Ukraine said it's planning an additional route via the Danube River to boost exports to pre-war levels as a spat with Poland over agricultural deliveries blocks a land border with the European Union, Bloomberg reported, quoted by Pravda Ukraine.

"We are planning container transportation via the upper Danube as Romania is more predictable than the Polish border," Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine's infrastructure minister, said.

The new route will run from the Ukrainian seaport in Izmail to Romania's Constanta.

The Danube became a priority avenue for Ukrainian supplies after Russia exited a United Nations-backed safe corridor in the Black Sea last year. Still, a significant amount of crops also flow by rail and road via the EU, and Polish farmers — protesting what they call an uncontrolled flood of Ukrainian food products — are blocking a key route.

The Polish farmers, blocking the traffic near the checkpoints at the Polish-Ukrainian border, are planning to continue the protest for a month – until April.

Reportedly, if the blockade of the Polish-Ukrainian border is not lifted by the end of the month, Ukraine's budget may lose up to UAH 7.7 billion (USD 200 million).

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Dreamstime.com)