There is very little movement on fertiliser this week, with the continuing poor weather hitting farmer demand for product.

Merchants maintain that just a trickle of product has moved out of yards due to the heavy rains over the last week.

This is particularly the case in the west.

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Prices are generally unchanged. Urea is trading for €800-850/t, CAN is being quoted at €520-550/t, with 18-6-12 at €630-670/t and 10-10-20 at €700-740/t.

There have been some reports of difficulties getting product into the west and northwest,

The end of the transport protest has resulted in fertiliser being moved off ships in the south and southwest.

There have been some reports of difficulties getting product into the west and northwest, in particular, but this was down played by merchants and co-ops there.

International fertiliser markets remain in flux as a result of the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.

And it is unclear what impact an American threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz will have on trade.

However, there are fears that the vital waterway will be shut to all traffic should the Iranians react to the American threat and reignite hostilities.

A proposal from the Moroccan state-owned company OCP to bring forward maintenance to the second quarter because of the impact on the delivery of product from Gulf has added to the international uncertainty in markets.

OCP is the world’s largest producer of phosphate and phosphate-based products such as DAP.

The product is typically 18% nitrogen and 46% phosphate, making it a crucial source of both products.

Meanwhile, international competition for urea has been exacerbated by increased demand from India for product.

India is expected to look to purchase 2.5m tonnes of fertiliser by the middle of June.

Australia and the US are also actively looking to secure large quantities of product at the moment.