I hear that Yara, the world’s largest nitrogen producer, has taken up a three-year lease to bag fertiliser on the former Albatross site in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork. Albatross developed the site and was owned at the time by Dutch nitrogen producer DSM.

They sold it to McDonagh’s, who sold it on to Timac in 2005. A few years later, Timac closed the Albatross facilities and offloaded the brand to Gouldings. Gouldings took over the lease at Ringaskiddy and its sister company R&H Hall stored grain on the site in recent years. In 2013, Timac acquired a 50% stake in Grassland. Albatross also originally owned the greenfield site in the North and bagged Yara product has been coming from this site up to now.

The next twist comes as Yara has supplied Albatross, Goudlings, Timac and Grassland down the years and its move into bagging on this site may be a bitter pill to swallow for some importers.

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Whether it leads to better value for farmers remains to be seen.