Copa and Cogeca welcome a new report published today by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) showing EU farmers and agri-cooperatives stand to gain - if import duties on fertilizers and anti-dumping duties were removed.
With farmers facing increasing challenges especially high fertilizer prices, the report, commissioned by the Irish Farmers Association (IFA), shows the huge benefits for farmers if input costs were removed.
Speaking at the press event organized by the IFA in Brussels, Copa and Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen said “We welcome the report. We have sent a letter to EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström underlining our concerns on import duties and also presented our views to EU Farm Commissioner Phil Hogan as one of the ways to alleviate the current crisis hitting EU agricultural markets”.
“Fertilisers make up a large share of the production costs for wheat, barley, maize, oilseeds and fodder (grass) for animal feed. Copa and Cogeca member organisations believe that the significant drop in prices on the global energy markets, even allowing for the appreciation of the US Dollar against the Euro, has not resulted in a proportional decrease in the price of mineral fertilisers along the entire chain, from the blending stage, through distribution, right down to farm level. Tools to manage risks on the mineral fertiliser market do exist, yet they are inappropriate and unavailable at farm level. We call on the EU Commission to temporarily set import duties at zero with immediate effect for the products listed in chapter 31 of the customs code and for ammonia (chapter 2814) and remove anti-dumping duties on ammonium nitrates from Russia”, he added.
Jer Bergin from IFA said, “Fertiliser is the second biggest expenditure for Irish farmers with an annual spend of over €500m and the Commission must take action as family farm incomes are on the floor. The report takes an in-depth look at how the European fertiliser market functions comparing it to other major agricultural producing regions of the world. It is clear from the data collected that Europe’s market is not functioning as the duties and tariffs protect European manufacturers at the expense of farm families. For example, prices in Europe increased by 123% between 1970 and 2002, while prices in other countries like Brazil decreased by 65%”.
IFA Inputs Project Team Leader James McCarthy said “The ongoing concentration of Europe’s fertiliser manufacturing industry, coupled with greater vertical integration of the sector’s supply chain, has seen farmgate fertiliser prices increase at an unjustified rate relative to other input costs. The industry historically blamed the disparity on rising energy costs. However, the steep fall in energy prices over the last two years has not been reflected in retail fertiliser prices to the primary producer.”
