OREANDA-NEWS  Elena Tyurina, Director of the Analytics Department of the Russian Grain Union (RZS), announced an increase in purchases of Russian wheat by African countries. Her words are quoted by RIA Novosti.

Tyurina drew attention to the fact that last season Russia did not ship wheat to the UAE, Kenya, Tanzania and Angola. This season, on the contrary, "quite active deliveries to Africa" have been recorded.

According to the Grain Union, 3.7 million tons of grain crops were exported from Russia in February, which is 35.4 percent more than a year earlier.The representative of the Russian Railways expressed the opinion that the growth of purchases was also affected by the fact that settlements in rubles began to be carried out with Turkey and Egypt.

Previously, Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Press (DIP) Russian Foreign Ministry Ivan Nechaev accused the West of hypocrisy because of priorities in grain supplies. According to him, ships with Ukrainian grain go to the West, and not to the ports of developing countries. "Unfortunately, so far not a single grain ship has reached the starving countries of Africa, they follow mainly to western ports," he stated.