ORBISPECT CHOKEPOINT WATCH · SERIES
CHOKEPOINT WATCH 03 · GRAIN × CONFLICT

Black Sea Grain Watch: as the Bosphorus thins, Russia's Kerch gate swells +52%.

The Black Sea carries roughly 30% of world wheat trade. The Bosphorus currently passes about 83–84/day (-12% vs 2023), while Russia's Azov gateway — the Kerch Strait — has grown to about 12/day. Satellites see both the vessels and the fields the grain comes from.

THE BOSPHORUS FROM ORBIT — 30 KM THAT FEED THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICASATELLITE IMAGERY · 2026-06-05
Daily transits — weekly averages · 2023 → today
VESSEL-MOVEMENT ANALYTICS · UPDATED WEEKLY

Two gates, two stories

Bosphorus (-12%): the gate for legal exports — Ukrainian, Romanian and Kazakh grain in transit. The decline reflects the war and the rerouting of some cargo onto the Danube and Constanța.

Kerch (+52%): the gate to the Sea of Azov — Russian grain and steel exports. The half-again rise since 2023 is consistent with rerouting of Russian logistics through Azov, not proof of cargo type or origin. The transit signal indicates vessel movement, nothing more.

We see the fields too: where the war cuts off statistics, satellites still measure plantings — our pipeline tracks oblast-level yields across Ukraine back to 1990 (national statistics plus satellite-derived estimates).

Ukraine: oblast yields — long-run context

CROPYEART/HA5-YEAR AVGANOMALY
Barley20213.843.14+22.2%
Grain maize20217.385.97+23.6%
Rapeseed20212.872.34+23%
Soybeans20212.561.99+28.6%
Sunflower20212.572.24+14.9%
Wheat20214.673.83+22%
24 OBLASTS · STATISTICAL YEARBOOKS + CROP DATA · CONTEXT: LATEST FULLY RECONCILED OFFICIAL HARVEST YEAR (2021) · NEXT STEP: LIVE SEASON ANOMALY

Method & limits

The signal: vessel-movement data through the Bosphorus and Kerch Strait, set against satellite-derived crop layers for the producing oblasts.

Cadence: transit counts refreshed weekly; yield context drawn from reconciled annual harvest data, with live season anomalies as the next step.

What this does NOT prove: cargo manifests, tonnage, ownership, or intent. Transit counts indicate vessel movement, not confirmed grain tonnage or sanctions status.