Calling for the issuance of vouchers worth €2,000 to farmers

Calls for farmers are being made to receive vouchers worth €2,000 to help offset rising fertilizer prices.

CSA has called on Agriculture Secretary Charlie McConalogue to issue this document as a matter of urgency.

“The offer must be paid at the rate of 50 percent of the total fertilizer bill for 2021, up to a maximum of €2,000,” said Tim Farrell, ICSA Rural Development Chair.

He said the voucher system is currently the only way to assist farmers in buying fertilizer.

According to Keith Fahy, B&T dry ingredients advisor to Teagasc, it comes about because sulfur-protected urea has crossed the €1,000/ton mark and even at that price, supply is limited, many merchants can’t find this source.

Fahy says that conventional urea is trading around the €930/t mark with compounds like 18-6-12 retailing around €750/t.

Last week, IFA President Tim Cullinan met EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowsk and discussed the unusual rise in input costs.

Rising costs are impacting all sectors, he said, but are especially having a severe impact on the pig, poultry and horticultural sectors.

“These cost pressures are likely to increase as a result of developments in Ukraine.

“Farmers are currently affected by unusual cost inflation for fertilizers, feed and energy. This is not sustainable. It has had a serious impact on our swine industry and the Commission needs to act immediately to address this,” he said.

Before Christmas, Agro MD Liam Woulfe said he is unlikely to see a price change anytime soon.

“I can’t see the environment we’re in right now changing over the next 6-10 months. It could change in 2023,” he said.

He estimates that the physical fertilizer stock in the country is “50 percent of a typical year.”

In January, Bloomberg estimated that Europe is being hit hardest by the fertilizer crisis, with nutrient prices remaining at record levels, even as pressure has eased in North America.