We have written many times on farmer.pl about the difficult financial situation of our domestic fertilizer producer. The president of Grupa Azoty, who took over the management of the company at a difficult moment, emphasizes that this is not only the result of investments in the Group, but also the economic situation on the fertilizer market, problems with demand, as well as excessive imports from third countries, especially from Russia.
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Introduce tariffs on fertilizers from Russia?
– It is difficult to say that after these few months we already have a complete overview of the situation of the companies in our group. These are several companies that are part of the Azoty Group. We find the Group in a difficult situation – we communicate this in stock exchange reports. We are struggling to stabilize the liquidity situation. We also sort out other matters related to the current operation of the company – says Adam Leszkiewicz in an interview with wnp.pl.
How does he assess the mineral fertilizers market?
– There are many concerns. We are slowly preparing for the new season. We already have price lists, we have a vision for this new season and we take responsibility for it as a management board. However, we notice factors occurring in our environment that influence the forecasts related to this new period. What I mean here is primarily the decline in the purchasing power of farmers because grain prices are still low. I also mean the increasing import of fertilizers from the East, especially from Russia – he explains in wnp.pl.
We would like to remind you that, as we wrote on farmer.pl, Poland is the largest importer of fertilizers from Russia in the EU. – Eurostat data and IERiGŻ PIB analyzes show that in the first quarter of this year. Almost 2.8 million tons of nitrogen fertilizers worth over EUR 870 million were imported from third countries to the EU. At the same time, the volume of EU exports to non-EU countries amounted to 1.6 million tonnes, and the value – EUR 474.4 million. The EU is therefore a net importer of nitrogen fertilizers in both quantity and value terms. The most nitrogen fertilizers were imported from Russia in the first quarter of 2024 – 802,000. tons – 29.2% of the volume of EU imports (value – EUR 233 million) – said Arkadiusz Zalewski from the Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics, National Research Institute.
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Fertilizers from Russia
The president of Grupa Azoty also sees this. In his opinion, this is the result of prices and the fact that there are no climate restrictions in this country and low natural gas prices.
– We see production capacity being increased in Russia. When it comes to their exports, these are often increases of several hundred percent to European Union countries. This affects our business. We propose limiting this import, at least by using customs duties on them, says wnp.pl Adam Leszkiewicz.
