Andrey Melnichenko, one of Russia’s top industrialists and founder of EuroChem and SUEK – the world’s leading fertiliser and coal companies, respectively, plans to back Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s vision for food and energy security for the developing world.

On a recent trip to India, Melnichenko told ET that his goal is to back India’s plan to ensure its own food security and Modi’s goal to support food security in in low-income countries.

“In issues of food security, the position of India is not limited to the country’s own domestic market or neighbouring countries’ markets. It is global,” Melnichenko said. “The Indian leadership knows quite well that in the most vulnerable and potentially explosive regions of the world, in countries with low per capita income the issues of food security and political stability are interrelated,” he said.

“I think that Prime Minister Modi said it all when he has named food security as one of the top priorities for India’s G20 presidency – could not agree more. In his article in leading Russian newspaper Kommersant, he specifically mentioned his intention to ‘depoliticise the global supply of food, fertiliser and medical supplies’, so that geopolitical tensions do not lead to humanitarian crises,” Melnichenko noted when asked about his recent India mission.

He said he visits India often and that some of his closest friends are here. “This time I am on a business trip – and it’s directly related to the very serious food crisis developing now in low-income countries,” he said.

Restrictions to the free flow of fertilisers to the global markets and the subsequent price hikes were among the most important problems in 2022, Melnichenko said. Nearly half of the world’s agricultural produce depends on the use of fertilisers. If there’s no fertilisers tomorrow, half of the world’s population would be left without food, he said.

It may be recalled that Indian imports of fertilisers and coal from Russia have increased manifold in 2022.Melnichenko pointed out that India is the largest consumer and importer of fertilisers in the world and fertilisers are among the country’s top three imports.

“Your government subsidises a significant portion of Indian farmers’ costs. Thus, when fertiliser prices increased, the effect was two-fold – the farmers’ costs rose at least by a third and there was an unforeseen increase in the Indian budget expenditures. Still, it is too early to assess the effect on agricultural production,” he said.

“The situation in countries with low per capita income is much worse and sometimes even catastrophic,” the Russian tycoon said. African Development Bank estimates that Africa faced a fertiliser shortage of two million tonnes in 2022 when fertiliser prices more than doubled in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, he said.

In this context Melnichenko held the European Union directly responsible for creating the food crisis and claimed that because of the EU sanctions, Russian fertilisers and ammonia supplies to the world market was adversely impacted.

“First, the EU’s policy of renouncing Russian gas led to its price skyrocketing globally. This has driven the cost of nitrogen fertiliser production up to levels that made more feasible for the European farmers to import fertilisers to Europe than to produce them domestically. Consequently, there’s a dwindling volume of fertilisers available to other importing countries unable to compete for them with the wealthy European farmers,” he said. “Second, because of the EU sanctions, 5.8 million tonnes of Russian fertilisers and ammonia did not reach the world market. For the same reason, the supply of fertilisers from the European plants of EuroChem decreased by another one million tonnes.”

Considering other restrictions as well, the businessman estimated that 7.4 million tonnes of fertilisers failed to reach the global markets due to sanctions on Russia. “This volume of fertilisers could enable production of around 27 million tonnes of grain, which could, in turn, produce enough calories to feed 113 million people,” he said.

But Melnichenko is positive about the future. “Some EU countries have recognised the negative effects of the sanctions and lifted national restrictions hindering the supply of fertilisers,” he said. “At the same time in Russia, new port facilities are being built. They will allow Russian companies to be independent of the goodwill of our European neighbours on allowing transit via their territory.”