Over 23,000 metric tons of bulk potash and NPKS fertilizer intended for Zimbabwe have been fully loaded onto a vessel in the ports of Riga, Latvia, and Ghent, Belgium; the shipment is intended for humanitarian purposes, the press service of Uralchem Group said on Monday. 

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Uralchem, one of the largest fertilizer producers in Russia and the world, stated that the ship has begun its trip to the port of Beira in Mozambique. After that, the fertilizers will be transported via land to Zimbabwe.

‘As one of the key suppliers of mineral fertilizers to international markets including Africa, and a company with a proud mission to create a world without hunger, we see our exceptional role in doing whatever we can to ensure food security in those parts of the world where people may face food shortages. We’ll be looking forward to seeing Zimbabwean farmers getting our fertilizer, using it properly and eventually reaping a fruitful harvest,’ CEO Dmitry Konyaev announced.

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This is the fourth free fertilizer shipment the group has sent to Africa. The company has donated more than 100,000 tons of fertilizer to Africa; over 77,000 tons have been shipped to Malawi, Kenya, and Zimbabwe.

The objective of the initiative is to address the global food crisis and prevent crop failures. According to the company’s press release, the corporation made a commitment to donate about 300,000 metric tons of mineral fertilizers to developing nations.

As stated on the company’s website, the company is responding to the UN’s second sustainable development goal: ‘End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.’

In the meantime, Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev has announced that six African countries which have been hit by food insecurity (Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Somalia, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Central African Republic) will receive up to 200,000 metric tons of grain by the end of the year. Somalia was the first to receive a shipment, on November 30.

Somalia has taken delivery of 25,000 tons of humanitarian wheat from Russia, according to the East African nation’s news agency, SONNA. A cargo ship carrying the aid arrived in the country’s port of Mogadishu on Thursday.

Russia’s ambassador to Somalia, Mikhail Golovanov, who arrived in Mogadishu on Saturday ahead of the delivery, handed over the free grain to Somalia’s minister of maritime transport and ports, Abdullahi Ahmed Jama.

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Moscow has committed to assisting Somalia in dealing with a hunger crisis caused by prolonged droughts and recent floods that affected most of the country’s governorates, displacing around 250,000 people. The UN food program said last month that an estimated 4.1 million people in the country will face acute hunger by the end of the year.

Last month, Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev announced that two shipments of free grain had left for Burkina Faso and Somalia as part of a pledge made by President Vladimir Putin at the Russia-Africa summit in July.

Russia made the alternative arrangement to supply free wheat to African countries after withdrawing from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which was brokered by the UN and Turkey last year to facilitate Ukrainian grain exports to world markets, particularly to poor countries.

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Moscow revealed that Western countries failed to meet their obligations under the agreement, such as lifting sanctions that prevented Russian agricultural exports. On Thursday, Somalia’s maritime transport minister welcomed Moscow’s assistance as ‘timely’ and thanked the Kremlin for the gesture.

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