Aontú leader, Deputy Peadar Tóibín has claimed that the rise in fertiliser costs in recent years “suited” what he described as the government’s “green agenda”.
The deputy called for “emergency supports” for farmers, saying that the “scale of the inflation” in terms of fertiliser costs was “absolutely colossal”.
Fertiliser credits should be put in place for farmers in the same way the government provided energy credits during the cost-of-living crisis, according to Deputy Tóibín.
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the associated sanctions taken by Ireland and Europe resulted in an unprecedented rise in the cost of fertiliser,” Deputy Tóibín said.
Commenting on the rise in fertiliser costs, he said: “Farmers around the country were left with two options – either fork out the money that they didn’t have, or else refrain from using fertiliser altogether.
“The rise in cost, I believe, actually suited this government’s green agenda, and I suspect that’s why they were so [reluctant] to tackle the problem.
“For those farmers who did pay up, they’re now stuck in losses and debt. For those who did without, they’re not making profit either because their grass yield, the number of bales of hay and silage they produced from their fields was down big time on previous years as a result”.
Fertiliser costs
Government data on fertiliser prices shows that the price of calcium ammonium nitrates (27.5% nitrogen) started rising continuously from €242/t in February 2021.
In the month Russia invaded Ukraine, February 2022, the price of fertiliser stood at €697/t and reached its peak at €964/t in May 2022. Since then, fertiliser prices have declined again and as of February 2024, stand at €388/t.
Latest figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) last week show that fertiliser prices fell by nearly 40% over the 12 months to March 2024.
The Aontú leader said that while he welcomes the recent reduction in the cost of fertiliser, the “damage has been done”. He believes that for the next few years the government should subsidise the cost of fertiliser.
In response to the Aontú leader, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue said that based on CSO data, it can be seen that the price of fertiliser, “like most commodities”, is “cyclical” in nature.
The following table sets out the CSO Agricultural Price Index for fertiliser for February for the years 2015 to 2024, as provided by Minister McConalogue:
Month Index February 2015 123.7 February 2016 116.8 February 2017 99.1 February 2018 84.9 February 2019 92.7 February 2020 83.6 February 2021 82.5 February 2022 179.9 February 2023 223.1 February 2024 122.7
“Despite significant rises in recent years, the overall average price index is broadly in line with what it was ten years ago, having seen strong downward pressure on prices during the course of the past twelve months,” the minister said.