Brussels, 16 February 2023: the EU Fertilizer industry welcomes Parliament’s recognition of the key role fertilizers play in ensuring sufficient and quality food production for Europe and globally, as well as its essential role in the production of AdBlue for the transport sector and CO₂ for the food industry. Fertilizers Europe supports the MEPs call for a long-term EU fertilizer strategy to prevent new dependencies on imported fertilizers and thus ensuring long-term strategic autonomy in Europe.

On Thursday, 16 February 2023 the European Parliament voted in favour of the motion for a resolution on the Commission Communication on ensuring availability and affordability of fertilisers.

“We are pleased to see that the European Parliament’s overwhelming majority recognises the key role of the fertilizer industry for food production as well as for its industrial products such as AdBlue for road transport sector and CO₂ supplies for the beverage and food industry” said Cecilia Dardes, Agriculture and Environment Manager at Fertilizers Europe.

Dardes added “Regrettably, the resolution does  not  reflect  in  a  balanced  way  the  importance  of  mineral fertilizers for the productivity of the EU agriculture. With 50% of food produced with the help of mineral fertilizers, organic and mineral fertilization sources must be seen as part of the same puzzle. Mineral fertilizers provide the essential distinct high productivity boost  thus  supporting  farmers  in  ensuring  balanced  plant  nutrition  and  in effect growing high-quality crops”.

“We regret to see the Parliament’s call for prolonged suspension and extended coverage of import  duties. Looking at trade figures, imports of urea to Europe have massively surged in the Autumn of 2022, before the suspension of import tariffs, clearly demonstrating that duties do not prevent imports. Such a surge is a negative development for fertilizer producers, farmers and the EU’s environmental goals considering the higher environmental footprint of imported fertilizers in comparison to EU-made fertilizers” stated Sean Mackle, Trade and Economic Director at Fertilizers Europe.

Mackle added “Lifting anti-dumping measures and import duties would only jeopardize the competitiveness of the European fertilizer industry and its ability to continue providing European farmers with the nutrients they need  to  obtain high-quality  yields.  This  would ultimately  lead Europe  to  become  fully  dependent  on non-EU fertilizer supplies, replacing gas dependency with dependency on imported fertilizers”.

Contacts:

SEAN MACKLE

Trade and Economic Director sean.mackle@fertilizerseurope.com

CECILIA DARDES

Agriculture and Environnent Manager cecilia.dardes@fertilizerseurope.com