After Canada cancels import duties on Ukrainian goods for a year, Canadian potash fertilizers may become the main ones in the Ukrainian market and thereby replace Belarusian ones, which have not been imported to Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s armed aggression.
The possible role of Canada in the Ukrainian market of potash fertilizers was reported by the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB) on Facebook on Thursday.
The report states that Canada is the world’s largest producer and exporter of potash fertilizers. This country produces about 12 million tonnes of such fertilizers, thus occupying 24% of world production. At the same time, in 2021, Ukraine imported 287,500 tonnes of potash fertilizers, of which 69% came from Belarus, while its own production in the country is practically not developed.
“Therefore, Ukrainian farmers need to look for alternative suppliers, and Canada may become one of them. The abolition of import duties may become an additional factor, as it will increase the competitiveness of Ukrainian agricultural products in the Canadian market. Ukraine will be able to purchase potash fertilizers in Canada, in turn, sending its agricultural products, which are in abundance in the Ukrainian market, by the same transport,” the association said in the statement.
Canada imported 2.8 million tonnes of corn, 1.2 million tonnes of sunflower meal, and 0.5 million tonnes of soybeans in 2021, according to UCAB. It is these positions that Ukraine can supply to the Canadian market through the seaports of the Baltic countries.
The association recalled that before aggression of the Russian Federation, Ukraine had insignificant volumes of export deliveries of agricultural products to Canada, which was due not only to the significant territorial remoteness of this country, but also to the rather high development of the Canadian agro-industrial complex. Thus, during 2021, agricultural products worth $29.3 million were delivered to Canada, of which 49% of export revenue was formed by apple juice, 18% by sunflower oil and 11% by soybeans.
However, with the beginning of military aggression of the Russian Federation with the assistance of Belarus and the blockade of Ukrainian seaports by Russian warships, a number of countries canceled import duties on Ukrainian goods to help the Ukrainian economy. These factors may have an impact on Ukrainian foreign economic activity, including the increase in trade between Ukraine and Canada.
As reported, Canada, following the UK and the EU, would cancel all duties on imports of goods from Ukraine, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on May 8 after meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
Chemical Alliance LLC (ChemAlliance) has launched a plant for the production of liquid complex fertilizers with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes per month in Zaporizhia region, owner of the company Vitaliy Popov has said.
“On July 1, we launched a plant for the production of liquid complex fertilizers with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes per month in Zaporizhia region. Investments amounted to about $1 million,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Popov, now the company is looking for a site for the second, more powerful production, which is to be launched in the spring of 2020.
“We plan to build two more plants in different parts of Ukraine. Ideally, these are Zhytomyr and Poltava or Cherkasy. I hope that we will implement these projects by the end of 2020. In total, we will reach 30,000 tonnes of liquid complex fertilizers per month,” he noted.
Popov said that Ukrainian raw materials and those imported from the EU (50/50) are used for the production of fertilizers.
Chemical Alliance LLC (Poltava) was established in 2010. It is engaged in production and sale of liquid mineral fertilizers and sale of granular ones.
TerraTarsa Ukraine LLC (Kherson region) has invested over $1 million in the launch of a first stage of the liquid mineral fertilizer plant in Kakhovka, Kherson region. According to a report of the Kherson Regional Administration, a production capacity of the first stage of the plant is 60,000 liters a day (3 million liters a year). The plant can store 100,000 liters of fertilizers. The production process is fully automated.
In addition, the company plans to open the second stage for production of crystalline fertilizers with a capacity of 15,000 tonnes a year. Currently, 75 people are working at the enterprise.
TerraTarsa Ukraine was founded in autumn 2011 after the merger of Doktor Tarsa (Turkey) and Terra Ltd. (Ukraine). The company supplies the Ukrainian market and the markets of neighboring countries with complex technological solutions for intensive cultivation of a wide range of crops, offers more than 20 types of fertilizers.
In September 2017, the company opened the Terralab soil-agrochemical laboratory in Kakhovka, which conducts a number of tests (soil, water, fertilizers and plants). The volume of investments is $500,000. According to the unified public register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, the founder of TerraTarsa Ukraine is TerraTarsa B.V. (the Netherlands), and the ultimate beneficiary is Andriy Hoholev.
