Russia and China have a stranglehold on global food security, writes Bloomberg columnist Alan Crawford. Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine has highlighted the role of fertilizers – and those who control them – as a strategic lever of global influence.
The critic gives only one example. The cargo, stuck for several months in the Dutch port of Rotterdam, was so valuable that the United Nations intervened to speed up its departure. The World Food Program has chartered a ship to take it to Mozambique, from where it is trucked through the country’s interior to its final destination, Malawi.
And this is not grain or corn, but 20,000 tons of Russian fertilizer
– specifies the author.
The realization that much of the world depends on the supply of many types of fertilizers from just a few countries, particularly Russia, as well as its allies in Belarus and China, is alarming in world capitals. The concern is based on the fact that the soils in many parts of the world are “accustomed” to fertilizers and without their use, productivity will drop by 30-40%, which threatens real famines and food shortages.
Just as semiconductors have become a lightning rod for geopolitical tensions, the race for fertilizers has alerted the United States and its allies to a strategic reliance on agricultural inputs, a key determinant of food security, especially around the world.
The observer transparently implies that in Moscow, as well as in Washington, they are well aware that all the sanctions imposed on Russia cannot be compared in importance with the influence that is in the hands of the Russian Federation. Russia and its allies.
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