Poland: high prices and the lowest use of fertilizers

Warsaw - As of the beginning of spring, Polish farmers are buying more fertilizers, but their prices remain relatively high and some of the chemical plants forecast further increases due to the growing price of natural gas used in the production process. According to Polish fruit portal www.sadownictwo.com.pl, Poland with the annual use of fertilizers at around 100 kg per hectare comes at the end in the European ranking. A sudden crash in the Polish fertilizer market happened after 1990 when economical situation of Polish agricultural enterprises became worse than before. At the same time large agricultural enterprises formerly owned by the government started to disappear (they were the most important buyer of fertilizers during the communist era in Poland).

Though since that time farmers started to buy more fertilizers again, Poland is still one of the EU countries with the lowest use of fertilizers in agriculture – the total annual sales are no larger than 3,5 million MT. At the end of March the average price of nitrogen fertilizers (they make 50% of the market) amounted to 171-210 €/MT with ammonium nitrate remaining the most frequently use. The most popular phosphoric fertilizers are more expensive – they cost around 290 €/MT. Prices of imported fertilizers are also growing. But Polish fertilizers producers do not complain, because export is growing since Polish fertilizers are relatively cheap in Western countries.

Publication date: April 5 2007
Author: FreshPlaza Correspondent Poland
Copyright: www.freshplaza.com