Total fertiliser sales were down over 15% in the last three annual quarters compared to the same three quarters of the previous statistical year, according to figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine.
The statistical year for fertiliser sales runs for 12 months from October to the following September, with the first three quarters running until June.
From last October to last June, a total of 935,423t of fertiliser was sold, comprised of 379,075t of straight fertiliser and 556,348t of compound fertiliser.
The total figure is down 15.43% on the total figure for the 2021/2022 statistical year, which was 1,106,109t.
The data also provides the nutrient content of the fertiliser sold, which refers to the tonnage of nutrients in the fertiliser (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, or a combination of these in a compound fertiliser).
The total nutrient content of fertiliser sold in the nine months to June was 324,182t, with the nutrient content of straight fertiliser at 125,892t and that of compound fertiliser at 342,182t.
The total nutrient content figure was down 14.56% compared to the first three quarters of the 2021/2022 year.
Sales of straight fertiliser containing nitrogen in the three quarters to June stood at 361,953t, while sales of compound fertilisers containing nitrogen amounted to 547,156t.
The combined sales for fertiliser containing nitrogen was 909,156t, a decrease of 15.78% for the same figure for the three quarters to June 2022.
Sales of straight fertiliser containing phosphorous in the nine months from last October to last June amounted to 5,792t, while sales of compound fertiliser containing phosphorous came to 542,074t.
The sales of all fertiliser containing phosphorous in the analysed time period totalled 547,866t, a decrease of 8.99% on the same period for 2021/2022.
For straight fertilisers containing potassium, 11,330t were sold between October and June, while 551,887t of compound fertiliser containing potassium was sold in the time period.
A total of 563,217t of fertiliser containing potassium were sold the first three quarter of this statistical year, a decrease of 8.34%.