Russia is ready to supply up to 500,000 tonnes of grain to poor countries in the next four months, with assistance from Turkey, TASS news agency cited Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev as saying on Saturday.

Russia said on Friday that only 3% of food exported under a U.N.-brokered deal to release grain from blockaded Ukrainian ports has gone to the poorest countries, with Western countries accounting for half of all shipments.

Since Russia and Ukraine signed the U.N.-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative in Turkey on July 22, several million tonnes of corn, wheat, sunflower products, barley, rapeseed and soya have been exported from Ukraine.