The first shipment of Russian fertilizer under the UN’s food security agency, the World Food Programme, left the Dutch port of Terneuzen on Nov. 29 bound for Malawi after days of wrangling to ensure it was not held up or halted by Western sanctions, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, citing Dutch and UN customers officials.
The cargo, which comprises some 20,000 mt of NPK, left on board the MV Greenwich, according to the report. The ship was chartered by the WFP.
The shipment is the first of some 260,000 mt of Russian fertilizers stuck in European ports as a result of EU sanctions.
Russian fertilizer group Uralchem JSC last month confirmed that the first consignment of fertilizers produced by itself and potash producer Uralkali PJSC (now owned by Uralchem) would be shipped to Malawi (GM Nov. 11, p. 11).
Officials gave the go-ahead following UN assurances that the shipment would be delivered to Malawi, its intended destination, and that the Russian company and the sanctioned individual would not benefit.
Uralchem confirmed that it is donating the fertilizers for humanitarian needs in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, with the direct engagement of the WFP.
According to the AFP report, citing UN officials, the consignment will be shipped to the Mozambique port of Beira for overland shipment to landlocked Malawi.
Dimitry Mazepin, Uralchem JSC’s former CEO and owner of LLC Uralchem Fundamental Chemical Co., in a meeting with Russian businessmen earlier this week shown on Russian state television, as cited by a MercoPress report, said Uralchem was ready to increase its fertilizer exports to Africa, but some 262,000 mt of the company’s fertilizers were “frozen” in EU ports in the Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia, and Latvia.
Mazepin stepped down as CEO of Uralchem JSC and sold a 52% controlling stake from his holding in LLC Uralchem Fundamental Chemical Co., which fully owns Uralchem JSC, in March after being added to the EU’s list of sanctioned individuals (GM March 11, p. 1).
Mazepin said other Russian producers, Acron Group and EuroChem Group, have 52,000 mt and almost 100,000 mt of their fertilizers, respectively, stuck in Europe, according to the report.
Uralchem’s current CEO JSC Dmitry Konyaev, in a Nov. 12 statement, said Uralchem/Uralkali had agreed to continue free shipments of their mineral fertilizers stuck in EU ports to the African continent, and “are ready to provide additionally around 240,000 mt.”
This material, Konyaev confirmed, “is still stuck in European ports and that the company is in the process of UN-assisted negotiations to release the fertilizers.”
The UN, in a statement cited by the AFP report, said a second shipment of fertilizers should head to West Africa, and a series of shipments of fertilizer destined for a number of other countries on the African continent would follow in the coming months.
Mazepin and Moscow, as well as the Russian Union of industrialists and Entrepreneurs Commission on Mineral Fertilizers Production and Trading, are continuing to work with the UN to resume the supply of ammonia via the Tolyatti-Odessa pipeline as part of the grain deal, according to the MercoPress report (GM Nov. 25, p. 29 ).
According to a Reuters report on Nov. 30, citing UN Aid Chief Martin Griffiths, a deal to resume Russian ammonia exports through the pipeline is “quite close.”