---
title: ""
description: "Farmers and metallurgists, at a joint press conference, called on Kyiv to unblock the Black Sea ports: in their assessment, land and the Danube cover only up to 30% of maritime volumes, and the standstill is hitting revenue and the 2027 sowing season."
date: 2026-09-04T09:44:01.000Z
lang: en
url: https://xab.info/en/posts/ukraine-farmers-and-metallurgists-call-to-unblock-black-sea-ports
tags: []
publisher: "XAB.info"
---

# 

![Cormorants drying their wings on a rock by the sea with a cargo ship on the horizon](https://xab.info/media/2026/09/04/ukraina-agrarie-i-metalurgi-prizvali-razblokirovat-chernomorskie-porty/ukraina-agrarie-i-metalurgi-prizvali-razblokirovat-chernomorskie-porty-1.webp)

Representatives of two key export-oriented sectors of Ukraine — the agricultural and the mining and metallurgical industries — publicly called on the government, at a joint press conference, to focus on restoring full-fledged maritime shipping through the Black Sea ports. This was reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing statements by Alexander Kalenkov, president of the "Ukrmetallurgprom" association of enterprises, and Oleksiy Khomenko, general director of the Ukrainian Agrarian Business Club (UABC). In their assessment, neither the Danube nor the western border crossings can replace the Black Sea ports in the medium term, either in terms of volumes or in the cost of transportation, and the current halt in shipping caused by Russian attacks is hitting the competitiveness of Ukrainian exports as a whole.

### Why the sea cannot be replaced by land

The industries emphasize that Ukraine has traditionally exported around 80% of the metal products it produces and 50–60% of iron ore raw materials, and for distant markets, in particular China, land-based logistics cannot become a full alternative to the sea because of its significantly higher cost. Kalenkov recalled that as early as 2022, logistics costs for metallurgists had risen four- to five-fold, and the opening of a maritime corridor in 2023 became one of the key factors in the resumption of production. In the agricultural sector, Khomenko notes the same picture: alternative routes via the Danube, Romania, Poland and other countries cannot fully replace the Black Sea either in terms of throughput capacity or cost, and delivering cargo to alternative ports on the Black or Baltic Sea costs an additional roughly 50–90 euros per tonne, which reduces the competitiveness of agricultural exports and lowers foreign-currency earnings.

### Contradictory data

The parties disagree in their assessments of the throughput capacity of alternative routes. A number of estimates cited in the public domain suggested that land and river routes could handle up to 75% of the cargo that had previously moved by sea. Kalenkov directly refuted this figure, stating that the real capacity of alternative routes is no more than 30%, and only under favorable conditions — a sufficient water level in the Danube and coordinated work with Romania and Poland. Thus, there is a significant gap between the optimistic calculations and the position of the producers themselves, which, according to the industries, lays the groundwork for underestimating the risks of halting maritime exports.

### Ukrzaliznytsia tariffs and queues on the Reni — Izmail route

Business also cites the increase in Ukrzaliznytsia's freight tariffs as an additional problem. Khomenko believes that this decision should be temporarily reversed, because the railway has already lost about 75% of the cargo that had previously been moving toward the ports, and higher tariffs only worsen the liquidity of enterprises. According to UABC data, a queue of nearly 2,000 wagons has already built up on the Reni — Izmail route, with a throughput capacity of about 120–130 wagons, which means a standstill of roughly 20 days, the costs of which are ultimately borne by the producer.

### Risks for the 2027 sowing season and macro losses

Khomenko warned that if the ports are not unblocked by December–January, the spring 2027 sowing campaign could be at risk due to a shortage of working capital among farmers. The scale of the potential losses was previously assessed by the Ukrainian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce: if the maritime corridor does not resume operations, Ukraine could lose about 10% of GDP, $17 billion in export revenue, and a further $8.5 billion in tax receipts, while more than 30 million tonnes of agricultural products would fail to reach world markets. Kalenkov added that supporting export-oriented industries is important not only for the enterprises themselves: one job in the mining and metallurgical complex generates a further 7.5–8 jobs in adjacent sectors, and the shutdown of enterprises in the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions would result in losses of foreign-currency earnings, taxes and employment.

### What solutions the industries are proposing

Among the possible measures, farmers and metallurgists mention restoring the "solidarity corridors," compensating part of logistics costs, creating a separate support mechanism for Ukrzaliznytsia to cheapen transportation for the affected industries, and developing state insurance against military risks. According to UABC's estimate, compensating logistics through European carriers may require around 1 billion euros. Representatives of both industries agree on one point: the key decision is to resume the safe operation of the Black Sea ports, while alternative routes can only temporarily mitigate losses but cannot replace the sea for mass Ukrainian exports.

## 🔍 Fact-Check Verification

- [Farmers and metallurgists call on the government to unblock the ports](https://www.rbc.ua/ukr/news/agrariyi-ta-metalurgi-zaklikali-uryad-rozblokuvati-1788514728.html) - Подтверждено по источнику rbc.ua