Farmers and merchants have been feeling the pinch over the last week to 10 days as fertiliser becomes harder to source.

A merchant in the midlands has said he’s having “serious difficulty” getting what he wants when he wants it and has blamed one of the major fertiliser companies for the shortage.

“They bought late, they didn’t buy enough and then boats got delayed two weeks. There was a fortnight in March where they were making nothing and that put pressure on everyone else,” he said.

West of Ireland

An independent merchant in Galway said that the west of Ireland is essentially being starved of fertiliser.

“Getting small bags seems to be a major issue - across all products.

They can’t answer me and I can’t answer you as to when we’ll be getting more. I keep telling farmers that it will be tomorrow - I’m saying that every day. I’ve never seen it as bad, during COVID-19 there was a shortage but it wasn’t this bad.”

A spokesperson from one of the major fertiliser companies has said that its products can’t be bagged quick enough; it’s going straight off the line onto trucks and not even entering their yards.

“There are delays on shipments which is common among all companies. We’re trying to bring urea from the likes of North Africa which means you’re at the behest of those ports out there.

“Boats could be sitting there for 10 days or two weeks waiting to load,” he said.