VINACHEM

Poland imported fertilizer from Russia hit a record high of 318 million euros ($334 million) in 2024, Polish newspaper reported on Monday.

Mineral fertilizer imports from Russia rose 140% to 952,000 tonnes in the first nine months of 2024, while their value rose 123% to a record 318 million euros. By contrast, Poland bought German fertilizer worth just over 200 million euros during the same period. The total value of fertilizer imports to Poland exceeded 1.1 billion euros.

Arkadiusz Zalewski, an agricultural resources market analyst at the Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics, said the hike in Russian fertilizer imports was the highest since 2017.

"The observed increase in imports of mineral fertilizer, particularly from countries with lower production costs and access to relatively cheap natural gas, has a dual effect: on the one hand, it leads to lower prices in the domestic market, but on the other, it increases the dependence of Polish agricultural production on foreign fertilizer. In the long run, this dependence may not necessarily result in low fertilizer prices," he predicted.

Poland appealed to the European Commission in late November to introduce tariffs on fertilizer imports from Russia and Belarus. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia backed the tax increase, while other EU states said they would consider doing so at a later stage. The Polish Ministry of Development and Technology says import duties could reach up to 30%.

– Source: Sputnik –