PhosAgro, Moscow, expects its output of fertilizers to exceed 10 million mt this year, aimed at maintaining its export position on global markets and meeting increasing demand from the domestic market, the group’s CEO, Andrey Guryev, said in a statement this week. Guryev, who is also President of the Russian Fertilizer Producers Association (RFPA), participated in an online panel session for Russian agribusiness leaders during the country’s 2020 Synergy Executive Forum.
This output – if achieved – would represent 5 percent growth on 2019’s fertilizer output of 9.52 million mt. The group’s first-quarter 2020 fertilizer output totaled 2.55 million mt, up 8.5 percent on the year-ago 2.35 million mt (GM April 24, p. 30).
PhosAgro sold 1.5 million mt of fertilizers, including third-party produced products, to the Russian market in the first five months of this year, its CEO said.
Over the past five years, fertilizer sales by Russian producers to the country’s farmers has increased by 40 percent. The growth is a result of large-scale investments in the development of production capacities by Russian fertilizer producers, amounting to RUB800 billion (approximately $11.7 billion at current exchange rates) over the five-year period, including RUB200 billion invested by PhosAgro, said Guryev. Over the next five years, investment by the country’s fertilizer industry will exceed RUB1 trillion, he added.
PhosAgro is also working on the development of new products, including biostimulants, biobacterial additives, and deficiency correctors with Innopraktika, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and leading Russian agrarian universities.
In a separate development this week, PhosAgro participated in the launch of a regional network of soil laboratories in the Middle East and North Africa (Resolan Nena) as part of a joint venture with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Resolan Nena is part of a global network of 368 soil laboratories launched in November 2017 aimed at facilitating the exchange of experience between laboratories from around the world and implementing a program to develop soil science and provide support for farmers in sustainable agriculture.