Russia: Turkey to handle 1 million tonnes of grain for Africa

Russia announced on Wednesday that Turkey has made a preliminary agreement to handle the one million metric tonnes of grain that Russia intends to ship at a reduced cost to Africa with assistance from Qatar.

Moscow put forth the plan after pulling out of a one-year agreement in July that had allowed Ukraine to ship grain from its Black Sea ports securely in an effort to contain a rise in food prices that had been worsened by Russia’s invasion.

Russia has made offers of free or heavily discounted grain, though much less than Ukraine had been shipping, to African nations, some of which have been experiencing food shortages.

According to the Russian news agency Interfax, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told reporters that he anticipated working with all parties in the near future to iron out all the technical details of the delivery plan.

The Russian grain would be exported by Turkey, although it was unclear exactly what its involvement would entail.

Moscow claims it left the previous agreement because the West did not eliminate sanctions-related barriers to its own exports of grains and fertilisers. However, Moscow also complained that not enough of the food made available under the Black Sea Agreement was reaching the world's poorest nations.

Since breaking out of the agreement, Russia has assaulted Ukrainian grain storage facilities, seaports, and rivers on several occasions, leading the West and Ukraine to accuse Moscow of using food as a weapon of war. Russia refers to its action in Ukraine as a “special military operation.”

(With inputs from Reuters)

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