Alevtina Kirillova, Director General of Eurasian Agrologistics ANO, spoke about the scaling of the Eurasian Agroexpress project to the international transport corridor "North-South", the role of the Caspian region countries on business processes, logistics and development of transport routes.
Interaction with the countries of the East and Asia has now acquired a new relevance. Economic development is impossible without the development of logistics, and logistics is one of the key components in the cost of goods, determining their competitiveness in world markets. Undoubtedly, reduction of logistics costs affects the competitiveness of our Russian products.
Support tools initiated by the Government and the Russian Export Center are now in place for the development of logistics services in the Russian Federation
Due to the existing external constraints caused by the political situation, there is an active work on building new logistics chains and the development of the North-South corridor.
All three routes of the corridor are actively developing: Western - with Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, with further access to India; Eastern - with Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, and further to India and the Middle East; Trans-Caspian - through the Caspian Sea from Russia to Iran and further.
Within the framework of research on reorientation of cargo flows conducted by the Eurasian Development Bank together with the Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization "Eurasian Agrologistics", the volume of cargo base which can be attracted on the North-South ITC in the near future is 9-13 million tons and up to 600,000 TEU for 2030.
These are agro-industrial, agricultural, food products and industrial goods of various nomenclatures.
Integration project of Eurasian Union countries "Eurasian Agroexpress" is aimed at organizing accelerated container block trains to the countries of South-East and Central Asia, the Middle East and the Caspian region.
The project is supported by the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council Decree of February 25, 2022, and is now scaled to the countries of the Caspian region and the Middle East, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, as a consumer, and as a producer of agricultural products, and as a transit country for those countries where goods go to or are delivered from these countries in Russia and the EAEC countries.
Autonomous nonprofit organization "Eurasian Agro Logistics" is the managing directorate of the "Eurasian Agro Express" project.
The managing directorate of the ANO "Eurasian Agrologistics", as part of research work on the reorientation of cargo flows, is designing terminals and agrohubs on the routes of agroexpresses for the consolidation of products and the formation of fast container trains with the participation of key logistics operators in Russia and the EAEU countries.
This is a business project, and it is supported by both terminal owners and transport operators.
In particular, pilot trains to India were launched along the Western route in 2021.
In June of this year, the first accelerated container block train loaded at the Chekhov station of the Moscow railroad passed from Russia in transit through Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran to the Indian port of Nava-Sheva (Mumbai).
The key advantage of the North-South ITC is the delivery time - it is much shorter than deliveries by sea modes of transport. Even with the participation of a large number of transit countries, the delivery time is not more than 35 days, which is a significant reduction in transportation costs and turnover of containers.
A significant factor in improving services is the tariffing of commercial rates, which need to be agreed upon by project operators.
A number of agreements and memorandums on interaction and cooperation have been signed with the participation and at the initiative of the directorate of ANO "Eurasian Agrologistics". Thus, agreements were signed with the Kazakh and Azerbaijani railroads, a number of intergovernmental agreements were signed between the railroads of Turkmenistan and Russia, as well as between the operator companies involved in this project.
LLC "Russian Railways Logistics" - the authorized operator of the Russian railroads on the project "Eurasian Agroexpress" is currently consolidating the cargo base to bring these services into a regular mode, so that each shipper could get the service in the required quality and quantity.
Central Asian countries are also actively joining the North-South corridor. Work with them is also taking place within the framework of the "Eurasian Agro Logistics" managing directorate, primarily Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Tajikistan, which is not a member of the Eurasian Union and is not an observer country, nevertheless expressed great interest in the "Eurasian AgroExpress" project.
The project of building a new railroad from China through Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan to the North-South corridor is now under active discussion. This integration will give the project a new strength and a new format.
For fast and seamless cargo traffic, it is necessary to organize green customs, veterinary and phytosanitary corridors for food products, which ensures fast cargo delivery, food quality and food safety. It is necessary to create a single document for the entire route, a single tariff, a single operator.
The key issue, which during all the past years of the North-South corridor's work is facing business participants and shippers, is the absence of a part of the railway branch line on the territory of Iran from Resht to Astara. The absence of 164 km of railroad line prevents direct communication and causes the need to reload containers from one mode of transport to another, which has a negative impact on the speed of movement and the cost of transportation.
This issue is now in the active phase of negotiations, and decisions on financing the project and the timing of its implementation will probably be made soon.
The "Eurasian Agroexpress" project plans to build a network of wholesale and distribution centers and agrohubs, where it is expected to consolidate agricultural and food products for subsequent export shipments, or to receive imported food products for subsequent distribution in Russia and the EEU countries.
The republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan have signed memorandums of cooperation. Negotiations are already underway in these republics on the design of such distribution centers, and the volumes of food cargo processing are being estimated.
In order to scale the project "Eurasian Agroexpress" within the North-South corridor, the directorate of ANO "Eurasian Agrologistics" is also negotiating with business companies in Iran to form agrohubs on cross-border territories between Iran and Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan to consolidate fresh fruit and vegetable products and further deliveries to Iran through Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and other countries participating in the project.
The projected agro hubs also provide pre-sale preparation, sorting, and packaging of products for subsequent delivery to third countries - China, Vietnam, and other countries in Southeast Asia, which are interested in ecologically clean and fresh fruit and vegetable products.
Photo: TASS
