The National Association of Fertilizer Manufacturers (ANFFE), in line with Fertilizers Europe, welcomes the recent approval by the European Parliament of tariffs on fertilizer imports from Russia and Belarus.

This decision represents a firm step toward a more self-sufficient and resilient Europe. In addition to weakening Russia's war economy, these measures will help strengthen European fertilizer production and protect our agricultural sector from unfair competition.

The European fertilizer industry is key to ensuring food security, supporting the EU's climate transition, and preserving the continent's industrial resilience. However, since the invasion of Ukraine, Russian producers have benefited from artificially low gas prices and lax environmental regulations, allowing them to flood the European market with products at unfairly reduced prices. This practice has distorted the market, weakening the competitiveness of European companies, leading to plant closures, and putting thousands of jobs at risk.

In Spain's case, Russian fertilizer imports have soared by more than 75% in the 2023/2024 crop year. This growing dependence threatens the stability of the sector and farmers' ability to access quality products over the long term.

According to the Argus news agency, the tariffs could result in a price increase of less than $10 per ton of fertilizer. Meanwhile, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture (DG AGRI) estimates that a €10 per ton increase in the price of urea would only have a 0.12% impact on total production costs for an average farm, and a 0.24% impact on arable crops.

Furthermore, supply is assured. Viable alternatives exist in markets such as Egypt and Algeria, with competitive prices. European producers are also expected to reactivate some of their idle capacity (currently around 30%), which will strengthen domestic production and further reduce dependence on Russia.

The Spanish industry has a production capacity of approximately 7.7 million tons per year (between intermediate and finished products), while domestic consumption is less than 5 million tons. This demonstrates that Spain has sufficient capacity to meet agricultural needs with domestic production.

With this decision, the European institutions are sending a clear message: protecting the European fertilizer industry means protecting jobs, the agricultural economy, and food security on the continent. The sooner these measures are implemented, the sooner Europe can move toward a fairer, more competitive, and sustainable model.