Russia’s Industry and Trade Minister on March 10 announced that Russia will temporarily suspend exports of fertilizers.
Last week, the ministry recommended that fertilizer producers temporarily halt exports, citing logistics problems (GM March 4, p. 1). But information on the specific products involved and the list of countries to be affected is hard to access, as well as the timeframe.
According to a Tass report citing the Industry and Trade Ministry on March 10, Vladimir Putin has indicated that obligations to “friendly” countries would be maintained.
“With countries that have friendly relations with Russia, we have agreements on unconditional provision of their need for mineral fertilizers,” Putin said in a government meeting, Tass reported
“First of all, we need to guarantee fertilizer supplies for the domestic market for our farmers, but we have resources, we are ready to supply our foreign partners,” he said, Tass reported.
According to a ForexLive report, the list of “unfriendly countries” includes the U.S. and Canada, Member States of the European Union, the U.K., Ukraine, Norway, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Notably, Brazil is not on the “unfriendly countries” list, as cited by the report. However, the countries list could not be verified by Green Markets at press time.
Russia early last month imposed a ban on ammonium nitrate (AN) exports for two months, starting on Feb. 2 until April 2 (GM Feb. 4, p. 29). The move was to ensure that the country has enough product for its domestic season, according to the government’s press service.
Putin on March 10 warned that the price of fertilizers across the globe may spike further if the West continued to create “difficulties” for his country, according to a Tass report.
“Russia and Belarus are one of the largest suppliers of mineral fertilisers to world markets. If they continue to create any problems with financing this work, insurance, logistics, delivery of our goods, then the prices, already are already exorbitant, will grow even more,” he said.
Russia produces 50 million mt/y of fertilizers, accounting for nearly 13 percent of the world’s total output.
The Russian government on March 10 also approved a list of imported goods and equipment that are temporarily prohibited from being exported from Russia. The decision will be effective until the end of 2022. The ban is reported to cover more than 200 products.
The list includes technological, telecommunication, and medical equipment, vehicles, agricultural machinery, and electric equipment, as well as railway cars and locomotives, containers, turbines, metal and stone cutting machines, video displays, projectors, consoles, and switchboards, the government said on its website.
According to the government website, the export of these goods has been suspended to all countries, excluding member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Abkhazia, and South Ossetia.
In addition, Russia has also suspended the export of several types of timber and timber products to countries that “are undertaking hostile actions” against Russia. This ban will also run until the end of this year.
The Russian government said the trade measure is “necessary to maintain stability on the Russian market.” It stopped short of curbing sales of energy and raw materials, the country’s biggest contribution to global trade.