Discharging Bagged Rice in Ukranian Ports 28 June 2004 No.501 Enclosed please find a copy of E-mail which was sent by Dias Maritime Consultants, our correspondent in Odessa, Ukraine, who has advised of the recent troubles of discharging the bagged rice at Ukranian ports. We hope that this will be of good assistance to you. To: Japan P & I Club From: DIAS Marine Consultants, Odessa, Ukraine Dear Sirs, This is to advise of frequent incidents happening in Ukrainian ports where vessels faced difficulties at discharging bagged rice due to allegedly non-sound cargo condition. As soon as a vessel arrives at a Ukrainian port the State Sanitary Authority comes on board and inspects apparent condition of the cargo. In case mould is found even on the cargo packing then SSA prohibits discharge of all cargo from holds where mouldy bags are found. SSA has quite tough position and it is difficult to negotiate with them and cargo receivers who might as well reject the cargo claiming it does not correspond to the clean bills of lading and on grounds of the conclusion of SSA. Sometimes mould may be apparent only on outside of the bags, but in many cases the rice adjoining the material of the bag is also affected with mould. It should be stressed that it makes no difference for SSA where mould was found and segregation of cargo with further discharging of sound bags is often forbidden. This problem concerns most vessels arriving from Chinese loadports where sometimes the cargo which is packed in single woven polypropelene bags (not double bags) is stored in stacks in the open area covered by tarpaulin and as a consequence some bags become wetted/collect moisture before and at loading operations. During a long passage from China to the Black Sea ports the ships cross several climatic zones with diverse ambient temperatures that causes formation of cargo sweat. Improper stowage of cargo inside the holds without sufficient (vertical and horizontal) channel ventilation also contribute