“The ship arrived at the Novorossiisk port to load wheat as humanitarian aid for an African nation, so the customs personnel did the regulatory operations as a matter of priority, and the ship was able to sail,” Sputnik news agency reported on Wednesday.

In early October, Russian Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev said that grain supplies to African nations might start in December or in one and a half months.

Previously, President Vladimir Putin announced Russia’s plans to supply African countries with 25,000 to 50 000 tons of grain.

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