The first grain ship to leave Ukraine under a deal between the United Nations, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey docked at a port in southern Turkey on Thursday after its Lebanese buyer refused the shipment, Turkish news agency DHA reported.
The Razoni ship, flying the Sierra Leonean flag, will unload part of its cargo in the port of Mersin, DHA said.
The ship left the port of Odessa in southern Ukraine on August 2, carrying about 26,000 tons of corn to the port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon.
This cargo shipment was inspected for the first time in Istanbul, Turkey, by a joint monitoring team, in accordance with the agreement reached, before proceeding to Tripoli.
However, the Lebanese buyer rejected the shipment, citing the delivery being delayed “by more than five months”, the Ukrainian Embassy in Lebanon said on Monday.
“The supplier of this cargo is now looking for another buyer who could be located in Tripoli in Lebanon, or in another port or another country,” the embassy added in a statement.
On July 22, Russia and Ukraine had signed an agreement with Turkey and the United Nations to allow food and fertilizer exports from three key Ukrainian Black Sea ports.