Farmers are preparing to fertilize next year

The XV annual conference “Mineral Fertilizers” was held in Perm, the participants of which discussed the state and development of the Russian mineral fertilizer market, work on production projects and reorientation to new directions.

Speaking via videoconference, Roman Nekrasov, Director of the Department of Plant Growing, Mechanization, Chemicalization and Plant Protection of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, thanked the producers of mineral fertilizers for their contribution to ensuring the country’s food security and called for increasing their use.

Executive Director of the Russian Association of Fertilizer Manufacturers Maxim Kuznetsov said that the domestic market for RAPU members is invariably a strategic priority. “This year the Russian Association of Fertilizer Manufacturers is celebrating its anniversary – we are 15 years old. Over the course of a decade and a half, the industry has demonstrated confident, dynamic growth. And today, in fundamentally new economic and financial conditions, unprecedented sanctions pressure contributes to the formation of food independence of the Russian Federation,” Kuznetsov emphasized.

The volume of purchases of mineral fertilizers announced by the Russian Ministry of Agriculture in 2023 – 5.4 million tons – has already been fully delivered, which is supported by a consistently favorable situation: manufacturers voluntarily fixed the maximum price for products for the agricultural sector more than two years ago, and today average prices for Russian products are even lower fixed levels.

There are now more than 100 brands of mineral fertilizers on the market, the lion’s share of which are high-tech. Most of them were not in demand in the Russian agro-industrial complex either last year or this year, but are actively sold on the foreign market.

Currently, shipments of mineral fertilizers to domestic agricultural producers are carried out for the spring sowing of 2024. “Our industry, like any other with large-scale production, plans its production activities for the calendar year. At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia has not yet provided producers of mineral fertilizers with the effective need of domestic agricultural producers for mineral fertilizers for 2024,” said Maxim Kuznetsov.

RAPU expects that in regions where producers participating in RAPU have their own logistics facilities, reserves will be created in advance for spring sowing, which will allow farmers to comply with the optimal timing of field work.

Roman Nekrasov, in turn, noted that Russian agricultural producers continue to increase the consumption of mineral fertilizers and plan to increase it to at least 8 million tons per year by 2030.