Nigeria recently purchased potash, a raw ingredient used to blend agricultural fertilizer, from Canada after its traditional supply of Russian potash was disrupted due to Western sanctions against Moscow in response to its latest war with Ukraine, Reuters reported Tuesday.
“Russia was unable to deliver so we bought spot from traders in Canada. The Canadian High Commission in Nigeria helped start the conversation with producers,” Uche Orji, the head of Nigeria’s Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), told Reuters in an exclusive interview published on May 3.
The news agency paraphrased Orji as saying Nigeria’s government “has enough potash inventories to cover 40% of blending demand and bought three cargoes of Canadian potash, which should arrive within the next month.”
Nigeria normally imports five Russian cargoes of potash annually but was reportedly unable to do so this year due to recent sanctions that affected Uralkali, a Russian potash producer and exporter.
“The potash producer [Uralkali] has not itself been targeted by sanctions so far but Russian businessman Dmitry Mazepin left the board and cut his controlling stake in Uralchem after he was hit by EU [European Union] sanctions in March. Uralchem owns the majority of Uralkali,” Reuters observed on May 3.
A farmer spreads chemical fertilizer over a field on a polluted day in Zhangye, in northwestern China’s Gansu province on March 16, 2021. (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Uralkali has been Nigeria’s exclusive supplier of potash since 2019, though this relationship was unexpectedly derailed in recent weeks after the U.S. government spearheaded a Western campaign of sanctions against Russian companies and entities on February 24. Washington led its Western allies to impose sweeping sanctions on Moscow in response to Russia’s announcement earlier that day that it had launched a “special military operation” in neighboring Ukraine. The Kremlin had foreshadowed the conflict on February 21 when it confirmed plans to formally recognize the independence of two Russian-backed separatist states (the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, or DPR and LPR) in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas territory.
Canada is the globe’s top producer and exporter of potash. Russia ranks as the world’s second-largest potash producer followed by Belarus.
“Canada is the world’s largest potash producer, accounting for 32% of the world’s total in 2020,” the Canadian government’s official website states in an article titled, “Potash Facts.”
“Four countries (Canada, Russia, Belarus and China) accounted for approximately 80% of the world’s potash production in 2020,” according to the article.
Canada exported 22 million tonnes (i.e. metric tons) of potash in 2020, a figure accounting for 39 percent of the world’s total exports of the plant nutrient.
“Three countries (Canada, Belarus and Russia) accounted for 79% of the potash traded internationally in 2019,” according to Canada’s government website.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.