Chicago, Oct. 25 (BNA): US exports of nitrogen fertilizer jumped to a multi-year high this summer after rising natural gas prices in Europe drove up production costs for crop nutrients there, making US shipments more competitive.
The scarcity of fertilizer supplies has driven crop nutrient prices so high around the world that the United Nations warned this month of a “future crisis” in their availability. Reuters reported that European companies were forced to close some fertilizer plants due to rising costs.
Exports from the United States, the world’s third-largest producer, rose to 370,000 short tons of nutrients in August, more than double the previous year’s total, according to the latest US Census Bureau data, compiled by industry group The Fertilizer Institute (Fertilizer Institute). TFI). This number is the highest monthly total since TFI began tracking data in 2013.
Alistair Wallace, director of Argus Media in London, said European buyers are outbidding domestic buyers in both the United States and other exporters such as Indonesia and Malaysia.
Despite the increase in exports, separate data from the International Trade Initiative shows that as of June, supply of nitrogen fertilizers in the United States was at the second highest level in the past decade, indicating global disruption, not shortages.
The countries with the largest annual increase in US purchases are in Europe – France, Belgium, Norway and Lithuania – as well as Morocco, Chile and Brazil.
Wallace said European countries typically buy most of the imported urea, a form of nitrogen fertilizer, from North Africa, but are now buying it further afield.
Pekka Pessonen, Secretary General of the European Cuba-Kojica Agricultural Group, said European farmers are not able to stockpile fertilizer as much as they should before planting next spring due to high prices and tight supply.
“We’re talking about needing huge amounts over a short period of time,” Bisonen said.
SM