Russian Supplies Meet Up to 20% of African Countries' Annual Grain Needs: Country's FAO Office
11:59 17.10.2024 (Updated: 13:56 17.10.2024)
© RIA Novosti . Mikhail Mordasov
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Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic, and Eritrea received 200,000 tonnes of free humanitarian grain aid from Russia as of February, as promised by President Putin at the second Russia-Africa Summit.
Free grain supplies from Russia have covered up to 20% of the annual needs of some African countries, but the need for continued support remains, the director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's liaison office with Russia, Oleg Kobyakov, told Russian media.
"It was a fairly timely and efficient shipment. According to our estimates, it covered between 6% and 20% of these countries' annual wheat needs. But let's be realistic: almost a year has passed, and this wheat has already been consumed. And, unfortunately, the number of hunger zones in the world remains the same. So, the need for free food aid to many countries, either through international organizations or bilateral channels, remains," Kobyakov said.
Moscow cooperates with the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), which provides emergency food aid worldwide, the director noted.
"Russia finances the WFP's activities to the value of about 60-70 million dollars a year. This money is used to buy food, including in Russia, which is then delivered to hunger-stricken areas," he explained.
