Key center expects `big uptick’ in Ukraine grain shipments

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The center coordinating shipping of desperately needed grain to world markets from Ukraine is expecting “a big uptick” in applications to pick up cargoes at Ukrainian ports in the near future. Frederick Kenney, interim UN coordinator at the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul, told a virtual news conference Wednesday that ship owners have shown “tremendous interest” in exporting grain from Ukraine under the recent deal aimed at helping ease the global food crisis sparked by Russia’s Febuary invasion of Ukraine. He said the dissemination of shipping procedures is “going to drive a surge in requests, but it is early days.”