Increase in fertiliser sales of 15% last year

Fertiliser sales rose by 15% to over 1.4m tonnes last year, the Irish Farmers Journal can reveal.

Department of Agriculture data shows that sales are beginning to creep back up to pre-2021 levels, with sales just 270,000t behind what was sold during the 2020/2021 sales season – before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The fertiliser season begins in October of each year and sales are recorded for each quarter.

Analysis of the 2024/2025 sales season shows that there were increased sales of all three key nutrients for plant growth – nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) – when compared with the previous 12 months.

N sales increased by over 14% last year when compared with the previous 12 months, representing an increase of over 167,000t of nitrogen sold from 1 October 2024 up to 30 September 2025.

K sales increased the most during this period, increasing by over 16%. However, tonnages of K sold are still only around half of what N is sold across the country. Total K sales reached 783,205t last year.

P sales were also up last year by 14.35% to 698,074t in 2024/2025.

Urea

Last year, there was just shy of 100,000t of protected urea purchased by Irish farmers. Meanwhile, just over 87,000t of ordinary urea was purchased during the same period.

A restriction on the use of unprotected solid urea fertiliser has been in place since 15 September 2025.

Farmers must have used any stocks of unprotected urea on their farms before this date.

Calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) still remains the preferred straight of choice with over 400,000t of CAN sold last year, according to the Department’s data.

Some 167,000t of 26% CAN with 5% sulphur was sold last year while 27% CAN was next most popular on the list with 143,820 worth of sales.