ANKARA, September 8. /TASS/. One mln tons of Russian grain will be transported to Turkey by 40 ships with a displacement of 25,000 metric tons each, the Sabah newspaper wrote with reference to its sources.

The schedule of the voyages is currently being finalized. The grain will be shipped through the ports of Tuapse and Novorossiysk.

The grain will be delivered to private flour mills in Turkey. The main destinations for the flour are Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Eritrea and the Central African Republic. These countries are prioritized because they lack flour milling capacity. In the future, flour made from Russian grain will be shipped to Chad, Libya, Djibouti, Yemen and Ethiopia.

On August 31, the foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey, Sergey Lavrov and Hakan Fidan, met in Moscow to discuss the grain deal and the parameters for implementing the initiative to organize the supply of 1 million tons of Russian grain to Turkey at a preferential price with financial support from Qatar. The presidents of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met in Sochi on September 4 to discuss the issue.

The parties agreed that this project does not replace the grain deal that expired on July 18. Its purpose is to prevent critical food shortages in developing countries. Turkey supported the initiative and said it was ready to adopt it.