NFU targets EU as potash prices double

The price of potash has more than doubled in the past three years prompting farmers to call on the EU to abandon its potash anti-dumping rules, the NFU said today.

NFU farm inputs adviser Peter Garbutt believes it was unjust for the EU to block cheaper imports of potash when farm incomes were critically low and producers were feeling the pinch on prices.

Potash is an essential nutrient used by farmers on a range of crops but while EU anti-dumping duties on imports from Belarus and Russia have been in place, the price has rocketed from around 137 per tonne in 2006 to 340 tonne today, said Mr Garbutt.

We have consistently argued that anti-dumping duties on fertiliser imports are unjust, constrain the market and are not in the interests of the farming industry and the wider consumer. Industry figures show that UK farmers now spend over 100m per year more on potash than when the measures were put in place in 2006, with an overall bill of 173m per year.

Thats why we have been in Brussels recently talking to MEPs, industry representatives and Commission officials to help convince EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht to end anti-dumping measures as part of his partial interim review. When the price of potash has doubled since the measures were last agreed, it brings into question the need for trade protection in the potash supply chain.

The latest round of anti-dumping duties were imposed via Council Regulation (EC) No 1050/2006 and stipulated a minimum import price and an annual quota of 700,000 tonnes of imports before a duty of 27.5 per cent was imposed on top of market prices from imports of potash from Belarus. There are also similar, but smaller duties imposed on potash from Russia.