“We talk a lot about automotive microchip shortage forgetting that fertilizers and seeds are the chips of agriculture and we need production autonomy, which we don't have at the moment". This is how the Agriculture minister summed up the current problem with fertilizers across Europe. Spanish farmers are living with uncertainty as they don’t know if they will have enough fertilizers for the next season.
The underlying problem is a slowdown in the manufacture of fertilizers, due to the high cost of gas on international markets, which has forced some plants involved in the production of this chemical input to close -temporarily for the time being. Of the several fertilizer factories in Spain (Fig. 1), only two seem to be producing at a low rate at the moment although there is no official confirmation from the companies.
Fig. 1. Fertilizer factories in Spain
Uncertainty in the primary sector
Fertilizer production in Europe has been reduced by 70% because of high gas prices - gas is both a raw material and a source of energy to manufacture them. Another important factor regarding Spain is that the country needs to import half of the fertilizers used by farmers.
In the primary sector, concerns about what will happen in the coming months are clear: "Last year there were already supply problems and, in some cases, it was not possible to make the crop fertilization at time", a spokesman for the farmers’ organization COAG says. For the farmers' organization UPA, "we are living in times of uncertainty because we don't know what is going to happen", its spokesperson adds in reference to both the cost of this input and its possible lack of stock on the market.
Fig. 2 Agricultural consumption of fertilizers in Spain
Fig. 3. Consumption of inorganic chemical fertilizers in Spain
Fig. 4 Consumption by fertilizer groups in Spain
Fig. 5. Fertilizer production in Spain
Fig. 6 Fertilizer sales in Spain