Syria plans to import this year 1.5 million tonnes of wheat, mainly from Russia, as local procurement is expected to be about 500 thousand tons, said the Minister of internal trade and consumer protection Abdullah al-Gharbi, quoted by Reuters.

According to al-Gharbi, in addition to the purchase of grain from Russia, the government intends to make purchases of Romanian and Bulgarian wheat. "We are still early in the season, local procurement, from the very beginning it took about 20 days or so, but we see that our local purchases range from 500-600 thousand tons this year," said the Syrian Minister.

In addition, al-Gharbi said that the country has strategic reserves of wheat for a period of more than eight months.

The Minister also said that the price of bread in the country will not rise. "We will not raise the price of bread in General, not just in the foreseeable future, said al-Gharbi, Is, of course, the burden for the government, particularly with higher prices for wheat for which we pay farmers, but we will continue to subsidize them."

In October 2017, as reported by Reuters, al-Gharbi said that Syria and Russia signed a contract to supply 3 million tonnes of wheat for three years, and Damascus is working to ensure the loan financing from Moscow. According to the Minister, within the first year the country imports from Russia about 1.7 million tonnes.