Ukraine proposes to increase the number of ship inspectors in Istanbul

Ukraine proposes to double the number of inspectors inspecting ships at the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul.

Currently, the inspection is carried out by 4 groups of inspectors formed from the representative offices of Ukraine, the UN, Turkey and russia. Elevatorist writes about this with reference to the president of the “Ukrainian Grain Association” (UZA) Mykola Gorbachev.

Each representative office sent 7 people for inspections, but this is not enough.

“Technically, they cannot inspect more than 15-16 vessels per day. Therefore, to increase the throughput, the number of people must be increased. Ukraine proposes to even double the number of inspectors. But our enemy is fighting as hard as he can on the battlefield and in the economic space, russia does not agree to increase the number of people and thus increase the speed of passage of ships,” said Mykola Gorbachev.

Currently, there are about 150 vessels awaiting inspection at the Istanbul SCC.

“There are ships that have been waiting for inspection for 2 weeks, and some even for 19 days. I can say that each ship costs from 20 to 40 thousand dollars per day and every day of downtime turns into an increase in the cost of logistics,” said the head of Ukrainian Grain Association.

In his opinion, in case of extension of the Grain Agreement, it is not necessary to include inspection of loaded vessels. Or to conduct these inspections randomly, for example, to check every 20 or 50 vessels — this will simplify the procedure and speed up movement along the grain corridor.

Andriy Klymenko, head of the Institute of Black Sea Strategic Studies, also confirms traffic jams in the Sea of ​​Marmara. According to him, representatives of russian federation in the SCC in Istanbul are disrupting supplies of Ukrainian grain.

“All grain traffic depends on the mood of one of the members of the inspector group (from which country it is clear), on how many vessels he wants to inspect per day. And let’s add that now the daylight hours are getting shorter and shorter, and even in the calm Sea of ​​Marmara there are storms and fogs, when you can be capricious and refuse to go out to sea on a boat,” he wrote on Facebook.