25th January, 2016
ICSA president Patrick Kent has demanded to know why fertilizer quotes are remaining static while natural gas and oil prices have fallen dramatically. “Quotes for fertiliser are similar to last year. This is in spite of tumbling fuel prices including the price of natural gas which is the biggest component of nitrogen based fertilizers,” he said.
The index for natural gas price has fallen from US$3.43/million BTU (British Thermal Units) in December 2014 to US$1.92 in December 2015. Today’s price is slightly higher at US $2.13 but this is still at least 30% lower than at the end of 2014. Even though the euro has slipped in value against the dollar, this is only of the order of 10% over the period.
“Many farmers are very angry at this point, last year the high price of oil and gas was used as an excuse to justify the high price of fertilizer. What is the excuse this year? There is an urgent need for the EU Commission to examine just what is going on in the fertiliser industry,” he concluded.
ENDS
