Russia's blockade of Ukraine's seaports as part of its invasion has forced the country's exporters to look for alternatives to move their cargo, transforming the city of Constanta in Romania into a vital maritime export hub for Ukraine's crops.
The country's grain is loaded onto trains, lorries or barges in the small Danube ports of Reni and Izmail in the southwest for transport to the Romanian port of the Black Sea.
Before the war, Ukraine exported 4.5 million tonnes of agricultural produce per month through its ports, which made up 12% of the world's wheat, 15% of its corn and 50% of its sunflower oil.
Viorel Panait, Chief Executive of Comvex, which handles Constanta's bulk raw materials said that his team must make sure grain gets to consumers' tables without delay to avoid the risk of famine.
"We hope to accelerate the pace because, given the unfortunate situation that our Ukrainian neighbours are going through, we must help them as much as we can," he said.
Neighbouring Bulgaria said this week it was willing to help export Ukrainian grain from its Black Sea port of Varna and is getting to work upgrading its infrastructure.
In the meantime, Constanta is moving cargo as fast as it can after the first ship took 49 trains to fill having been loaded with 70,000 tonnes of Ukrainian corn.
Even before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Constanta had overtaken France's Le Havre to become Europe's hub for grain exports.
The port's director, Florin Goidea, said that the war in Ukraine is a challenge, but also "an opportunity".
Loading vessels in a port that was not properly equipped would mean thousands of trucks clogging up the roads and Romania's government has come up with two projects to unblock traffic and facilitate the flow of cargo to the port.
First, it plans to have fixed 95 railway lines by the end of the year, which date back to the communist era and were blocked by hundreds of rusting wagons for years.
The 200-million-lei (€40m) project should allow Constanta to match or even beat the record of 67.5 million tonnes of goods-in-transit recorded in 2021.
The transport ministry is also seeking bids for work to reopen a 5km railway line, more than 200kms north of Constanta this summer.
That line would connect Giurgiulesti in Moldova to Galati on the Danube, in eastern Romania.
That short crossover is crucial, as they share the same railway track gauge used in the former Soviet Union, making it easier to transport goods.
At Constanta meanwhile, traffic in the other direction has stalled.
Dozens of wind turbine parts that had been bound for Ukraine lie abandoned along one of the congested roads.
"There is no one left to send them to," said a port employee.
