European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan has intervened strongly in the ongoing row over EU fertiliser prices and duties on imported nitrogen products.

He highlighted questionable business practices and uncompetitive behaviour in the fertiliser supply chain in a letter to the Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager.

There is evidence that the historically strong correlation between prices of natural gas and nitrogen fertilisers had weakened towards the end of 2018 and in 2019, he said.

This could be due to uncompetitive behaviour given market concentration of manufacturers and suppliers of fertilisers, his letter suggested.

He would like to see swift action taken to stop any form of abuse. Profit margins in farming fell to very low or even negative levels in 2018, he warned.

IFA president Joe Healy welcomed the Commissioner’s intervention which, he said, would be a turning point in the row.