Why is the EU nonetheless shopping for Russian fertilizer? – DW – 06/04/2025 | EUROtoday

Amid the extraordinary concentrate on the European Union’s efforts to scale back imports of Russian fuel and oil over the previous few years, a big product has slipped beneath the radar: fertilizer.

Russia is a serious world producer and exporter of fertilizer, which is utilized by farmers and meals producers to supply vitamins to crops and crops.

However, whereas the EU has largely lower out Russian oil and fuel from its import listing, it ramped up its purchases of the nation’s fertilizer since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia’s share of EU fertilizer imports has grown from 17% in 2022 to about 30% now. In 2024 alone, imports rose by greater than 33% to round $2 billion (€1.75 billion).

According to the MIT Observatory of Economic Complexity — an in depth commerce knowledge platform — Russia exported a complete $15.3 billion value of fertilizers in 2023, making it the biggest exporter on the earth.

While its main export markets are India and Brazil, the EU collectively accounts for a big chunk of Russia’s exports, weighing in at round 13% in 2023.

Earlier this month, nonetheless, the European Parliament endorsed the European Commission’s proposal to introduce a 6.5% tariff on fertilizers imported from Russia and Belarus. The plan is to proceed ramping up the tariffs to 50% by 2028.

Why does the EU purchase a lot Russian fertilizer?

This may be partly defined by the kind of fertilizer Russia produces and the way it produces it. Russia focuses on nitrogen-based or inorganic fertilizer, which requires big quantities of pure fuel each as a uncooked materials and to provide it.

Many EU nations require nitrogen-based fertilizers as a result of they’re notably wealthy in nitrogen and very important vitamins equivalent to phosphorus and potassium.

William Moseley, professor of geography at Macalester College and a member of the UN High-Level Panel of Experts for Food Security and Nutrition, informed DW that Russia is especially well-placed to fulfill this demand as a result of it could actually use low cost fuel to provide the fertilizer for much decrease costs than European opponents can.

The European fertilizer sector has railed in opposition to what some have stated is Russia “dumping” low cost fertilizer into the EU market.

When European power costs surged and power marketswere disrupted by the invasion of Ukraine, many European producers of nitrogen-based fertilizers had been compelled to cease manufacturing. Now they’ve misplaced market share to Russia and are struggling to compete.

What are the EU’s options?

According to William Moseley, the EU’s tariff plans recommend it’s severe about weaning itself off Russian fertilizer by 2028.

“This will force EU countries to source inorganic fertilizer from elsewhere,” he informed DW, figuring out China, Oman, Morocco, Canada or the US as potential various markets.

Mosley believes different options for the EU can be to show to its personal sources of nitrogen-based fertilizer — which might be very costly, because of the fuel necessities — or to ramp up the usage of natural fertilizermade from manure and composted natural waste.

This choice, he added, was “more sustainable and better for the soil.”

“While it is unlikely that the EU could become totally independent of inorganic fertilizer imports, it could certainly shift the ratio towards more dependence on home-grown organic fertilizer production, especially if it is done gradually,” stated Mosley.

The EU itself has acknowledged that it desires to maneuver on this path of growing fertilizer processed from animal dung and urine.

Christophe Hansen, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, stated in February that the livestock sector might “provide a positive input to the circular economy” with natural fertilizer, as it’s “domestically grown and doesn’t need to come from outside and is not based on high energy prices like gas.”

How will the EU plan work?

Moseley thinks the EU fertilizer tariffs, if carried out as deliberate to 2028, will regularly remove Russian imports from the EU market. “By 2028, the duties will be so high that it will be economically unviable for the EU to import inorganic fertilizer from Russia and Belarus.”

The EU’s sanctions will come into impact in July and particularly goal agricultural merchandise which it had uncared for beforehand, together with fertilizers.

In an announcement, the EU Commission stated notably fertilzer imports “make the EU vulnerable to potential coercive actions by Russia and thus present a risk to EU food security.”

The cause why the sanctions are to be phased in regularly over the following three years is to provide EU farmers time to seek out options, notably if they’re already depending on Russian fertilizers.

Are farmers and fertilizer producers completely happy?

In an announcement on the EU tariff plan, the president of the Fertilizers Europe business group, Leo Alders, stated surging imports of Russian fertilizers into Europe have been “undermining fair competition and putting pressure on domestic producers” for too lengthy.

Although calling for increased tariffs to be introduced in additional rapidly, Alders wrote that “by levelling the playing field, tariffs will contribute to ensuring that European producers can continue supplying European farmers with high-quality, sustainable fertilizers for years to come.”

However, farmers’ teams should not completely happy as a result of they really feel the EU has not achieved sufficient to develop reasonable, reasonably priced options to Russian fertilizer.

Copa and Cocega, the 2 main agricultural umbrella organisations within the EU, launched a joint assertion urging the EU to current a transparent technique on diversification of fertilizer provide.

If the EU is set to scale back dependency on Russian and Belarusian fertilizers, they stated, it should current a “credible and forward-looking” various.

“We cannot afford to further undermine the economic viability of farms or the food security of millions across the EU,” the statment underlined.

Edited by: Uwe Hessler