Uralchem to make a humanitarian shipment of fertilisers to Africa
Uralchem JSC, one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of nitrogen, potash and complex fertilisers (hereinafter, the Company), will make a gratuitous shipment of its products (urea or NPK fertilisers) to Africa. This step will be part of the Company’s contribution to global food security. The decision to launch this humanitarian project was made in the wake of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Russian Federation and the UN Secretariat on assisting the promotion of Russian food and fertilisers to international markets, which was signed in Istanbul, Türkiye, on 22 July 2022.
The project pursues UN Sustainable Development Goal No 2 (End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture) and provides at this stage for the first humanitarian shipment of a 25 thousand tonne batch to the port of Lome in the Togolese Republic.
Dmitry Konyaev, Uralchem CEO, commented: Amid this complicated geopolitical situation, which has significantly affected global market conditions for production and consumption of fertilisers, Uralchem is ready to provide support to agricultural producers in Africa by making a free shipment of some of our base and advanced products. As a key industry player, we understand how important it is to support agriculture, both in our domestic market and in Africa, which is having a very hard time weathering through this economic crisis.
Reference
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement regarding agreements on transporting Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports and on promoting Russian exports of food and fertilisers: https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1823484/.
Extract: The Memorandum of Understanding on Russian exports of agricultural products was signed by First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The main goal is to ensure transparent and unhindered shipments of Russian food and fertilisers, including the raw materials for their production, to international markets. This includes, among other things, removing the obstacles that the US and the EU have created in finance, insurance and logistics and exempting these particular products from the restrictive measures imposed on Russia. The memorandum will remain valid for three years.
General Licence No 6B of the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which authorises transactions with Russia that involve fertilisers, food products, seeds for food crops, medicine, and medical devices: https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/russia_gl6b.pdf.
EU’s 7th package of sanctions lifting restrictions from agricultural and food products including fertilisers: Publications Office (europa.eu).
Extract: In more general terms, the Union is committed to avoiding all measures which might lead to food insecurity around the globe. Consequently, none of the measures in this Decision or any of those adopted earlier in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine target in any way the trade in agricultural and food products, including wheat and fertilisers, between third countries and Russia.