Russia deliver 6,600 tons of wheat to Syria
Russian sources revealed that the Pula Marina ship delivered approximately 6,600 tons of wheat to the Syrian port of Latakia on April 20, before returning to the Russian port of Rostov-on-Don.
According to Russian news agency TASS, this shipment was a “one-off” exceptional step, given the accumulation of huge debts owed by the former Syrian government to a Russian company.
The delivery was organized by a new Russian company, which had never previously dealt with Syria in the field of grain supplies.
Meanwhile, there are no current plans to resume regular wheat shipments to Syria, stressing that this shipment was merely a temporary initiative.
For his part, Dmitry Trifonov, CEO of the Russian company STG, stated that grain supplies to Syria stopped completely after the fall of the former regime, due to traders’ failure to establish relations with the new authorities.
Trifonov explained that his company supplied Syria with approximately 1.1 million tons of wheat over three years, equivalent to half of the volume of Russian wheat imports during that period, while the Syrian government’s debt to the company reached $116 million.
He indicated that the current Syrian authorities refuse to repay these debts.
It’s noteworthy that the Syrian General Establishment for Grain had issued an international tender last March to purchase 100,000 tons of soft wheat, in an attempt to bolster domestic stocks.
