Roughly one in every 30 fertiliser samples taken by the Department of Agriculture at chemical fertiliser manufacturers and blenders yards last year for testing proved to have been non-compliant with the fertiliser quality standards laid down in law.

The Department’s fertiliser inspection programme took a total of 188 fertiliser samples and subjected them to 435 individual tests in 2025, a Department spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal.

These test results determined that 3.2% of the samples were out-of-tolerance with the legal standards after a measurement of uncertainty had been taken into account.

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These non-compliances resulted in six letters issuing to fertiliser manufacturers or blenders.

2025’s non-compliance rate was on-par with previous years’ inspection and testing findings; around 2% of samples were out-of-tolerance in 2024, the year prior found issue with 3.3% of samples and 2022 saw 3.2% of samples being non-compliant.

One of the non-compliances came about due to protected urea not having a sufficient content of the ingredient added to protect the product.

“Corrective actions on out-of-tolerance results and approval of product batches occur as part of an overall control programme of compliance across the sector to maintain confidence in fertiliser quality,” the spokesperson said.