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The grain would need to be shipped through Poland, which uses a different rail gauge to Latvia and Ukraine, necessitating two changes, which adds to costs.

Wider rail gauge used in Ukraine has been a major logistical hindrance to the transit of its grain through neighbouring European Union countries after Russia blocked Black Sea ports following its invasion last year.

Industry analysts and experts say transporting grains via rail from Ukraine to neighbouring Poland is slow and expensive for several reasons: cumbersome border controls, the need to reload trains due to different rail gauge sizes, inadequate re-loading equipment, limited border storage and rail fleet capacity, and slow rail cargo traffic.

Rail transport is also challenging because Ukraine has a different rail gauge than other parts of Europe.

“Ukraine has a system, like Russia has, a rail gauge that is different than the gauge of the rest of the tracks in Europe,” Biden said.