The Irish arm of the US food company that has been granted two exemptions from EU import sanctions Russian animal feed made a profit of almost 4 million euros in May in the last financial year.
Documents released through Freedom of Information show that officials from Leo Varadkar’s Department of Enterprise granted ADM Arkady Ireland an exemption in May for two Russian ships to import beet pulp pellets.
EU sanctions imposed on Russia after Russia’s invasion Ukraine bans Russian-flagged ships from landing in EU ports, but there are some exceptions, including for agricultural imports.
The application by ADM Arkady, part of the US giant food company, which had net sales of $64 billion (€63 billion) in 2020, was supported by the Department of Agriculture.
ADM Arkady said EU-flagged ships refused to take cargo of Russian origin into Russian ports.
An e-mail on April 21 said that “only one hesitant candidate” had been detected, an Estonian ship, but it asked for “unjustified high [sic] premium that ruins economic sense”. ADM Arkady Ireland’s 2020 accounts show that it made an after-tax profit of €3.88 million on sales of €302 million.
dr. Eamon Cahill, the division’s director of marketing authorizations and control, granted the derogations on April 22, but warned that “reliance on this derogation is not sustainable for an extended period of time.” He said it would be “politically untenable if Ireland routinely allowed derogations”. Sheila Nolan, an official at the Ministry of Agriculture, agreed it was “not a long-term solution” and said she had “emphasized the need to source products from outside Russia” from importers.
The two ships allowed to dock in Cork were the MV Serdolik and the MV Malachite. However, on May 6, two days before the Serdolik was due to dock, the Department of Enterprise suspended the anomalies. It received information from the tax authorities that the ships belonged to GTLK, the Russian state leasing company whose activities were explicitly restricted by EU sanctions. dr. Cahill emailed ADM Arkady and said the two vessels had been banned from docking in an Irish port due to the suspicion that they belonged to GTLK.
ADM responded by saying it was part of an international company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and subject to strict compliance regulations. It said strict pre-charter checks had been carried out and neither vessel had triggered a flag. It provided correspondence from the ship owners, Volga Shipping, who said it was not affiliated with GTLK.
Volga Shipping is ultimately owned by Vladimir Lisin, reportedly Russia’s richest businessman, who is chairman and majority shareholder of Novolipetsk, one of the country’s largest steel companies.
Lisin was critical of Russia’s war against Ukraine, saying in a message to staff that the “death of people in Ukraine is a tragedy that is difficult to justify or explain”. He is not sanctioned by the EU, UK or US.
ADM told Irish officials that “wherever this information comes from, it is both misinformed and inaccurate”. An ADM manager said he had considered the matter while counting sheep at night. He believed the department came across “a website” that suggested GTLK had leased the ships, but certificates of ownership indicated that they had not been leased.
dr. Cahill told the Department of Agriculture on May 7 that it was reviewing the reliability of his information. He would maintain the suspensions until the checks were completed. “We need to make sure we have a solid foundation for our decision – not least to reduce the risk of claims if the GTLK link is historic,” he said.
On May 8, the tax authorities informed the department that its analysis department had provided “incorrect data”. It said the suspensions could be lifted and apologized.
The other sanctions waiver was granted to Comex McKinnon on May 10 for imports of soy hulls to Greenore, Co Louth.
They were delivered by the ship Sormovskiy 3060, also owned by Volga Shipping.
This weekend, the Revenue said it had taken “appropriate steps” with its third-party information provider “to ensure the accuracy of any further information provided”.