Shipping on the Sulina Canal on the Danube, a key route to Ukrainian river ports, was suspended on Saturday due to poor weather and is not expected to reopen until October 2, shipping company Avalon said on Monday.
Shipments had been re-routed through Danube river ports after Russian attacks effectively blocked Ukraine's Black Sea ports, which had handled 90 per cent of the country's grain exports.
"Navigation on the Danube is not expected to resume until October 2, 2026, at the earliest. In short: winter is coming," said Katerina Kononenko, operations manager of Avalon shipping.
She added that low water levels on the Danube could be a serious problem, especially for vessels already fixed or loaded and waiting to depart from Ukrainian ports.
APK-Inform consultancy said earlier on Monday that weekly grain exports from Ukrainian Danube ports declined by almost 29 per cent to 132,200 tons in the week to September 23. It gave no reason for the smaller shipments.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk Editing by David Goodman)
