OREANDA-NEWS. February 08, 2010. A just-built grain terminal of annual capacity up to 2.5 million tons of grain, the largest in Russia South region, has been launched today, February 8 in the Tuapse Commercial Sea Port. Viktor Zubkov, the First Vice Prime Minister attended the opening ceremony.

"The Russian government would welcome the construction of such large grain terminals. They must be built on other seas Baltic, the Far East as well, Victor Zubkov was quoted as saying.

"We have a steady growth in grain production volumes, the vice-premier said. “Just last year we produced 97 million tons of grain, in the coming years, its production will be increased. So we could not only increase its consumption in the country, but also to export our grain. This requires handling capacities. The current ones are 23 million tons. This is evidently not enough".

“The grain terminal start is a major breakthrough in the export of grain,” adds Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachev, “This will allow the Kuban Territory boosting in the coming years the grain export up at 1.2 million tones a year".

The Tuapse grain terminal’s annual output is 2.4 million tons. The complex facilities will be handling the agri-cargo off-loaded from rail cars, refining and sorting it. The grain will be stored in a silo complex of 102.000-ton capacity for further shipment by 50-ton DW vessels. The terminal’s daily throughput is about 5.000 tons. Investments in the project amounted to 1.82 billion rubles.