Ukrzaliznytsia increased the volume of grain transportation by 2 million tons in 2018/19 MY, the director of economics and finance of Ukrzaliznytsia Andrei Ryazantsev said.

As of April 1, Ukrzaliznytsia was transporting 28.6 million tons of grain cargo. This is 2 million tons more than during the same time in 2018.

Railway workers say that such an increase in the volume of grain transportation in the marketing year 2018/19 occurred even with the indexation of freight rates not carried out in the same period. According to Ryazantsev, the interdependence of increasing tariffs and volumes of freight transportation is conditional and has a different meaning.

Statistics say that while the indexation of tariffs was carried out, the number of grain transportation increased by 11-14%. In 2018, when there was no increase in tariffs, the volume of grain transportation decreased by 8%.

This indicates that an increase in freight rates by rail does not lead to a drop in Ukrzaliznytsia cargo turnover.

An employee of the Ukrainian railway said that over the past decade there has been a noticeable increase in the percentage of transportation of goods by rail to the production of grain. So, in 2008 this percentage was 29%, and in 2019 - 54%.