The line connecting the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk to Nigeria is expected to boost trade with the region, including with landlocked Mali

Russia is set to launch a direct shipping route from Novorossiysk on the Black Sea to Nigeria's largest port city of Lagos in order to deepen trade with West Africa, TASS and Interfax have reported.

According to Interfax, the initiative, spearheaded by A7 Holding - a company established by Andrey Severilov, former co-owner of Russian shipping firm FESCO - will begin operations in mid-June. Two chartered container ships, each with a capacity of 700 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), will reportedly operate on the route.

"With the assistance of the Russian trade mission in Nigeria, we are implementing a project to establish a direct shipping line," Severilov told the outlet on Friday. He announced future plans to extend services to Senegal.

Maxim Petrov, Russia's trade representative in Nigeria, confirmed the project in an interview with TASS published on Monday. Petrov said the Novorossiysk-Lagos corridor will also improve the export of agricultural products and equipment from Russia to Mali, as well as the import of cotton from the landlocked state.

"Malian business is showing high demand for Russian agricultural products, equipment, and transport," he was quoted as saying following a Russian delegation's visit to Mali.

"A significant increase in trade turnover with Mali is also possible due to the start of commercial deliveries of Malian cotton to Russia; the total harvest of the crop in Mali exceeds 650 thousand tons per year," Petrov added.

Russia's trade with African countries has surged in recent years. Earlier this month, Moscow's food safety authority, Rosselkhoznadzor, reported a record level of wheat supplies to the continent in the first quarter of 2025, with deliveries to Nigeria increasing fourfold to 210,000 tons.

Last December, FESCO launched a container route from Novorossiysk to Kenya's main port, Mombasa, with a shipment of Kenyan tea. According to the company, which is owned by the state energy corporation Rosatom, Russia aims to use the route to export building materials, fertilizers, metals, plastics, wood, and paper products, as well as import tea, coffee, nuts, and other agricultural commodities. In December 2023, the first ship began service on a new route connecting Egypt's El Dekheila port to Novorossiysk.

In February, Georgy Muradov, the permanent representative of Crimea to the president of Russia, told African Initiative news agency that the region intends to establish direct trade links with Africa, which requires the establishment of sea routes.

(RT.com)