Irish urea prices trended an average of €326/t above what farmers were paying in the UK for the first three months of the year, ICSA analysis has shown. The price differential for urea hit €324/t in January, increased to €396/t in February and dropped to a still significant €258/t in March.
Irish urea prices trended an average of €326/t above what farmers were paying in the UK for the first three months of the year, ICSA analysis has shown.
The price differential for urea hit €324/t in January, increased to €396/t in February and dropped to a still significant €258/t in March.
The analysis, conducted by the ICSA using CSO and the UK’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) prices, adjusted with exchange rates, was presented to the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee last week.
The ICSA’s delegate to the national fodder and food security committee Dan Lynam told TDs and senators that as the year started Irish farmers continued to see “extremely sticky” fertiliser prices while their UK peers saw prices “starting to fall significantly”.
“In early January it was not uncommon for our members to be quoted €950/t for urea and higher and as the month progressed it slipped back to €900. While this was lower than the average urea price for 2022 of €1,022 (CSO statistics) it was not following the price drops in the UK,” he said.
He said that in January, UK farmers paid 20% less for urea than they did in December and 25% below the price Irish farmers paid at the same time.
“By March 2023, UK farmer price for urea was down to €529/t whereas Irish farmers were still looking at €800-850/t at the start,” he added.
Furthermore, when urea prices throughout 2022 are analysed, Irish farmers paid an average of €117/t more than UK farmers. Notably, this price differential was largest during the peak application months of March (€175/t), April (€92/t), May (€224/t), June (€191/t) and July (€143/t).
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