Nibulon, one of Ukraine's biggest grain companies, said on Friday it has signed a deal with the operator of the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Chornomorsk to export up to one million metric tons of grain in the July 2025-June 2026 season.
Nibulon's own export terminal in Mykolaiv has been blocked since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022.
Only three Ukrainian Black Sea ports in the Odesa region, including Chornomorsk, are currently operating.
"The signing of the contract is a decisive step in the formation of a flexible logistics model that will allow Nibulon to maintain continuity of exports even without access to its own terminal," the company said on Facebook.
Southern Ukrainian regions, including Mykolaiv and Odesa, have already started the 2025 grain harvest, which is forecast to decrease by 10% from last year due to poor weather.
Ukrainian agriculture minister Vitaliy Koval told Reuters this month that the 2025 grain harvest may fall to around 51 million tons, from 56.7 million tons in 2024.
His first deputy, Taras Vysotskiy, told Reuters that grain exports may total 35-40 million tons in 2025/26.
(Reuters)