The head of Fertilizers Europe, the main body representing European fertiliser producers, told the IFA’s international fertiliser conference on Thursday that he expects nitrogen fertiliser prices to fall later this year.

Jacob Hansen delivered the news as European producers are under pressure to explain why nitrogen fertiliser prices have increased by upwards of 7% over the past year, while gas prices were falling by 30%.

Maixmo Torero from the International Food Policy Research Institute presented figures showing the evolution of fertiliser and oil prices and said “something was going on”: while crude oil and fertiliser usually track eachother, “today there is a huge gap”.

Hansen said he expected European producers to reduce prices by mid-to-late summer, but he did not know by how much as this would “depend on what is supplied and demanded”.

Outlining the reasons why fertiliser prices remain high despite the fall in gas prices, Hansen likened the linkage to that of cereals and pigmeat: “When the price of feed comes back to the pig farmer, there is a lag time before the price of pigmeat falls.”