- Farmers emphasize that less fertilizer available on the market means higher prices
- – It is a great unknown and another failure to keep the promise of the government, which said that Poland will produce fertilizers in a continuous manner – estimates the leader of Agro Unia, Michał Kołodziejczak
- The increase in fertilizer prices will translate into an increase in food prices. Many farmers could not afford fertilizers before
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Łukasz Pergoł, a farmer from the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, emphasizes that farmers perceive the problem of stopping fertilizer production in a very negative way.
– Their lack means lower yields, lower profits, and this will translate into more expensive food. Suspension of production will drive up the prices of fertilizers. Many intermediary companies that have fertilizer products in their stores have stopped selling them, only to raise their prices and sell them in smaller batches. It is only about increasing the margin of intermediaries. Production without fertilizers means 3.4 times lower yields than in the case of conventional production. The Baltic Pipe gas pipeline may be an opportunity for Poland, but we do not know how much gas will flow and at what price. A cold winter is also ahead of us, because Putin will probably want to further destabilize Western economies. All this will translate into expensive food in the spring – says.
The leader of Agro Unia, Michał Kołodziejczak, says that the suspension of production is a drama for farmers. The government, which in its opinion did not foresee the consequences of the war, is to blame for this state of affairs.
– This is the great unknown and Another failure to keep the government’s promise that Poland will produce fertilizers in a continuous manner. The Ministry of State Assets, when asked if the fertilizer will be stored for Polish farmers, replied that it would not be, and only distributors would be persuaded to sell as much fertilizer in the country as possible. So the ministry put the entire Polish society to the wind. These turbulences in fertilizer production show how unpredictable agricultural production is. The lack of fertilizers will affect food prices. We are already seeing speculators raise prices today. I have a grudge against a government that did not anticipate this crisis. I hope this is just stupidity and not a deliberate act – he says.
The leader of Agro Unia indicates that according to own research, 70 percent. farmers have not bought fertilizers for the coming season so far, because they were simply too expensive.
– They waited for the promised subsidies. The government announced that PLN 4 billion will be allocated for this purpose. Until then, only about 50 percent. farmers received fertilizer subsidies, and most of the funds flowed after our strikes, later transfers slowed down. If the money were paid out right then, we could buy the fertilizer at half the price. Our country is behaving very frivolously again, he says.
Fertilizer subsidy program ineffective
The government subsidy was to compensate for the higher purchase costs of fertilizers purchased between September 1, 2021 and May 15, 2022. Only a farmer who submitted an application for direct subsidies for 2022 could apply for such aid.
ARMA started disbursing funds from July 11. Until August 23, nearly all of them benefited from the aid 314 thous. farmers, and the aid granted amounted to PLN 1.93 billion.
However, applications could be submitted until May 31, 2022. At that time, the Agency received nearly 427 thousand. applications on the basis of which the maximum amount necessary to implement the program was estimated – PLN 3.5 billion. The pool of funds for this purpose was PLN 3.9 billion.
Production downtime
On Tuesday, it belongs to Orlen Anwim announced that the production of nitrogen fertilizers was temporarily suspended. During the shutdown of production lines, the company will carry out renovation and investment works.
In turn, at night from Monday to Tuesday Grupa Azoty announced that “due to the extraordinary and unprecedented increase in the price of natural gas,” the management board decided to temporarily stop some installations and reduce production.
Zakłady Azotowe Puławy, owned by Grupa Azoty, reduced the production of ammonia to around 10%. possibilities; production in the Plastics Segment and in the Agro Segment – nitrogen fertilizers, caprolactam and polyamide was suspended, except for the production of ammonium sulphate from the Flue Gas Desulphurization Plant and catalytic solutions with urea and ammonia.
At the beginning of August, due to high gas prices, Zakłady Azotowe Puławy completely suspended the production of melamine until further notice.
Rising gas prices
On Monday, gas prices in the Dutch TTF hub reached EUR 270-280 per MWh, after an increase of approx. 15%. in one day. Last week, gas prices on the European market increased by approx. 25 percent.
On Friday, Russian Gazprom announced that the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline will be closed from August 31 to September 2 due to service work on the last operating turbine at the Portowa compressor station. After restarting, the transmission is to return to the level of 33 million cubic meters. per day, or about one fifth of the maximum capacity.