RUSSIA is preparing to send two shipments of fertilisers to Kenya and Nigeria free of charge, according to the country’s deputy foreign minister, Sergey Vershinin. Speaking to Rossiya 24 TV channel, Vershinin said that Russia wants to send its fertilisers, which are curr
ently blocked in the Baltic states, to countries that need them the most.
However, the extension of the Istanbul grain deal, officially known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, is dependent on achieving ‘tangible
progress’ on major problems that block the access of Russian agricultural products and fertilisers to the world market. Vershinin stated that the conditions for the extension of the transaction include the reconnection of Rosselkhoznadzor to SWIFT, the r
esumption of the supply of spare parts and maintenance of agricultural machinery, reinsurance of agricultural goods, and the lifting of the ban on their access to ports, as well as the lifting of sanctions from Russian companies and their owners who are engaged in the production of food and fertilisers.
Russia had earlier offered to donate 262,000 tons of fertilisers that were blocked in the ports of Latvia, Estonia, Belgium, and the Netherlands to poor countries. The first shipment of 20,000 tons was sent from the Netherlands to Malawi.
President Vladimir Putin had announced last month that leaders of several African countries had contacted him regarding the possibility of getting Russian fertilisers. Russia is the world’s biggest exporter of fertilisers.
In March, Russia agreed to a 60-day extension of the grain deal, which was brokered by Turkey and the UN last July to ship agricultural products from three of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. Russia’s ‘special military operation’ in February last year had blocked the shipments. Moscow has warned that it may not extend the deal past mid-May unless the West removes obstacles to the export of its grain and fertiliser.
