Fertiliser for 2027 may have to be paid for this year, ICOS warns

The levying of the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) on top of already high fertiliser costs could leave farmers having to forward-buy 2027’s fertiliser supplies before the current year is out, the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) has warned.

ICOS president Edward Carr has said that while there may have been sufficient supplies of fertiliser banked prior to the imposition of CBAM in January and the subsequent Iran-related fertiliser price spike, “it is next year we are really concerned about”.

“There’s talk out there now that farmers are going to have forward-buy their fertiliser at a very high price. How can farmers risk that after a very difficult year?” Carr asked the Oireachtas agriculture committee last week.

“I mean, two years ago, it was completely different. The price of fertiliser went high, but the price of milk was over 50c/l.

“Today, it is back down well under 40c and doesn’t look as if it’s going anywhere other than stabilising in the mid-30s.”

The prospect of farmers having to “nail their colours to the mast” on a 2027 fertiliser price over the coming months comes as Carr said that concern remains on fertiliser availability beyond the current growing season.

He claimed that fertiliser importers appear not to be committing to securing 2027 supplies before farmers or co-ops “put money on the table”.

“If you don’t commit then, will the fertiliser be made?”

Horrendous

The ICOS president said that 2026 has proven a “horrendous year” for co-ops trying to get fertiliser on to farms, adding that, with supplies tight, “it was lucky that we had a late spring”.

“The co-ops have struggled even to maintain a supply of fertiliser to their members,” according to Carr.

Intervention on fertiliser prices at EU or Government level is needed to avoid a “major, major impact on production”, as current dairy farm margin pressure looks set to “put lads out of business,” he told TDs and senators.

ICOS is looking for an immediate suspension of CBAM – the carbon tax levied on fertilisers imported into EU that was introduced in January.

Carr further claimed that “there were deals done” on pre-CBAM fertiliser supplies “before the end of December”, but that “the co-ops have not made money out of this [fertiliser price rise]”.