With the onset of autumn and harvest time in the countryside of Latvia, the active season of handling grain cargo has started in the ports in August. Currently, 38 ships with almost half a million tons of local grain have been loaded and shipped from the port of Riga.

The dispatched cargo of agricultural products contains products of the new harvest – rapeseed, wheat, peas and corn. According to the volume of cargo handled in September, the grain product cargo was the largest cargo group in the port – within 8 months it made up 10% of the total cargo turnover and was the fourth largest cargo group in the cargo portfolio of the Port of Riga.

Over the past few years, a stable trend of increase in the cargo of agricultural products is observed in the port of Riga. This might be attributed to the arrival of Latvian farmers in the port – in 2021 Agricultural Services Cooperative Company LATRAPS acquired the capital shares of the port terminal SIA “Alpha osta”.

“The primary assumption that the port will be a strong element of competitiveness in our overall business model has been justified, and we are confident that the port will continue to be a very important part of our strategy”, emphasized Roberts Strīpnieks, Board Chairman of LATRAPS. ““Alpha port” as a port co-owned by farmers can become another element of consolidation or unification of farmers fostering higher profitability in the sector of agriculture. It is not important whether it is the port of LATRAPS or any other company – it is the port of farmers, and with this attitude we invite farmers to make maximum use of the services of this port,” said R. Strīpnieks highlighting the advantages of the port of Riga.

Agricultural products grown in Latvia are exported from ports to almost every country in the world. “Approximately 30% of what is grown by Latvian grain farmers remains in our country, the rest is exported to more than 30 countries around the world. The main sales markets are currently Africa – e.g., Uganda, Egypt, Nigeria, as well as EU countries – the Netherlands, Denmark, Great Britain, and others”, added R. Strīpnieks. This year, the grain transported to the port of Riga both by road and by rail is handled at 13 terminals on both banks of the Daugava. Due to the investments made by the Freeport of Riga Authority into the dredging of the port approach and shipping channels, larger vessels have been calling the port recently, providing entrepreneurs with the opportunity to save on transportation costs. Likewise, every year the stevedores continue to invest in the grain products’ storage and handling capacity, and this year, according to the data provided by the stevedore companies, the volume has increased by another 300 thousand tons, reaching the amount of 7.5 million tons per year.