The major northern Adriatic port of Rijeka is receiving inquiries about its capacity to transit Ukrainian grain, which is currently blocked at silos in Black Sea ports. However, the port's limited capacities make it impossible to grant all the requests, Rijeka port's CEO told state agency Hina.

“The chairman of the Port of Rijeka management board, Dusko Grabovac, has recently told Hina that the pressure is mounting,” Hina said.

“The harvest is about to start, and their silos (in Ukraine) are full,” Grabovac told reporters in a recent business forum in the Latvian capital of Riga.

In 2019, Ukraine exported 16% of the global reserves of maize and 42% of sunflower oil, according to the data provided by the United Nations.

Over the recent weeks, traders are seeking alternative routes for the transport of grain from Ukraine, and the Port of Rijeka is therefore is receiving more and more requests.

Grabovac said that the capacity of the silo in this northern Croatian seaport is 55,000 tonnes.

“Therefore it is difficult to meet all the requests,” he explained.

Although Hina did not add any more detail, the headline of their article said that the requested capacity is three times larger.