The new terminal is the result of an investment of $82m, and is said by Mr Vilinov to operate at the highest-possible environmental standards and safety standards.

He predicts it will become Russia’s fastest shipment complex, conforming to international standards and using cutting edge grain shipment technology. “It will help to secure our position as a leading port dealing in high-value cargoes,” he says.

Novorossiysk is one of the largest ports in Russia, and indeed Europe. It is in the eastern part of the Black Sea, at the top of the Tsemesskaya Bay, one of only three commercially viable gateways for passage by ship between Russia and the open seas.

That makes it relatively close to the world’s major foreign markets, since cargo destinations in southern and central Russia, Transcaucasia and Central Asia are eight days closer to South East Asia than the route via the Rotterdam/Hamburg-St Petersburg corridor.