Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said that Moscow has completed its initiative to ship 200,000 tons of free grain to six African countries, as promised by President Vladimir Putin in July.
Patrushev added to Putin during a meeting yesterday, Tuesday, that Russia shipped 50,000 tons to Somalia and the Central African Republic, and 25,000 tons to Mali, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, and Eritrea.
a promise
Putin had promised to deliver grains free of charge to the six countries during a summit with African leaders in July, shortly after Moscow withdrew from a deal that allowed Ukraine to ship grains from its ports on the Black Sea despite the war waged by Russia.
The deal, known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, helped lower prices on the global market, but Putin said it failed to deliver supplies to the countries that needed them most.
Patrushev told Putin, “After the Russian-African summit, we maintained relations with African countries and strengthened cooperation, and as a result we were able to deliver this amount of wheat to these countries very quickly.”
The minister told Putin that Russia expects to export about 70 million tons of grain in the agricultural year 2023-2024, adding that in the previous season it exported 66 million tons worth approximately 16.5 billion dollars.
The 2023-2024 agricultural year began on July 1, 2023 and will continue until June 30, 2024.
talks
The Russian Information Agency quoted Russia’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, this February as saying that representatives of Russia and the United Nations may meet this month to hold a new round of talks on facilitating Russian agricultural and fertilizer exports.
Moscow attributes the collapse of the Black Sea grain agreement last year – which allowed grain exports from Ukrainian ports – to the lack of progress in removing obstacles to its exports.
Gatilov, who represents Russia in the United Nations institutions in Geneva, said that Moscow is determined to lift sanctions on companies and banks linked to Russian agricultural commodity exports.
