Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine highlighted the role of fertilizers — and who controls them — as a strategic lever of global influence
It’s not grain or maize, but 20,000 metric tons of Russian fertilizer, and it can’t come soon enough.Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion delivered straight to your inbox at 7 a.m., Monday to Friday.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You may unsubscribe any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails or any newsletter. Postmedia Network Inc.
Last year’s jolt to the $250 billion global fertilizer industry highlighted the role of Russia and Belarus as exporters of almost a quarter of all world crop nutrients. While Russia’s agricultural products including the three main types of fertilizer — potash, phosphate and nitrogen — are not targeted by sanctions, exports remain curtailed through a combination of disruptions to ports, shipping, banking and insurance.
The result has been an all-too familiar divide: Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Alexis Maxwell says that even though prices have fallen more than 50% from last year’s peak, farmers in Southeast Asia and Africa remain more exposed than their counterparts in North America, China or India.
Nutrien mines potash from a 400 million-year-old rock known as the Prairie Evaporite Formation at a depth of some 1,000 meters . This far down, the heat is a stark contrast with the sub-zero temperatures outside in the Saskatchewan winter. The air has an ocean tang that comes from the high concentration of salt in the potash. Huge boring machines cut tunnels to extract the ore, which is moved by conveyors to underground storage areas, then taken to the surface and on-site mills.
The race for fertilizer supplies has spawned efforts to encourage self-sufficiency. In an echo of the Chips Act that made $50 billion available for US semiconductor production, President Joe Biden’s administration has announced $500 million in grants to increase “American-made fertilizer production” and “bring production and jobs back to the United States.”Article content
On several occasions the government tried and failed to secure imports. In the absence of alternatives, it began supporting a program to increase use of organic fertilizers from seabird excrement, known as guano. But that doesn’t nearly cover what’s needed, said Gabriel Amaro, head of Peru’s agricultural export association AGAP. “The small farmer hasn’t necessarily been able to apply fertilizer, or has applied very little,” meaning loss of productivity and even damage to plants, he said.
The North African country has made little secret of using fertilizer donations and subsidized sales to promote its aspirations to regional leadership. “Rabat has used OCP’s exports as a foreign policy instrument, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa,” Michael Tanchum, a professor of political economy, wrote in a blog for the Middle East Institute, citing its sales, local investment and development outreach.
In September, Kenya’s new president, William Ruto, took a call from Morocco conveying King Mohammed’s congratulations, after which Ruto announced to his 5.6 million Twitter followers that Kenya was rescinding its recognition of the Saharawi region. Morocco’s Foreign Ministry hailed the move and announced the countries were deepening trade relations, including in the field of “food security .” Bags of nutrients began arriving shortly after, even though Ruto subsequently deleted his tweet.
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