MOSCOW: Crimea has exported around 40,000 tonnes of grain to Syria in 2018 and is preparing to send more soon, regional agriculture minister Andrey Ryumshin was quoted as saying by RIA news agency on Thursday.

Russia, the world's largest wheat exporter, annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Since then the region, under Western sanctions since 2014, has found it difficult to export the bulk of its grain due to legal risks.

However, Crimea has been increasing trade and transport ties with Syria, which is also subject to European Union and US sanctions.

Crimea's 2018 total exports fell to 200,000 tonnes of grain from 400,000 tonnes in 2017 as its harvest was hit by a drought, Ryumshin said. He did not disclose countries which bought grain from Crimea in 2018 or the region's supplies to Syria in 2017.

The drought reduced Crimea's 2018 grain crop to 906,000 tonnes from a record harvest of 1.7 million tonnes in 2017.