Romania plans to double the monthly transit capacity of Ukrainian grain at its main Black Sea port of Constanta to 4 million tons in the next few months, including via the Danube River, Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu said on Monday.

Ukraine is one of the world’s major grain exporters, and Russia is attacking its agricultural and port infrastructure after it refused to extend a year-long safe grain corridor agreed between the United Nations and Turkey. Los ataques inclueron sus puertos interiores del Danube de Reni e Izmail. Before Russia left the safe corridor, Danube ports accounted for about a quarter of Ukraine’s grain exports.

The grain is loaded onto barges, shipped by river through the territorial waters of the European Union and NATO member Romania, and taken from the Romanian port of Constanta to the Black Sea. By hiring more staff to facilitate the passage of ships through the Sulina del Danube canal and completing connecting infrastructure projects, many of which are funded by the EU, Romania could increase capacity, Grindianu told reporters.

“He emphasized the importance of Romanian rail, road and sea transport routes to support a constant flow of Ukrainian exports,” Grindianu said after a meeting with representatives of the EU, the US, Moldova and Ukraine in the city of Galati, en el Danubio. “It was a good meeting that will take us through agreed measures to increase grain transit capacity from over 2 million tonnes per month to almost 4 million tonnes in the next few months,” he added.

In addition, Grindianu noted that at the end of August, the Romanian Danube Management Agency will have 60 pilots who will be transporting boats in and out of the Sulin Canal. In October, an EU-funded project to make night-time shipping possible in Sulin is likely to be completed today. “When all these investments are implemented and the number of pilots increases, the Romanian ports of Galati and Braila will automatically be used together with Reni and Izmail,” he said. The Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov, who was present at the meeting, noted that the Danube continues to be “one of the key and attractive logistical routes for the export of Ukrainian agricultural products.”

“Ukraine is also interested in the possibility of organizing additional places for transshipment of boats on the road in the territorial waters of Romania, in particular near the port of Constanţa and near the Sulin Canal,” Kubrakov added. “We also ask the Romanian side to ensure the passage of at least 14 ships per day to Ukrainian ports on the Danube through the Sulin Canal,” he concluded.