(Bloomberg) -- Russia is supplying wheat to Mali, bolstering ties with one of its strongest African allies. 

News of the shipments comes days after Russia ended an agreement to allow Ukraine — one of the world’s biggest wheat producers — to export grain from Black Sea ports. African countries have been among those most impacted by the rise in food prices triggered by Russia’s invasion.

A shipment of 50,000 tons of the grain destined for Mali arrived from Russia at the port of Conakry in Guinea about a month ago, Alfousseyni Sidibé, a spokesman for Mali’s foreign affairs ministry, said by phone from Bamako, the capital. 

“The wheat was sold to five different mills,” said Salif Fofana, an official at a Malian association of grain millers. “Another shipment of 25,000 tons is in Conakry and should arrive in Bamako shortly.”

Cheap Grain

The wheat has been supplied to Mali at a cost of about $220 a ton, according to Africa Intelligence, which reported the shipments earlier. That’s well below European prices for the grain, which are currently about $292 a ton. 

“I want to assure you that our country is able to replace Ukrainian grain both commercially and free of charge,” Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said in a statement ahead of a summit with African leaders in St. Petersburg later this week, Kommersant reported. “We again expect a record harvest this year.”

Mali is battling a jihadist militant insurgency and a surge in the number of people in need of food due to the insecurity and erratic weather. 

The grain shipments come as the country’s military government severs ties with its former western allies and moves closer to Russia. 

Last year, France withdrew thousands of troops from the country and a 13,000-strong United Nations mission will leave by January at the government’s insistence. That will leave more than 1,000 fighters from Russia’s Wagner mercenary operation to help the Malian army fight the militants, according to the International Crisis Group. 

Read More: UN Ends Mali Peacekeeping Mission With Wagner Set to Fill Void

Earlier this year, Mali was one of just six countries to vote with Russia against a UN resolution that it leave Ukrainian territory.  

Mali has, over the last few years, imported about 300,000 tons of wheat annually with about 40% of that coming from France, 32% from Russia and 7% from Ukraine, Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, said. Its domestic production is just 20,000 tons on average, he said.

(Updates with Putin comment in sixth paragraph, Mali’s wheat imports in last)

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