grain from Russia. Also, a significant part of the stolen grain was transported across the Mediterranean on bulk carriers flying Russian flags to Syria. From there, the grain can be smuggled to the countries of the Middle East.
The Insider sent a request to VA International Ukraine with a request to comment on the situation with the refusal of the cargo. At the time of publication, no response had been received.