Increasing imports: More and more Russian fertilizers on German fields

“Sanctions on Russia have pushed up gas prices. The West European production of the raw material ammonia, which is important for nitrogen fertilizers, is hardly worthwhile anymore. Russia, of all people, benefits from this.

More and more farmers in Germany are dependent on fertilizers from Russia. This is one of the surprising findings that the Agricultural Industry Association (IVA) announced at its annual press conference. The sanctions on Russia have driven up gas prices in the EU to such an extent that the production of ammonia, which is an important raw material for nitrogen fertilizers, is hardly economical. Last August, 60 percent of ammonia production in the EU, Switzerland, Norway and Great Britain was shut down, said IVA spokesman Marco Fleischmann.

Since the EU is dependent on fertilizer imports anyway, the need for imports has increased significantly. According to him, Russia has used the cheap gas as a competitive advantage and has more than quintupled exports to the EU.

In the "fertilizer season" 2022/23, Russia's share of imports is 19 percent. "As a result, Russia has delivered more energy to Germany and the EU via the detour of fertilizers, refined energy," said Fleischmann.

This increases the dependency of European food production on countries from which one actually wanted to become independent. Especially since, according to Fleischmann, production in Russia is also significantly more harmful to the environment than in the EU. The association did not dare to answer whether this development will continue. In fact, part of the ammonia production in Europe will probably not be ramped up permanently. 

BASF, for example, has announced that it will end production in Ludwigshafen. 

However, ammonia is not scarce globally.

Associations warn against migration of food production

The upheavals show once again how dependent industrial food production is on artificial fertilizers. The chemical industry assumes that the need for food will increase by half between 2005 and 2050, when the world population will reach 10 billion. This cannot be done without fertilizer. The association rejects the goal set by the EU Commission as part of the Green Deal of reducing the use of crop protection chemicals by half by 2030.

The problem is not the goal, but the implementation. IVA President Michael Wagner pointed out that Germany was particularly affected by the planned total ban in sensitive areas - such as nature reserves - because it had designated significantly more such areas than neighboring countries.

The German Farmers' Association has therefore warned against a migration of food production.

The planned EU regulation is far from mature and urgently needs to be revised, said Wagner. The aim should not be to reduce the quantity by half, but the risk. In addition to greater use of precision agriculture, the association is therefore focusing on new biological pesticides and resilient varieties.”

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