THE downward pressure on fertiliser prices is continuing after drops of €40 to €60 a tonne at different outlets last week.

According to the IFA, fertiliser prices across Europe have dropped by around 60% this year as compared to the spring of 2002 – but Ireland has lagged far behind in terms of the reductions.

IFA Deputy President Brian Rushe said that the UK’s Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB) showed a drop in urea prices in Britain of over 40% from September 2022 to February 2023.

Galway IFA Environment Rep. Henry Walsh told the Farming Tribune that the prices for all of the nitrogen based fertilisers should have dropped an awful lot more than they had in Ireland.

“Natural gas is now roughly one tenth of the price that it was last year after the start of the war in Ukraine – this should have translated into a major price drop in CAN  and urea this year.

“The compound fertilisers [e.g. 18.6.12) are somewhat different in that the P (phosphorous) and K (potassium) have to be mined but natural gas is the big fuel cost with nitrogen,” said Henry Walsh.

Connacht IFA Chair, Pat Murphy, said that the reduction in fertiliser prices in Northern Ireland was happening at a far quicker rate than in Southern Ireland.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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