MOSCOW- Grain supplies to Syria from the Crimean port of Sevastopol will rise to as high as 300,000 tonnes this year from 60,000 tonnes in 2018, the RIA news agency cited the region's governor as saying on Thursday.
Russia, the world's largest wheat exporter, annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Since then the region, under Western sanctions since 2014, has found it difficult to export the bulk of its grain due to legal risks.
However, Crimea has been increasing trade and transport ties with Syria, which is also subject to European Union and U.S. sanctions. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N1TA303
"The outlook for grain supplies via Sevastopol is good. Around 60,000 tonnes were transshipped last year, this year it will be up to 300,000 tonnes. It is of course a good outlook to have the prospect of increasing to one, two, three million tonnes," Sevastopol Governor Dmitry Ovsyannikov was quoted as saying.
(Reporting by Polina Devitt; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Jason Neely) ((Tom.Balmforth@thomsonreuters.com;))
