5 August 2020, 16:34, Grain

Shipment of Ukrainian wheat to Beirut was made by HarvEast, company claims cargo insured

During the explosion in the port of Beirut in Lebanon on August 4, MERO STAR vessel was near the port. It arrived from the Ukrainian port of Mariupol with food wheat aboard shipped by HarvEast agricultural holding, market sources told Latifundist.com. The company's press service confirmed this information.

In mid-July, HarvEast shipped about 5 thou. t of food wheat from Mariupol port on the basis of FOB.

"We are now in the process of confirming the situation with MERO STAR with the buyer. In any case, both the vessel and the cargo were insured," HarvEast says in a statement.

The company relies on a thorough investigation of the cause of the explosion in the port of Beirut and hopes that it will not affect the maritime logistics conditions for agricultural producers. HarvEast believes that if the insurers increase the cost of their services, the agriproducers will make less profit.

The immediate challenge is to deal with the consequences of the explosion in the port, as Lebanon imports large quantities of goods for the country through this port, the company says.

As a reminder, several explosions occurred near the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Aug. 4 at 6:07 p.m. local time. According to preliminary data, the explosion could have been caused by the inappropriate storage of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, which has been stored in the port since 2014.

Arrived from the Ukrainian port of Mariupol MERO STAR and RAOUF H ships may have been docked at the port of Beirut in Lebanon at the time of the explosion.