Russian firm agrees to ship fertilizers to Africa from parts of Europe

Russian fertilizer producer Uralchem-Uralkali has agreed with the Netherlands, Estonia and Belgium to supply cargoes of fertilizers stranded in those countries to Africa, TASS news agency reported on Saturday.

It cited Uralchem’s head Dmitry Konyaev as saying the group was “actively working with the UN to organize free deliveries to Africa of more than 262,000 tonnes of mineral fertilizers that have been ‘frozen’ in EU countries.”

The Netherlands said on Friday that following a request from the United Nations it would allow shipment to Malawi of 20,000 tons of Russian fertilizer that had been stuck in the port of Rotterdam because of sanctions against a Russian individual, whom it did not identify.

It said a condition of the agreement was that the sanctioned person and the Russian company would earn nothing from the transaction.

TASS quoted Konyaev as saying agreements had been reached to export fertilizers stranded in the Netherlands, Belgium and Estonia, but he did not specify the amounts from each country or the African destinations.

According to UN officials, the first shipment of donated fertilizers is expected to head to Malawi in the coming week.

Russian grain and fertiliser exports are not directly blocked by Western sanctions over the Ukraine war but Moscow has complained they are being disrupted because the sanctions affect access to finance, insurance and ports.

Tags: Russia, export, fertilizers, Netherlands, Malawi