Fertilizer market analyst Arkadiusz Zalewski from the Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics, National Research Institute, published data on the import of fertilizers to Poland via the Linkedin social networking site. It turns out that Russia is the country from which we import the most, and the most of all European Union countries.
- Poland is the largest importer of nitrogen fertilizers from Russia among EU countries.
- The EU is a net importer of nitrogen fertilizers in both volume and value terms.
- Russia predicts record fertilizer exports in 2024.
- One in six tons of fertilizer in the world comes from Russia.
- The price of urea has gone up recently.
Based on the analysis of preliminary data from the Ministry of Finance, Zalewski assessed the scale of imports of mineral fertilizers to Poland in the period January-March 2024 (the most current data as of today) and noted that it was quantitatively larger than in the same period a year earlier. The increase in imports concerned in particular compound and potassium fertilizers (in the case of these two groups of fertilizers it was more than double). Details below.
Where does Poland import fertilizers from?
– In total in the first quarter of this year. 1.21 million tons of fertilizers were imported (in fertilizer weight) compared to 646 thousand tons a year earlier (an increase of 86.8% y/y). Imports of nitrogen fertilizers (single-component) increased by 55.9% to 656 thousand. tons, multi-component by 136.7% to 240 thousand tons, and potassium by 137.9% to 294 thousand. tone. Fertilizer imports in the first quarter of this year. was the highest since the first quarter of 2020 (then it amounted to 1.22 million tons). The available data also shows that recorded in the first quarter of this year. the volume of imports of nitrogen fertilizers (656 thousand tons) was record-breaking – informs Arkadiusz Zalewski.
Importantly, these data show that Poland is the largest importer of nitrogen fertilizers from Russia among the EU countries.
– Eurostat data and IERiGŻ PIB analyzes show that in the first quarter of this year. Almost 2.8 million tons of nitrogen fertilizers worth over EUR 870 million were imported from third countries to the EU. At the same time, the volume of EU exports to non-EU countries amounted to 1.6 million tonnes, and the value – EUR 474.4 million. The EU is therefore a net importer of nitrogen fertilizers in both quantity and value terms. The most nitrogen fertilizers were imported from Russia in the first quarter of 2024 – 802,000. tons – 29.2% of the volume of EU imports (value – EUR 233 million). Nevertheless, the export volume from Egypt was “only” 10.8% lower. In addition, large quantities were imported from Algeria, China, Georgia, the USA and Uzbekistan. 58.5 thousand were also imported. tons of nitrogen fertilizers from Belarus – says Zalewski on Linkedin.
How much fertilizer did our country buy from Russia? The most, as many as 232 thousand. tons – which accounted for 28.9% of the volume of imports of nitrogen fertilizers from the Russian Federation to the EU. France is in second place with almost 106,000. tons, then Germany – 97 thousand. tons and Belgium – 56.5 thousand tone.
His data shows that the largest recipients of nitrogen fertilizers (within the EU) from Egypt were countries such as Italy, Greece, Spain, Romania and France.
We would like to remind you that fertilizer production in Egypt has been temporarily closed due to the heatwave. This resulted in an increase in fertilizer prices on the market. Urea prices in Egypt have increased by almost $50 in the last few weeks. The reason for this state of affairs was lower grain balances, but also hot weather, which contributed to restrictions in the production of fertilizers (savings in energy consumption and limited supply of natural gas). This can be seen in the chart.
Record import of nitrogen fertilizers from Russia to Poland
These data should not be surprising, because we have already informed about it on farmer.pl that Russia is a country that, contrary to appearances, supplies us with a lot of this means of production. How much exactly?
As Zalewski reminds, in 2022, due to restrictions on foreign trade, the share of Russia and Belarus in Polish imports of mineral fertilizers decreased noticeably. Larger imports were carried out, among others, from Oman, Canada, Algeria, Uzbekistan, USA, Nigeria, Turkmenistan. But despite the ongoing war, this trend has reversed and since the beginning of 2023, fertilizer imports from the Russian Federation have increased noticeably (which is supported by competitive prices). 1st quarter of this year import from Russia amounted to 355 thousand. tons and was almost 6 times higher than the year before.
– Recorded in the first quarter of this year. volume of imports from Russia at the level of 355 thousand. tons was the highest in 4 years (in the first quarter of 2020 it amounted to 382 thousand tons). In the structure of fertilizer imports from Russia, nitrogen fertilizers predominated, while imports from Germany concerned mainly potassium fertilizers. The volume of imports of nitrogen fertilizers from Russia in the first quarter of this year. (almost 240 thousand tons) was record-breaking. 44.7 thousand tons were imported from Belarus (where the import of mineral fertilizers containing potassium chloride is currently banned). tons of nitrogen fertilizers and 18.8 thousand tons of compound fertilizers, which accounted for 6.8% and 7.8% of the import of nitrogen and compound fertilizers, respectively – reports Arkadiusz Zalewski on Linkedin.
Russia predicts record fertilizer exports in 2024.
This information was also provided on Linkedin by Ebrahim Argha, who deals with the fertilizer market. He quoted the Russian Association of Fertilizer Producers, which said that by the end of 2024 they forecast that the country will exceed the national fertilizer export record of 2021. Andrei Guryev, head of the association, announced this at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
What will be the driving force behind this? According to Argh, this includes, among others: it’s a fact that 75 percent of fertilizer exports in 2023 went to countries considered friendly by Russia. And this trend may continue.
It is also worth knowing that Russia currently has a very strong position in the world market, despite the war.
– Russia has 18 percent. share in the global mineral fertilizer market. This means that one in six tons of fertilizer in the world comes from Russia, Ebrahim Argha reported.
