EU fertiliser production still only at 50%

Fertiliser terminal at sunset

The European Commission’s communication last week on ensuring the availability and affordability of fertilisers contained little to ease farmers’ worries about getting fertiliser in the spring, and it confirmed that 50% of the EU’s production capacity is still closed, down from more than 70% in early September.

Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said the global mineral fertiliser crisis is not just for farmers, or fertiliser producers, but for everyone, because more than half the food produced in the world depends on mineral fertilisers. But soaring prices for the natural gas used to produce ammonia and other nitrogen products have forced fertiliser manufacturers to reduce production, threatening the EU’s strategic autonomy in fertilisers, with a knock-on effect across the entire agri-food supply chain.