Russian mineral and potash fertiliser manufacturer Uralchem has committed to donate 20 000 metric tonnes (MT) NPK fertiliser to Malawi.

The consignment represents about three percent of Malawi’s annual national fertiliser requirement of 600 000MT.

Dmitry Konyaev, chief executive officer of OAO Uralchem, poses for a photograph in his office at the company’s headquartersl in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013. Uralchem, the fertilizer maker controlled by Belarus-born billionaire Dmitry Mazepin plans to buy 20 percent of Uralkali, while billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Group agreed to buy 21.75 percent of the company from owner Suleiman Kerimov. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The company is providing fertilisers to African countries for free as part of its humanitarian mission and will in total supply 260 000MT fertiliser through currently blocked European ports.

Uralchem chief executive officer Dmitry Konyaev is quoted by the Russian State-owned news agency Tass as having said that the first batch of about 20 000 MT of fertiliser will be shipped will be about 20 000MT with the destination in Malawi.

“We p l an fur ther supplies of our mineral fertilisers to the African continent free of charge. We are ready to hand over about 240 000 metric tons of fertilisers that remain in European storages as quickly as possible,” he said.

The firm has since indicated that with participation of the United Nations, it is holding talks to lift the blockade on the commodity.

The European Union in Malawi yesterday had 100 percent. K97.5 billion would not be enough unless we reduce the figure.”

Earlier yesterday, the committee did not meet some of the people lined up for interviews purportedly due to some members perceived view that the inquiry was targeting to corner some public officers.

Initially sold during the campaign as universal subsidy by the Tonse Alliance during the campaign for the court-sanctioned Fresh Presidential Election held on June 23 2020, the AIP turned out to be a near five-fold expansion of the Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme implemented by the Democratic Progressive Party administration that targeted 900 000 farming families for less than K30 billion per year. On the other hand, AIP targeted 4.2 million households for K158.3 billion before the number of beneficiaries was trimmed to around 3.6 million in the inaugural year.

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