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Road-Freight Exports of Ukrainian Agri-goods Slip in Early June

by Roman Cheplyk
Thursday, June 12, 2025
2 MIN
Road-Freight Exports of Ukrainian Agri-goods Slip in Early June

Volumes down 13 % year-on-year to 76.7 kt, with the sharpest fall on the Moldovan corridor; freight rates ease on most lanes

Key numbers (1–9 June 2025 vs. same period 2024)

Border corridor Volume (kt) Δ YoY
Poland 36.3 ≈ 0 %
Moldova 12.2 –26.4 %
Romania 16.2 ▲ 18 %
Slovakia 3.6 ▲ 21 %
Hungary 8.4 ▲ 18 %
Total 76.7 –13.1 %

Commodity mix

  • Sunflower oil – 9.5 kt

  • Poultry meat – 4.7 kt

Freight-rate snapshot

Domestic dump-truck lanes

  • Central UA → Danube ports: USD 31-40/t (▼ 2-3 USD)

  • Central UA → Odesa ports: USD 20-24/t (▼ 2-3 USD)

Export dump-truck lanes

  • Ternopil → Central/Northern Italy: EUR 100-125/t

  • Ternopil → Central Bulgaria: EUR 70-100/t

  • Cherkasy → Southern Romania: EUR 100-110/t

Export taut-liner (tilt) lanes

  • Ternopil → Central/Northern Italy: EUR 80-113/t (rates eased across most EU lanes)

  • Ternopil → Central Bulgaria: EUR 55-70/t

  • Cherkasy → Southern Romania: EUR 61-78/t

Market takeaways

  • The Moldovan route is the main drag on aggregate volumes; truck queue times have lengthened after Moldovan customs tightened phytosanitary checks.

  • Polish throughput is flat, suggesting the spring protest impact has stabilised.

  • Higher flows to Romania, Slovakia and Hungary reflect traders’ efforts to rebalance traffic away from congested corridors.

  • Softening oilseed-cake demand in the EU and seasonal grain hand-to-mouth buying weigh on rate levels.

Outlook

With the Black Sea corridor operating smoothly, traders will likely continue shifting bulk oilseed and grain away from road into maritime shipments, keeping pressure on regional road-freight rates through July.

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