MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/. Free grain supplies from Russia covered up to 20% of the annual needs of individual African countries, but the need for further assistance remains, Director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Russia Liaison Office Oleg Kobyakov told TASS.

"This was a fairly timely and effective delivery. According to our estimates, it covered between 6% and 20% of these countries' annual wheat needs. But let's be realistic, almost a year has passed, this wheat has already been consumed. And unfortunately, the number of famine areas in the world remains the same. Therefore, the need for free food aid to many countries, through international organizations or through bilateral channels, remains," he noted.

Kobyakov noted that Moscow closely cooperates with the UN World Food Program (WFP), which deals with emergency food aid. "Russia annually finances the activities of the WFP for around $60-70 mln. This money is used to purchase food, including in Russia, which is then delivered to the 'hot spots' of famine," he emphasized.

Russia has previously provided free grain supplies to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic (CAR), and Eritrea, with the total volume of humanitarian aid amounting to 200,000 tons of grain.