PhosAgro Africa shipments surge 50% to 1.3mt as Russia courts key partners
PhosAgro shipped more than 1.3 million tonnes of mineral fertilizers to Africa in the first nine months of 2026, up 50% year on year, and plans to double its 2025 deliveries by the end of the year, First Deputy CEO Sergey Pronin said on October 28.
Pronin spoke at the Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum in Moscow, held alongside the third Russia-Africa summit. He said the nine-month total already exceeds PhosAgro’s full-year 2025 volume.
PhosAgro shipped nearly 1 million tonnes to Africa in 2025, up by a third from 2024 and more than double its 2021 level. South Africa, Ethiopia and Mozambique are now its three largest buyers on the continent. The company accounted for 61% of all Russian mineral fertilizer exports to Africa in the first half of 2026, according to estimates cited by PhosAgro.
The push comes as African importers look for alternatives to Gulf suppliers, whose shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have been near zero for months. At the same forum, President Vladimir Putin said more than 40 African countries now receive Russian fertilizers and grain, and that Russia exported 13 million tonnes of agricultural products to Africa in the first nine months of 2026.
The target marks a follow-through on a plan PhosAgro set out in 2023, when it said it would double fertilizer supplies to Africa by 2026. Russia’s current export quota, which caps fertilizer shipments outside the Eurasian Economic Union, runs to November 30.
Source: TASS
What to know about Russian fertilizer exports to Africa
Uralchem told TASS that Russian supplies made up 18% to 20% of Africa’s fertilizer imports in 2025, up from 4% in 2018. PhosAgro says its own products account for about a quarter of the continent’s total fertilizer imports. Neither figure has been independently verified.
Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Russian mineral fertilizer supplies to Africa climbed above 2.2 million tonnes in 2026, speaking ahead of the summit on October 26.
Andrey Guryev, head of the Russian Fertilizer Producers Association (RAPU), said Russian products are sold in 25 African countries and the industry is ready to form joint ventures for fertilizer packaging and bagging. He also offered expertise in raw material extraction and training for the agricultural sector.
PhosAgro is an official partner of the African Soil Laboratory Network, which has about 240 laboratories in 54 countries assessing fertilizer quality and monitoring soil conditions, according to the company.
Russia caps fertilizer exports at 20 million tonnes for June 1 to November 30, 2026, including 8.7 million tonnes of nitrogen fertilizers and about 7 million tonnes of compound fertilizers. Humanitarian cargoes are exempt. The government has not yet announced the quota for the next period.
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