Foot-and-mouth freezes fertiliser prices

By Roger Chesher

MARCHS fertiliser prices are being held over to April by some suppliers, allowing time for orders placed now to be fulfilled later.

With somewhere between 4-800,000 tonnes of nitrogen due to be transported to British farms between now and June, suppliers would expect to be currently at full stretch given that spreading conditions are now ideal in most of England, as warm, dry conditions prevail.

But, with the tragedy of foot-and-mouth disease, the only trickle of movement is to arable farms, merchants are flat out with feed deliveries, reps are at home and the fertiliser market is dead.

The situation is such that one could expect a temporary slowing of production before long, through lack of storage space, with consequent impact later in the supply chain.

The industry simply will not be able to cope with demand when it comes, and farmers will, to a certain extent, have to accept fertiliser when they can get it, rather than on demand.

Wherever possible, therefore, it would be wise to order fertiliser now to secure a place in the queue.

The supply situation for imports in late March and April is now quite stable with prices around 110/t c.i.f. (carriage, insurance and freight).

With offloading, delivery and margin this still puts it on farm at around 125/t.

Potash prices have moved very little, but phosphate is edging upwards.

Leftover autumn fertiliser from the disastrous drilling season could be a good buy if you can find it.

Farm prices in Ireland are still not firm.

After years of being caught out, for once it seems that the early buyer of fertiliser will have prospered.

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