Selling prices multiplied by three or four: this is the galloping inflation to which the fertilizer sector in Vienne and Deux-Sèvres has been subjected for several weeks. If the phenomenon has been perceptible for a few months, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia has exacerbated this price increase. Fertilizer manufacturers are indeed highly dependent on gas, which is used in the production of many nitrogenous fertilizers. This is the case of those distributed by the company Amaltis, a fertilizer wholesaler based in particular in Parthenay (Deux-Sèvres). A ton of fertilizer, sold for 380 euros last year, is now worth more than 1,400. “We have no choice, we are forced to pass on these costs to our selling price”justifies the president of the company, Gilles Duquesnois.
The whole sector affected
If the Russian gas tap were to be cut off, the effects would be felt immediately, he said. “It would be even more difficult to find nitrogen at a good price. Russia and Ukraine are major producers of raw materials for fertilizers, without these sectors we have to turn to other countries and buy more expensive.” If the shortage does not threaten immediately, manufacturers have no alternative to lower prices. “The surge in the market is already global”notes Gilles Duquesnois.
Faced with this dizzying increase, farmers are buying less and less nitrogen fertilizers, and some are turning to organic fertilizers, such as livestock manure. Problem is the raw material on which the Violleau company depends to manufacture its organic fertilizers for conventional and organic agriculture. “Until now, we had no trouble finding it. But the threat of a gas shortage is causing the synthetic fertilizers used by farmers to rise in price, some of whom are turning to these organic fertilizers. They therefore cost more and more expensive, and are more and more difficult to find”.
It is therefore the entire fertilizer sector which is indirectly affected by this gas crisis. Another factor could increase inflation: the slowdown in the export of fertilizers by Russia, one of the biggest producers of fertilizers, following the European sanctions which lead to a disruption of the logistics sectors.