Russian
President Vladimir Putin said Friday the Kremlin is ready to give away the fertiliser
stuck in European Union ports to poor nations for free. Nearly 300,000 tonnes
of fertiliser are currently stuck in several ports along EU nations, according
to Russia. Putin was speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit
2022 in Uzbekistan.

Why will
Russia give away free fertiliser?

On Friday,
Vladimir Putin said that he had spoken to United Nations Secretary General
Antonio Guterres and discussed agricultural export issues, RT, a Russian
state-sponsored broadcasting network reported.

“The day
before yesterday I informed Mr. Guterres that 300,000 tonnes of Russian
fertilisers had piled up in the European Union seaports,” Putin said, adding,
that Moscow was ready to “give them to developing countries for free,” and that
such deliveries would help alleviate the global food crisis.

Why is there
a global food crisis?

The
Russia-Ukraine conflict has led to a rise in global oil and gas prices as well
as food prices. Sea blockades have led to challenges in movement of food and
fuel, as a result of which demand has far outstripped supply.

Nearly 50
countries around the world depend on Russia and Ukraine for cereal imports. For
20 of these countries, the dependence is more than 50%, according to Peruvian
economist Maximo Torero Cullen, who interviewed on the global food crisis with
the IMF (International Monetary Fund).

How will
free fertiliser help?

Russia is
the leading exporter of nitrogen in the world, the second of potassium and the
third of phosphorus, all ingredients critical in the making of fertiliser. With
agricultural exports stifled, the world is struggling to make enough fertiliser
in order for national economies to be food secure.

Fertiliser
prices have quadrupled in many cases as a result of which farmers in poorer
nations are struggling to buy them and optimise their land for crops.  

Putin in
search of friends

Putin, whose
war effort in Ukraine has run into trouble owing to Kyiv’s persistent
resistance with a little help from Volodymyr Zelensky’s western friends, is
battling a domestic crisis too. The impact of the Ukraine war effort has begun
to show on the Russian economy and Putin seems intent on establishing
friendships outside the western world to tide through the crisis.