Abkhazia is planning to build a 2.5mt (million tonne)-capacity grain transshipment terminal, which aims to target Russian grain being transported to countries around the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea. At present, Russian ports on the Black Sea and Azov Sea handle an estimated 20mt each year. The aim is to boost this to 40mt by 2015.
Several locations for the transshipment terminal have been
identified, although the favourite is at the village of Lower Escher, close to the town of Sukhumi, where there is already an existing silo in place. This site could be expanded to encompass a storage area of 80,000m2.
A simple renovation of the silo would cost around $2 million, but to produce a fully operational terminal would require investment of at least $25 million.    
 
BC