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PhosAgro Intends to Double Mineral Fertilizer Exports to Africa in Three Years

St Petersburg – PhosAgro Group, one of the world’s largest producers of phosphate-based fertilizers, plans to double its fertilizer exports to Africa in the next three years, according to PhosAgro CEO Mikhail Rybnikov, who was speaking at the Russia–Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum.

PhosAgro’s CEO emphasised that the Company supplies eco-efficient products that do not contain concentrations of cadmium or other toxic substances that are hazardous to human health or soils to some 100 countries around the world. At the same time, Africa is one of PhosAgro’s priorities for international development:

·      PhosAgro is the largest Russian supplier of fertilizers to Africa, accounting for 33% of Russia’s total fertilizer exports to the continent.

·      PhosAgro exports fertilizers to 21 African countries; the leading importers are South Africa, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique and Tanzania.

·      The Company has increased deliveries to Africa by around 350% over the past five years – from 117.9 thousand tonnes in 2018 to 540.0 thousand tonnes in 2022. Over the past year, PhosAgro has increased its exports to Africa by a quarter. 

·      In the next three years, the Company expects to double its exports yet again. One of the factors enabling the Company to expand its export potential to Africa will be the launch of a new plant in Volkhov, with a production capacity of a million tonnes, which is located near Baltic ports focused on exporting products to friendly countries. 

·      PhosAgro’s portfolio includes 57 brands of fertilizers, including 16 brands containing micronutrients. PhosAgro’s extensive product line makes it possible to take into account the specifics of various African regions and to offer customers the best solutions.

·      By the end of 2023, the Company plans to develop no fewer than six innovative products as part of the Innagro project in partnership with Innopraktika. Safe biological crop protection agents are innovative products that can help African countries make an important leap in addressing food security.

·      To ensure the uptake of innovations in Africa, PhosAgro is helping train local farmers. PhosAgro timed the launch of its Pro Agro Lectorium educational platform to coincide with the Russia–Africa Summit. The platform is an easy-to-use online service designed specifically for African farmers, with educational lectures on sustainable agriculture, the basics of plant nutrition and the correct use of mineral fertilizers. 

·      In addition, PhosAgro, in partnership with UNESCO, awards grants every year for research on environmental protection as part of the Green Chemistry for Life programme. Over six selection rounds, the programme’s international jury has reviewed over 800 applications and awarded grants to more than 40 young researchers, including 12 talented African scientists. In addition, more than 100 young researchers from Africa have received stipends as part of the Green Chemistry Summer School programme organised by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and PhosAgro.

·      The Company is also taking active measures to protect Africa’s soil resources. In 2019, PhosAgro became an official partner for the launch of the African Soil Laboratory Network (AFRILAB) as part of a global soil protection initiative, a joint project with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). AFRILAB currently has 143 laboratories in 48 countries that assess the quality and safety of fertilizers and monitor the condition of soils. 

·      In October 2020, PhosAgro and the FAO launched the Global Soil Doctors programme, which includes the production of soil doctor kits that contain tools that enable farmers in developing countries – in African countries in particular – to assess the condition of their fields and to determine a list of nutrients that need to be applied to the soil to maximise yields, to grow environmentally friendly crops and, as a result, to make an important contribution to the fight against hunger.

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“We highly value the results of our joint work at the summit. I am sure the achieved results are creating a good foundation for further deepening the Russia-Africa partnership in the interests of our nations’ prosperity and wellbeing.”

President of the Russian Federation
Vladimir Putin

The Russia–Africa Summit, which is taking place in Sochi on 23–24 October 2019, encapsulates the historically friendly relations between the African continent and the Russian Federation. This Summit carries great significance as it is the first of its kind to emerge during a period of major global and international transformations. In response to the aspirations of the people it is representing, the Summit intends to build a comprehensive framework for expanding Russian–African relations into broader horizons of joint cooperation across different fields.

The African nations and Russia share a common understanding of international relations, based on the principles of respect for the rule of international law, equality, non-interference in the internal affairs of states, and the peaceful resolution of disputes. Both sides affirm their commitment to support multilateral actions to oppose new international threats, be they terrorism and extremism in all their forms, or declining growth rates. The two sides share a firm conviction regarding the importance of developing trade flows and supporting mutual investment in such a way as to ensure security, peace and development for the African and Russian people.

African countries have huge potential and opportunities that will allow them, once efforts to streamline their economies have been achieved, to emerge as real global players. In recent years, the nations of this continent have achieved major successes spanning the political, economic, social and administrative spheres. Africa has flourished in terms of growth over the past decade, reaching a continent-wide growth rate of 3.55% in 2018.

The African Union Summit, which was held in Niger in July 2019, continued the efforts of the African countries and saw the African Continental Free Trade Agreement come into force, along with its operational instruments. The agreement is one of the key objectives of Agenda 2063, an African development strategy that has been created to address the African people’s desire for prosperity and decent living standards.

These successes are opening up wide-ranging prospects for cooperation between African countries and the Russian Federation, and confirm the determination of African governments and their people to cooperate with multiple partners in order to establish mutually beneficial relations.

With this in mind, we express our hopes that the Russia–Africa Summit will help in the establishment of constructive strategic relations, based on partnership between two sides across various fields, and in the service of fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the African people and their friends in Russia.

President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Abdelfattah ALSISI