The COPA-Cogeca, an organization that brings together in Brussels all agricultural organizations and agri-food cooperatives of the European Union, has published a document in which it demands a series of concrete measures from the Commission to address the fertilizer crisis and ensure long-term market stability.
Following the US attack on Iran, fertilizers have once again become the focus of farmers' concerns, who since Russia's invasion of Ukraine has seen how prices increased and complicated farmers' accounts.
In fact, four days before the invasion of Iran, the European Union gave the green light to a transitional measure with which it intends to save some 60 million euros in import duties and which consists of suspending for one year said Most Favored Nation (MFN) duties on imports of ammonia or urea. In this regard, if the situation of farmers was already complicated before, the brake on the supply of raw materials necessary for the production of fertilizers such as sulfur or gas, further complicates the outlook.
Urgent measures
Precisely, suspending MFN rights is one of the measures requested by the collective that brings together all European farmers and cooperativists, COPA-Cogeca, who point to others as urgent:
- suspension of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (known by its English acronym as CBAM) to reduce its impact on production costs.
- modification of the Nitrates Directive to reduce dependence on synthetic fertilizers and facilitate greater flexibility in the use of manures.
- strengthen the Fertilizer Market Observatory and apply Competition measures to provide farmers with reliable information on their availability and prices.
- align and apply RENURE manure application criteria (nitrogen recovered from manure) with the recommendations of the JRC (Joint Research Center).
Alongside them, European producers also propose another series of improvements in the medium and long term.
European Action Plan
Part of these measures were already announced in early January by the European Commissioner for Trade, Commissioner Šefčovič, who acknowledged that "although prices have stabilized, fertilizer costs are still around 60% higher than in 2020. This is simply not sustainable".
In fact, the European Commissioner for Trade announced the presentation of an Action Plan on Fertilizers that by the second quarter of 2026 with the aim of providing stability to a necessary input to supply food to European citizens.
For its part, it should be remembered that the Government of Spain, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, approved a Royal Decree-Law (20/2022) to establish a series of temporary aids due to the increase in fertilizer costs and also others to cover the price of diesel consumed by farmers.