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Fertiliser price hikes are squeezing Jersey's farmers - but they should be able to avoid the latest cost chaos due to the war in Ukraine.
In the UK, farmers are now paying close to £1,000 a tonne for ammonium nitrate fertiliser, compared with £647 in January and £245 in January last year. The cost of urea, phosphate and potash fertiliser has more than doubled.
Russia is the world’s largest exporter of fertiliser and prices are expected to rise further as a result of sanctions against Russian firms and individuals.
For now, however, Jersey farmers are not having to pay these greatly inflated prices, although fertiliser prices had already doubled when they purchased for this season last autumn.
Jersey Farmers Union President Peter Le Maistre said: “The price of fertiliser in November 2020 for the 2021 season was roughly £300 per tonne.
“We were quoted over £600 pounds per tonne in October 2021 for this season and most growers bought at that price. A few waited, expecting prices to weaken, but paid close to £700 per tonne in December."
Pictured: JFU President Peter Le Maistre.
He continued: “[Last] week, a representative from Yara, one of Europes biggest fertiliser companies, voiced his concern that the reduction in supplies from Ukraine would, in the best-case scenario, lead to more price increases, and in the worst, food shortages as no fertiliser means reduced yield.
“The good news from the local perspective is all of the fertiliser we need this year is on farm.”
Norway’s Yara also announced that it was cutting its ammonia and urea output in Italy and France due to the surge in natural gas prices, in another sign of rising costs for food production.
The price of natural gas, which is used in the fertiliser manufacturing process, hit record highs in recent days following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reported Reuters.
Yara’s plants in Ferrara, Italy and in Le Havre, Normandy, have a combined annual capacity of one million tonnes of ammonia and just under a million tonnes of urea fertiliser.
As well as fertiliser, animal feed and CO2, which is used in packaging and the slaughter of livestock, are expected to rise as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The UK’s National Farmers Union said that farmers were likely to offset the price rises by buying less fertiliser than usual this season for cereal crops, potentially leading to lower production at a time when there is a threat to supplies from Ukraine.
Ukraine is known as the ‘breadbasket of Europe’ and is the fifth largest grain producer in the world.
Ukraine war 'to hit Jersey in the shops and at the pumps'
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