On Wednesday, August 3rd, a team of inspectors boarded the first grain-carrying ship to leave Ukrainian ports during the war, before continuing to its final destination in Lebanon – Tripoli under a U.N.-brokered deal aimed at alleviating a global food crisis.
The inspection was carried out by a 20-person team from a special joint coordination center.
The team boarded the Sierra Leone-registered Razoni ship earlier in the day off the mouth of the Bosphorus Strait, which connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and then to the Aegean Sea, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry.
The Razoni ship, which set sail from Odesa early on August 1st carrying 26,527 tons of corn bound for Tripoli, Lebanon, arrived off Turkey’s Black Sea coast late on August 2nd after a delay caused by bad weather.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that more outbound movement was being planned from Ukraine on Wednesday, adding that about 27 ships were covered by the export deal.
A senior Turkish official told Reuters on Tuesday that Ankara expects one ship per day to leave three Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
Lebanon is just one of many countries hard hit by wheat shortages amid the war in Ukraine. The ship exports will help ease Lebanon’s food shortages and rising prices.
In line with the world bank’s wheat loan of $150 million to Lebanon, which is supposed to ensure more social and food security.
