New rules cause delays for grain shipments from key Russian port

Russian grain exports via the Black Sea port Kavkaz, which accounted for almost a quarter of all seaborne exports last season, have been significantly hampered this month due to new ship entry and inspection requirements, industry sources said.

Foreign vessels require permission from port authorities and approval of Russia's FSB security service to enter the country's ports, according to a decree in July by President Vladimir Putin.

Since the beginning of August, around 350,000 tonnes of grain have been shipped through Kavkaz, one of the six sources told Reuters, compared with 1.5 million to two million tonnes a month during the northern hemisphere summer and autumn.

Last August, shipments totalled 1.492 million tonnes.

At the beginning of last week, more than 120 ships were waiting to pass through the port, and freight rates for coastal vessels were rising, another source said, adding that terminals were overflowing with grain and had effectively stopped accepting more.

Ships that were scheduled to load in mid-July were loading now, two of the sources told Reuters. All the sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Port Kavkaz administration did not respond immediately to Reuters requests for comment.

The new season of Russian grain exports got off to a slow start due to a late harvesting campaign, but the decrease in shipments at other ports is not as significant. The situation in Novorossiysk, Russia's largest grain port, appears less problematic, as does the Baltic route, the six sources said.

Kavkaz port is located in the northern part of the Kerch Strait which connects the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Ships pass under the Kerch Bridge on their way to the port, requiring additional inspections for security reasons, they said.

Grain exports through Kavkaz in the 2024/25 season amounted to 10.24 million tonnes, or 23 per cent of all seaborne grain volumes, according to the industry sources and Reuters calculations.

(Olga Popova, Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Nigel Hunt and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)