WARSAW—With only weeks left before Ukraine’s wheat harvest begins in earnest, Poland is racing to speed up the flow of grain from its war-torn neighbor, scouring Europe for spare train cars and containers, throwing new customs agents onto a truck-choked border and dispatching political leaders to far-off countries desperate to secure new shipments from Ukraine.
The collective effort, described by Polish and Ukrainian officials and truck companies pitching in, is an attempt to help Ukraine export its wheat by land, circumventing Russia’s naval choke hold on Ukraine’s Black Sea shipping lanes. At best, Poland expects it could receive and reship one-third of the 4.5 million tons Ukraine would export monthly in peacetime, Poland’s Agriculture Minister Henryk Kowalczyk said Thursday. That would be twice the current volumes currently moving through Poland.
