Following the decision taken by Argentinian President Mauricio Macri to cancel the 6% import duty on high-quality diammonium phosphate (DAP) from Russia, PhosAgro is considering increasing its sales of fertilizers to Argentina.
According to Andrey Guryev, CEO of PhosAgro, President of the Russian Association of Fertilizer Producers and Chairman of the Russian-Argentine Council of Entrepreneurs from the Russian side, this was a joint effort of federal authorities, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economic Development, as well as the intergovernmental Russian-Argentine commission for co-operation in trade, science and technology, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The interests of Russian business have been upheld by lifting restrictive measures on the trade of high-quality Russian mineral fertilizer products.
“We are grateful to the Argentine authorities for the constructive dialogue and willingness to bolster mutually beneficial cooperation between Russian and Argentine companies,” Guryev commented.
Both Russian fertilizer producers and Argentine farmers will benefit from the development. Customers will benefit from additional volumes of 300 000 – 350 000 t of high-quality DAP products that are free from potentially harmful contaminants.
Guryev explained that agricultural products and mineral fertilizers, which are necessary for increasing the efficiency of agricultural production, constitute one of the most important and largest areas of trade between Russia and Argentina. The Russian fertilizer industry views both Argentina and the rest of Latin America as a high-priority market, alongside the Russian domestic market. In 2016, Russian fertilizer exports to Argentina grew by 1.6 times year-on-year to 521 000 t, making up 43% of Russia’s overall exports to Argentina.
“The illogical situation in which high-quality Russian DAP, which is free from potentially harmful contaminants, was subject to import duties, while fertilizer containing harmful substances were allowed without being subject to duties, has now been resolved,” he concludes.