Farmers rattled by rising cost of fertiliser


Russia’s grip on the fertiliser market is being felt by British farmers who face sharply rising prices that are expected to have a big effect on the supply chain and push up the cost of groceries.

Farmers are paying close to £1,000 a tonne for ammonium nitrate fertiliser, compared with £647 in January and £245 in January last year, according to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board. The cost of urea, phosphate and potash fertiliser has more than doubled.

James Cox, an arable farmer in Gloucestershire, said that fertiliser used to be 55 per cent of the cost of his business, but will now be near to 80 per cent. “If I used to pay around £36,000 for my fertiliser and am now facing a £120,000 bill, where am I going to get that money from? None of us knows what the price will be for next year and we are all having to take decisions about laying it now.”

The UK produces about 40 per cent of its own fertiliser. Russia is the world’s largest export of fertiliser.

EuroChem, which is controlled by Andrey Melnichenko, Russia’s seventh-wealthiest person, has been affected by sanctions. Industry experts have said the European Commission could now use merger control powers to block EuroChem’s proposed takeover of nitrogen fertiliser producer Borealis, which could increase Russia’s position further.

Melnichenko was yesterday among Russian business chiefs sanctioned by the EU along with Andrei Guryev, chief executive of PhosAgro, Europe’s largest producer of phosphate-based fertilisers, and Dmitry Mazepin, the majority shareholder of rival fertiliser company Uralchem.

Prices are expected to rise further as a result of sanctions.

Norway’s Yara, one of the world’s largest fertiliser makers, said yesterday that it would curtail ammonia and urea output in Italy and France due to the rise in natural gas prices.

Svein Tore Holsether, chief executive, warned this week: “It’s not whether we are moving into a global food crisis, it’s how large the crisis will be.”


Like it? Share with your friends!

What's Your Reaction?

hate hate
0
hate
confused confused
0
confused
fail fail
0
fail
fun fun
0
fun
geeky geeky
0
geeky
love love
0
love
lol lol
0
lol
omg omg
0
omg
win win
0
win
Administrator

0 Comments

Your email address will not be published.

Choose A Format
Personality quiz
Series of questions that intends to reveal something about the personality
Trivia quiz
Series of questions with right and wrong answers that intends to check knowledge
Poll
Voting to make decisions or determine opinions
Story
Formatted Text with Embeds and Visuals
List
The Classic Internet Listicles
Countdown
The Classic Internet Countdowns
Open List
Submit your own item and vote up for the best submission
Ranked List
Upvote or downvote to decide the best list item
Meme
Upload your own images to make custom memes
Video
Youtube and Vimeo Embeds
Audio
Soundcloud or Mixcloud Embeds
Image
Photo or GIF
Gif
GIF format