IFA president Francie Gorman is among the EU farm leaders due to take to the streets of Strasbourg in Tuesday to protest fertiliser cost pressures and a lack of urgency from the European Commission to address looming supply shortages.

The Commission is set to unveil a much-hyped fertiliser action plan on Tuesday, but European farm and agri co-op group Copa Cogeca has said that this plan will fall flat unless “rapid” action is taken on fertiliser price and availability.

“It’s hard to overstate how far off the pace the Commission is when it comes to the fertiliser issue in Ireland and across the EU,” Gorman said.

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“Unless they intervene, we are looking at a very serious situation in terms of food production. It’s inexplicable that this is not getting the attention it should be getting.”

Carbon import taxes

Central to the protest’s calls is the removal of the carbon tax applied to fertilisers imported into the EU since January.

Copa Cogeca reckons that the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will cost the EU’s farmers up to €12bn over the next seven years.

The group said that about 30% of chemical nitrogen requirements are imported into the EU and that “in 2026 alone, prices are expected to increase by around 15% on average”.

Gorman claimed that indications point towards Tuesday’s fertiliser action plan doing “absolutely nothing to address either the availability or price of fertiliser”.

“The Commission imposed this tax on farmers and has refused to reverse course despite the price of fertiliser more or less doubling in price,” the IFA president commented ahead of the protest.

“One would be forgiven for thinking that there are some in the Commission who welcome the massive increase in fertiliser prices. It’s hard to think any differently given their inaction on CBAM.”