The pledge comes eight months into a war that has cut off much of the Middle East's fertilizer exports. Speaking in Bangkok on Thursday, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure put the figure at €2.5 billion ($2.8 billion), with the funds going toward fertilizer deliveries and food security in vulnerable countries, especially in Africa, Bloomberg reported.
The money is aimed at the countries least able to absorb a price shock. It will help deliver fertilizer to a group that includes 44 nations the World Bank has flagged as at risk of food insecurity, according to the Bloomberg account of Lescure's remarks. Sub-Saharan Africa imports most of the fertilizer it uses, and smallholder farmers there grow the bulk of the region's food, which leaves them exposed when global supplies tighten and freight costs climb.
The funding builds on a plan the G7 adopted in June at its summit in Évian. That action plan, drawn up with partner countries including Brazil, India, Kenya and South Korea, framed the problem as one of affordability and liquidity rather than a physical shortage, and set out three strands of work: immediate delivery of food aid and farm inputs, coordinated financing from international lenders, and longer-term investment in regional fertilizer production and soil management.
Fertilizer markets have been volatile since the conflict began in February. Trade bodies have singled out East African economies such as Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi as especially dependent on Gulf suppliers, and the World Bank has warned that an El Niño pattern could add further pressure on harvests into next year.