CURRENT PROBLEMS OF GRAIN LOGISTICS IN UKRAINE

The transportation industry is key in peacetime, but its importance grows exponentially during wartime. Thus, in 2023, the issue of grain export came to the fore, which is relevant not only for Ukraine but also for the countries of the European Union and most African countries. According to experts, the main problems of the export of Ukrainian grain are significant costs and the duration of internal transshipments. Grain production is volatile and difficult to predict, so grain supply chains must bereliable and resilient. In this article, we analyze the state of grain transportation and the challenges faced by Ukrainian carriers.Even before the start of the Russian Federation's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many problems in Ukraine's grain logistics restrained the development of the transport industry and reduced its efficiency compared to developed countries. Russia's military aggression has added problems such as the blocking of seaports and borders, destruction of infrastructure, and increase in the cost of logistics services. Due to the war, the role of road transport in grain logistics increased. Road transport is one of the main arteries of grain logistics in Ukraine and abroad, especially after the occupation and restrictionof port routes. Ukrainian carriers have found new opportunities and ways to transport grain, in particular thanks to fruitful cooperation with the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine. If we evaluate the dynamics of the volume of transportation for 2015-2022, then transportation by rail transport has almost not changed, and by road transport, it has increased by 63.71%.But due to the inconsistency of logistics routes with the modern requirements of agricultural exports, the current costs of moving grain from linear elevators to Black Sea ports exceed similar costs in France or Germany by approximately 40%. Tariffs for the transportation of grain cargoes increased every year, and in 2022 the increase was 49.3%. But thanks to the rise in transportation tariffs and the volume of cargo transportation, export revenues also increased. At the same time, due to the war in Ukraine, the grain harvest was reduced by 37%. The list of challenges that Ukraine faces to improve agricultural logistics to support future growth in agricultural production and exports is long, and it is difficult to determine how significant these challenges may be. Nevertheless, further analysis of cargo transportation strategies that Ukrainian reformers could use in the future would be usefulfor improving infrastructure and lifting restrictions.