The Ukrainian government has prepared to ship about 25,000 tonnes of grain from the Turkish port of Samsun to Nigeria.
According to a statement by the Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey, Vasyl Bodnar, the shipment is part of the Grain from Ukraine program.
Bodnar stated that the grain is currently being stored in Turkey under the aegis of the United Nations World Food Program.
He also inspected the port and the Fuat Sezgin vessel, which will convey the cargo to Nigeria as part of the Grain from Ukraine program.
The ambassador stated there were preparations to deliver another 60 ships from other ports.
“During the Black Sea Grain Initiative, this grain was delivered in bulk from one of the ports in Ukraine,” he stated.
“It is now being held in Turkey under the aegis of the United Nations World Food Program. It is critical for us to work with the World Food Program to send grain to countries like Nigeria.”
The skipper of the vessel bringing Ukrainian grain to Africa told Ukrinform that the consignment is scheduled to arrive in Nigeria in about a month.
Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyema, and his counterpart in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mohammad Abubakar, signed the “Grains from Ukraine Project” in Abuja in January with Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Mykola Solskyi.
The war between Ukraine and Russia caused worldwide supply shortages, forcing the signature of the UN-backed Black Sea grain deal in 2022 to guarantee a safe passage for grains to countries suffering from food hunger, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa.
However, Russia withdrew from the agreement after it expired in July, claiming that grains from the agreement did not reach the countries that needed them the most and that their commodities were not allowed for export.
