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Bulk carriers are the ships that keep the modern world going - like the MV Raeda and the MV Olivian Confidence carrying grain from Ukraine to Turkey, and flour to Afghanistan and Yemen. Zig zagging across the oceans for months at a time, bulk carriers keep us all going even in times of war and pandemic. ‘If it didn’t grow in your garden,’ says broker Aysu Gurgan, ‘A bulk carrier brought it to you.’

Steel, sand, coal, cement - the very fabric of the modern world - all of it reaches us on bulkers. Unseen by the very populations that rely on them, each bulker is also a home to international crews who spend half their lives on board.

Presenter: Tim Whewell
Producer: Monica Whitlock

(Photo: Malta-flagged bulk carrier M/V Rojen carrying tons of grain from Ukraine sails along the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul. Credit: Yasin Akgul/AFP/Getty Images)