At the end of December 2022, the European Union suspended import duties on urea and ammonia from third countries. Will there now be a reflection and reintroduction of tariffs at least on Russia and Belarus? This is proposed by a Polish fertilizer manufacturer. Meanwhile, one in six tons of fertilizer worldwide comes from Russia, and the country is forecasting record fertilizer exports in 2024.
- On December 16, 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted a regulation temporarily suspending customs duties on urea and ammonia.
- The president of Grupa Azoty Puławy, Hubert Kamola, proposed the introduction of 30 percent. customs duties at European level on mineral fertilizers from these directions.
- 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.
- The fertilizer industry wants the EU to decide to act urgently to stop imports of Russian fertilizers financing its bloody war with Ukraine.
We would like to remind you that on December 16, 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted a regulation temporarily suspending customs duties on urea and ammonia from the so-called third countries. Even then, representatives of European fertilizer producers were dissatisfied with this fact. As they warned, due to the EU Council’s decision to temporarily suspend customs duties, Europe will register an increase in imported products. In their opinion, such behavior was another blow to the European fertilizer industry, whose competitiveness has been weakened by the energy crisis and environmental activities. And it actually happened. Imports increased significantly, which was felt by our domestic producer. And in “defense” against this import, specifically from Russia and Belarus, it wants to protect itself. The president of Grupa Azoty Puławy, Hubert Kamola, has just proposed the introduction of 30 percent. customs duties at European level on mineral fertilizers from these directions. of Russian origin. He stated that the company’s loss exceeded PLN 1.2 billion net.
Huge import of cheap fertilizers from Russia
This data is backed up by numbers. We wrote about it on farmer.pl. Grzegorz Tomczyk reported that Europe has become addicted to cheap Russian fertilizers. – Europe faces a real risk of becoming dependent on cheap Russian urea fertilizers. From the point of view of European food security, this is terrible, Antoine Hodja, the director general of the industry association of fertilizer producers Fertilizers Europe, quoted as saying.
The numbers don’t lie. As Arkadiusz Zalewski from the Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics National Research Institute recently reported, even 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 – Zalewski reported on Linkedin.
This was not always the case, because in 2022, due to restrictions on foreign trade, the share of Russia and Belarus in the import of mineral fertilizers decreased noticeably. Then, more fertilizers were imported to Poland from third countries, but from, 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.
There is a lot of talk about introducing a customs duty
Euractiv writes about this, in the context of the EU’s decision to act urgently to stop the import of Russian fertilizers financing its bloody war with Ukraine.
– At a time when the EU is working to separate its economy from Russia, the numbers are surprising! Since the 2020/2021 agricultural season, EU imports of Russian urea have doubled. Russia currently accounts for around one third of total EU imports. France imports 80% of its fertilizer needs from Russia. The sale of Russian fertilizers is the main source of income and foreign currency profits for the Russian state and its macabre war machine. It is estimated that the sales of this single product generated revenues of over EUR 1.5 billion in 2022-2023. In addition, Russia has introduced a 10% export tax on fertilizers and a tax on excess profits. Both of them intend to directly finance the occupation forces – we read on Euractiv.
It is not only Poles who are calling for changes. The European fertilizer industry also does this. He explicitly calls on the EU to take the strongest possible action to stop Russia from using urea exports as a weapon.
– The EU could also agree on measures to protect EU farmers from the effects of tariffs imposed on imports of Russian urea. For example, there is a period of time between the announcement of tariffs and their imposition. This would give EU producers time to increase production to meet demand. Farmers would not live without the fertilizers they need because the EU has enough spare production capacity to meet domestic demand, Euractiv reports.
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