More and more farmers in Germany are dependent on fertilizers from Russia. This is one of the surprising findings announced by the Agricultural Industry Association (IVA) at its annual press conference. According to the report, the war against Ukraine started by Russia has driven gas prices in the EU to such heights that the production of ammonia, an important raw material for nitrogen fertilizers, has hardly paid off. Last August, 60 percent of ammonia production in the EU, Switzerland, Norway and the UK was shut down, said IVA spokesman Marco Fleischmann.
Bernd Freytag
Economic correspondent Rhein-Neckar-Saar, based in Mainz.
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Since the EU is already dependent on fertilizer imports, the need for imports has increased sharply. According to him, Russia has used cheap gas as a competitive advantage and has increased exports to the EU more than fivefold. In the 2022/23 "fertiliser season", Russia's share of imports was 19 percent. "This means that Russia has once again supplied more energy to Germany and the EU via the detour of fertilisers, refined energy," said Fleischmann.
This would increase the dependence of European food production on countries from which it 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. Whether this development will continue, the association did not want to dare to answer. In fact, part of 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 in short supply globally.
Associations warn of migration of food production
The upheavals show once again the dependence of industrial food production on artificial fertilizers. The chemical industry expects food demand to increase by half between 2005 and 2050 – when the world population will reach 10 billion people. This cannot be achieved without fertilizers. The association rejects the goal set by the EU Commission as part of the Green Deal to reduce the use of pesticides by half by 2030.
It is not the goal that is the problem, 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 neighbouring countries. The German Farmers' Association has therefore also warned against a migration of food production.
The planned EU regulation is far from mature and urgently needs to be revised, said Wagner. The goal should not be to reduce the amount by half, but to reduce the risk. In addition to greater use of precision agriculture, the association is therefore focusing on new biological pesticides and resilient varieties.