Russia firm fertiliser donation ship expected in next 20 days
Workers arrange bags of subsidised fertilizer at the National Cereals and Produce Board depot in Elburgon, Nakuru County. FILE PHOTO | JOHN NJOROGE | NMG
Russia’s Uralchem-Uralkali Group has said that a 34,000-tonne fertiliser consignment donated to Kenya is on its way to the Port of Mombasa after leaving Latvia with the ship expected to dock in the next 20 days.
The value of the assorted fertilisers is estimated at more than Sh3 billion and is the second batch of the group’s series of shipments of its fertilisers totalling 300,000 tonnes, currently stored in the European ports and warehouses to the African continent.
“Uralchem-Uralkali Group announces that a humanitarian shipment of 34,000 tonnes of fertiliser for Kenya has been fully loaded onto a vessel in Riga, Latvia, and has started its journey to Mombasa,” said the firm in a statement.
The delivery in Kenya now becomes the second recipient of fertiliser donation with the previous consignment of 20,000 tonnes having been sent to Malawi in early March.
The firm said the shipment for Kenya, which comprises potash, urea and NPK, is being implemented in close cooperation with the World Food Programme, which has chartered a vessel to transport the commodity with the Group meeting the sea freight and other delivery costs.
International media has been reporting that the consignment had been seized last year after European Union placed sanctions on some key Russian individuals following its invasion of Ukraine towards the end of February 2022.
The consignment had been seized because it belonged to Russian oligarch Dmitry Mazepin, who was one of the individuals under the EU sanctions as a member of the closest circle of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Mazepin, however, has since forfeited control of the manufacturing units.
The shipment will ease the current deficit of fertiliser in the country and maintain the lower prices of the commodity in the market under the subsidy scheme.
The government is selling a 50-kilogram bag of fertiliser to farmers at Sh3,500 under the subsidy scheme, down from Sh6,500 last year.
