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The
first ship, Razoni, carrying 26,527 tonnes of corn to Lebanon,
was crossing the western Black Sea off Romania's Danube Delta at
0714 GMT, nearly halfway to Turkish waters, where it will be
inspected on Wednesday, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
The sailing was made possible after Turkey and the United
Nations brokered a grain and fertiliser export agreement between
Russia and Ukraine last month - a rare diplomatic breakthrough
in a conflict that has become a drawn-out war of attrition.
The exports from one of the world's top producers are intended
to help ease a global food crisis.
"The plan is for a ship to leave...every day," the senior
Turkish official told Reuters, referring to Odesa and two other
Ukrainian ports covered by the deal. "If nothing goes wrong,
exports will be made via one ship a day for a while."
The official, who asked to remain anonymous, added Razoni's
departure was delayed by a couple of days by "technical
problems" that are now fixed, and NATO member Turkey expected
the safe-passage corridor to function well.
The Razoni should arrive off Turkey's coast in the early hours
of Wednesday and be inspected later that morning by Russian,
Turkish, Ukrainian and U.N. officials, Turkey's defence ministry
said.
The four parties are monitoring shipments and conducting
inspections from a Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul,
which straddles the Bosphorus Strait that connects the Black Sea
to world markets.
The JCC is set to update reporters on the shipments at 0800 GMT.
(Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Barbara
Lewis)
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