MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) — Russian fertilizer producers have agreed to freeze prices at which they sell their crop nutrients to Russian farmers for the 2021-22 marketing year, which started July 1, the Russian government said in a statement on July 16.
Russia, one of the world’s largest wheat exporters, has been concerned about domestic food security since late 2020. It launched a list of grain export curbs and retail price caps on sunflower oil that it hopes will help to reduce high food inflation.
Stable domestic prices for fertilizers will stimulate input of crop nutrients by farmers and rule out lower crop yields, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko was quoted as saying in the statement after a meeting with producers Phosagro , Eurochem, Acron, Uralkali and Uralchem.
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The price caps are voluntary, but the amount of product needed for consumption at the fixed price will soon be determined by the government, the statement added.
Russian fertilizer producers took similar steps in 2015, 2016 and 2018 when they held their domestic prices stable to support long-term demand.
Phosagro, one of the world’s largest producers of phosphate-based fertilizers, will keep its domestic prices at the July level until the end of the main part of winter grain sowing — by the end of October, it said.
“Taking into account the change in the macroeconomic situation caused by the effects of the ongoing pandemic and droughts, which could put farmers … at risk, we have decided to support our consumers,” Andrey Guryev, Phosagro chief executive, said in a statement.
Uralchem and Uralkali said in June they would freeze their domestic potash prices.
The government is also considering long-term mechanisms to secure availability of crop nutrients for farmers, it said.
Russia’s agriculture ministry expects its farmers to boost consumption of mineral fertilizers to 8.2 million tonnes by 2025 from 4.5 million tonnes in 2021.
