RUSSIA SENDS FIRST SHIPMENTS OF FREE GRAIN TO AFRICA SINCE END OF BLACK SEA DEAL

Sat 18 October 2023:

Russia has sent the first of its promised free of charge grain shipments to Africa, the country’s agriculture minister said on Friday.

“The first two ships with 25,000 tons of Russian wheat each have already left Russian ports for Somalia and Burkina Faso. We expect them to arrive in late November or early December,” Dmitry Patrushev said while speaking at the Russia International Exhibition in Moscow.

He said about 200,000 tons of free grain will be sent to the continent by the end of the year.

Patrushev said ships bound for the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Mali, and Zimbabwe will also depart soon.

Earlier this year, Russia refused to extend the Black Sea grain deal, an agreement brokered by Türkiye and the UN to ensure safe passage for Ukraine’s agricultural exports from its southern Black Sea ports. The deal had helped rein in spiraling prices and ease a global food crisis.

Moscow said its demands such as inclusion of the state-owned Russian Agricultural Bank in the SWIFT international payment system had not been met.

Putin had promised to deliver free grain to the six countries at a summit with African leaders in July, soon after Moscow withdrew from a deal that had allowed Ukraine to ship grain from its Black Sea ports despite the war with Russia.

The agreement, brokered by the United Nations and known as the Black Sea grain initiative, aimed to help avert famine by injecting more wheat, sunflower oil, fertiliser and other products into world markets, including for humanitarian needs.

After Russia announced its plan to send free shipments, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that a “handful of donations” would not correct the “dramatic impact” caused by the end of the Black Sea deal.

Since quitting the arrangement, Russia has repeatedly bombed Ukrainian ports and grain storage facilities, and Kyiv says hundreds of thousands of tonnes of cereals have been destroyed.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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