The Minister said that farmers may see lower fertiliser costs, though it is hard to know the extent to which these costs may fall due to a number of mitigating factors.

"These factors include profitability challenges in the contracting sector and falling fertiliser manufacturing capacity in Europe over the past 10 years," he said. "Feed costs are not as heavily impacted by fuel prices and, although the costs of drying, processing and transport will be reduced, other factors will come into play such as global growing and harvest conditions in 2015."

The Minister was speaking in response to a parliamentary question. He added that the fact the CSO's agricultural input price index was down 3.5% indicates the drop in fuel prices is having an impact.

Link between oil and fertilizer

Natural gas accounts for 72-85% of the total cost of producing nitrogen. Therefore, the 60% collapse in oil price should be reflected in the price of fertilizer.

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