•  Russia-Ukraine deal to resume grain exports from Black Sea ports is "the way out," Ukrainian grain traders say  

 exports from Black Sea ports is "the way out" of the current export crisis, said Serhii Ivashchenko, director of the Ukrainian grain traders' union.

"Because now, when we transport grain through European ports, the cost of logistics is so high that it eats up not only the profits of farmers, but also the cost of production," he explained Friday. The cost of transporting grain through Constanta in Romania was two-thirds of the selling price, he said.

"Now Ukrainian farmers were forced to sell grain at a loss. And unblocking the ports will reduce the cost of logistics quite significantly," he said. The cost of transporting grain through the Black Sea ports would be about one-tenth of the delivery of grain to European ports.

The union is looking at the agreement signed in Istanbul "with optimism," Ivashchenko told CNN. "We are waiting for the published document to analyze it."

"Ukraine concluded an agreement with the UN and with Turkey, and not with Russia, this is also a positive sign," he added.

"To unblock the harbors of Ukrainian ports, where ships were specially flooded in order to complicate Russian landings from the sea, we have quite optimistic forecasts now," he said. "It may take only a few weeks and it would be great if so."

"Now a new harvest has started and we expect that the wheat harvest will be about 21 million tonnes. With such a harvest, we could export 13-15 million tonnes of wheat. Plus the harvest that we still had left (from 2021-22)," he added.