Русский
Russian fertilizer company Uralchem has donated 30,000 metric tons of potash to Bangladesh as a humanitarian gesture, the company said in a statement on Thursday. The shipment was conducted under the United Nations World Food Program.
Uralchem CEO Dmitry Konyaev said that mineral fertilizers play a crucial role in boosting crop yields and ensuring a stable food supply, stating that “Unfortunately, Bangladesh—one of the most densely populated countries in the world—faces a range of challenges that undermine its food system, from climate extremes linked to global climate change to constraints on the expansion of arable land. Through Uralchem’s humanitarian consignment, we aim to contribute to the sustainable development of the agricultural sector of Bangladesh.”
The new delivery marks Uralchem’s seventh donation in a series of humanitarian deliveries to developing countries since 2022. The company has so far donated over 220,000 tons of mineral fertilizers to nations facing acute hunger, free of charge.
Most of these consignments were shipped on vessels chartered by WFP from EU ports and warehouses and were sent to Malawi, Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, and now Bangladesh.
The fertilizers that Uralchem shipped to Dhaka were previously “stored in Latvia,” Uralchem noted. That is a polite way of saying that the shipment was impounded by Latvian officials as part of the EU’s sanctions. Over 400,000 metric tons of Russian fertilizers remain in several European ports, dating back to 2022, when Western countries adopted sanctions and prevented their departure. To put that into context, that volume of potash is equivalent to the amount required by the United Kingdom every year.
The Bangladesh fertilizers were eventually cleared by Latvia after the United Nations was asked to intervene, with the ship eventually released under the Russia-UN Memorandum on normalizing agricultural exports. Latvia’s foreign ministry said that “This is the fifth shipment of mineral fertilizers originating in Russia and owned by companies subject to European Union sanctions that have been stored in Latvia. We continue providing assistance to countries that have suffered as a result of the food crisis caused by the Russian war against Ukraine.”
Readers can make up their own judgments about which country is providing humanitarian assistance and which have been preventing it.
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