The European Commission is being called on to “immediately address” the fertiliser market to prevent a “fertiliser crisis” next year.
Making the calls, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) claimed that at present the European fertiliser market is “dysfunctional”, adding that “manufacturers control production and farmers face spiralling fertiliser input costs”.
Anti-dumping duties imposed by the European Commission on some fertilisers have removed any meaningful competition from the market and left farmers facing some of the highest fertiliser prices globally, the association says.
Quoting Central Statistics Office data, the IFA noted that nitrogen fertiliser prices increased by 11% over the past 12 months to the end of July, warning that this trend “appears set to continue to rise for the remainder of the year”.
This price rise is predominantly due to a surge in the price of natural gas in Europe.
The IFA said it has joined with COPA and the other European farming associations in asking the European Commission to suspend the anti-dumping measure on urea ammonium nitrate (UAN).
This duty alone is costing European cereal farmers over €200 million per year, the association argues.
Commenting on the “fertiliser crisis” claims, IFA president Tim Cullinan said:
“With current gas prices and the knock-on impact this inevitably will have on fertiliser prices, the imposition of EU anti-dumping taxes on any fertiliser is completely unacceptable at present.
“IFA is writing to the EU Commission to seek the immediate suspension of these anti-dumping taxes,” he added.
Noting that natural gas is an essential feedstock in producing urea and nitrate fertilisers, the IFA highlighted the news that Yara is to to cut European output by 40% “due to uneconomic production costs” caused by the soaring gas prices.
In addition, the IFA noted that an American company, CF Industries, closed two fertiliser production plants in the UK earlier this week.
Neither of these manufacturers has stated when they intend to restart production, the association pointed out.
Cullinan said: “Reduced European fertiliser output will require substitution with nitrogen fertilisers manufactured outside the EU area.
“The addition of anti-dumping duties on certain nitrogen fertilisers produced outside of the European Union inflates European farm gate prices,” the IFA president concluded.