How British farmers are unwittingly funding Putin’s war machine

Britain has boosted the Russian economy by more than £8m by importing nearly 34,000 tonnes of a key fertiliser chemical used by farmers to produce the food we eat, it can be revealed. British farmers are struggling with sharp rises in fertiliser and fuel costs caused by the Iran conflict, as well as the effects of a summer drought which has damaged crop yields and brought warnings of future food shortages. Now, figures shared with The i Paper reveal that Vladimir Putin is exploiting this disruption to fill his war chest. Shorts The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for about a third of global seaborne fertiliser exports from Gulf countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, has sent prices of nitrogen fertilisers spiralling. Russia, already the world’s largest single fertiliser exporter, has benefited from the price spike by earning more from its sales abroad. In the first three months since the American-Israeli bombing campaign in the Middle East began, Russian fertiliser companies made an estimated £511m in global export revenues from urea, a highly-effective nitrogen fertiliser derived from natural gas. UK food system ‘dangerously exposed’ Analysis of official import data by Unearthed, the investigative arm of Greenpeace UK, show that imports into Britain of Russian urea reached 33,900 tonnes between March and May. That quantity would be sufficient to fertilise 226,000 hectares of wheat – about 1.5 times the area of London. While the vast majority of urea produced globally is used as an agricutural fertiliser, the chemical also has an array of industrial applications, including the manufacturing of diesel additives, plastics and skincare products. It is not clear which proportion of the urea arriving in the UK is being used for fertiliser and how much is being used for other purposes. Vladimir Putin has seen his country’s revenues from fertiliser sales increase by an estimated £511m since the start of the Iran war, according to new figures (Photo: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty) The UK nonetheless remains heavily reliant on imported fertiliser, with about 60 per cent of farming needs being met by shipments from abroad. As a result, while Britain has long banned direct imports of Russian oil and gas, and slashed trade with Moscow, fertiliser chemicals like urea are still permitted to enter the UK market, albeit subject to punitive tariffs designed to reduce demand. Urea imports into the UK since the start of the Iran war represent an additional £8.2m in revenues for Russian producers, whose tax payments to the Kremlin go to fund Putin’s war against Ukraine. America was the single largest customer for Russian urea in the same period, purchasing record amounts of the chemical – which allows crops to draw nitrogen from the soil – and contributing about £225m in additional revenues for Moscow’s export sector. Elena Polisano, co-head of biodiversity campaigns at Greenpeace UK, said: “This crisis shows how dangerously exposed our food system is to war, volatile gas prices and fossil fuel-based fertilisers. “Farmers are already battling extreme weather caused by climate change. This summer’s extreme heat and drought have damaged harvests, and now global conflict is driving up farm costs too.” Spike in Russian oil and gas revenues due to Iran war The surge in Moscow’s earnings due to the Iran conflict, and the resulting tax windfall for Putin’s war economy, underlines the importance of fossil fuel and chemical exports to the Kremlin’s ability to fund the conflict in Ukraine. Separate figures show that Moscow’s state oil and gas revenues, which account for about a fifth of Russia’s earnings, rose year-on-year by nearly 40 per cent in May to £7.3bn thanks to the global spike in fossil fuel prices caused by the war in Iran. A large part of the UK has been gripped by drought (William Edwards/AFP) The imports coincide with a period of acute difficulty for UK farmers as they face a pincer movement of sharply increasing input costs such as fertiliser and diesel, and plunging yields caused by this year’s drought conditions. Farmers are reporting the earliest harvest in at least 20 years, with cereal yields generally below the 10-year average. Fertiliser prices have risen by about 40 per cent since the start of the American bombing campaign and the on-off closure of the Strait of Hormuz, with urea currently costing about £645 per tonne. Farming leaders have warned that the combination of rising costs and the hit to income caused by falling yields this summer will leave many struggling to break even. Consequently, they now face decisions about whether to reduce the amount of fertiliser they apply to crops next year or even decide not to produce certain nitrogen-hungry crops. Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers Union, warned that growers need access to affordable fertiliser to maintain food supplies. Speaking last month, he said: “If it is not [affordable], some farmers and growers could be left facing incredibly tough decisions about whether to try to grow a crop with reduced fertiliser applications, or whether to plant at all… In the long term, it all comes down to resilience. We can’t keep being collateral damage to global politics.” Russian goods exports to UK are growing In an apparent nod to the vulnerability of UK farmers to fluctuations in global fertiliser supplies, the British government did not cut off access to Russian producers in the aftermath of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Instead, a general tariff of 35 per cent was placed on fertilisers, with the exception of nitrogen-rich fertilisers such as urea, which were given an initial six per cent surcharge. This figure has since been incrementally ratcheted up and is set to reach 35 per cent in 12 months. As a result, ministers insist that UK imports of Russian fertilisers are 80 per cent below pre-war levels. But campaigners warn that even drastically reduced imports from Russia contribute tax revenues to the Kremlin. According to the latest UK trade figures, the value of goods imported into Britain from Russia rose by nine per cent in the last quarter to £85m and included products ranging from aircraft and chemicals to fish and shellfish. Dr Svitlana Romanko, executive director of Ukrainian campaign group Razom We Stand, said: “This matters because Russia’s weakened yet still-functioning economy and military industry are tightly interlinked. Export earnings from energy-intensive and gas‑based products help sustain a Russian state‑driven industrial base whose strategic focus is expanding weapons production that targets Ukrainian civilians.” The Government insisted that the UK’s trade in goods with Russian has plummeted when compared to pre-war levels in 2021. A spokesperson said: “Our sanctions are working, and Russian goods imports to the UK have fallen by 98 per cent compared to 2021. “Last year we introduced additional duties on a number of fertiliser products, which will increase again next year, ensuring Russia faces increased tariffs on their exports while balancing the needs of UK importers in diversifying away from Russian sources.”