SIMFEROPOL, November 19. /TASS/. Crimea’s first batch of grain to the tune of 5,000 tonnes will be delivered to Syria in January 2020, the head of the region’s government, Yuri Gotsanyuk, told reporters on Tuesday.

"Now a grain batch from Crimea is being put together with the volume of 5,000 tonnes. The [first] delivery will take place in early January," Gotsanyuk said.

Crimea’s authorities expect that more citrus fruits will be delivered from Syria. "We are in talks on more supplies," he said, adding that the first citrus fruits from Syria arrived in early 2019.

On Monday, the first batch of olive oil from Syria was supplied to Crimea, which will be later sold in other Russian regions.

At the Yalta International Economic Forum in April, Crimea and Syria signed a memorandum on trade and economic cooperation, and agreed on plans to create a joint trading house and a joint ship operator for ensuring regular maritime freight traffic between the ports of Latakia and Russia’s Black Sea peninsula.

The Russian government endorsed a proposal on signing a deal on trade and economic cooperation on August 6. In late August, authorities in Crimea and the Syrian Arab Republic inked the deal at the 61st Damascus International Fair, which stipulates launching freight traffic.