Moscow will start grain deliveries to African countries within four to six weeks, according to Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev.
"We are now finalizing all the documents. I think that within a month - or a month and a half - they will start," Interfax quoted Patrushev as saying.
President Vladimir Putin told African leaders in July he would gift them tens of thousands of tons of grain despite Western sanctions, which he said made it harder for Moscow to export its grain and fertilizers.
"We will be ready to provide Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea with 25-50,000 tons of free grain each in the next three to four months," Putin told a Russia-Africa summit at the time.
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres has called the promised grain "a handful of donations."
Russia in July quit a year-old agreement that had allowed Ukraine, one of the world's biggest exporters, to ship grain from its Black Sea ports.
