Fertiliser supply chain warns of spring delivery bottlenecks
Farmers are being urged to discuss fertiliser requirements with suppliers early this season, as geopolitical disruption and limited supply-chain capacity increase the risk of delivery bottlenecks ahead of spring.
The Farming Fertiliser Stakeholder Group says the issue is not simply whether fertiliser is available somewhere in the global market, but whether sufficient volumes can be imported, manufactured, stored, blended, bagged, loaded and transported to farms within the relatively short spring application window.
The warning comes against a more complicated international supply backdrop. Continuing disruption associated with the war in Ukraine, sanctions, banking restrictions and uncertainty surrounding Russian-origin fertiliser and raw materials have reduced the flexibility of global supply chains.
Disruption in the Gulf region has also put additional pressure on nitrogen markets, with the area closely connected to natural gas, ammonia, urea and sulphur supply chains.
The stakeholder group says the UK is not necessarily facing an immediate shortage of fertiliser, but the market has less spare capacity to absorb a surge in late orders or further disruption to raw material supplies.
Straight nitrogen is considered particularly vulnerable because demand is concentrated into a relatively short period in spring. Product that arrives after the crop’s requirement has limited value, regardless of its availability elsewhere in the supply chain.
Late ordering could also affect the willingness of manufacturers and importers to hold stock. Fertiliser is expensive to purchase, store and transport, meaning suppliers need sufficient visibility of demand to plan imports, production and logistics.
Processing and transport capacity could become another constraint if a large proportion of seasonal demand is compressed into a few weeks. Storage facilities, blending and bagging plants, loading points, lorries and drivers all have finite capacity.
The group says suppliers are willing to discuss likely requirements with farmers before final cropping and nutrient decisions have been completed. Some are also prepared to consider part-load and split-load deliveries, potentially coordinated between neighbouring farms.
Farmers are therefore being encouraged to engage with a range of suppliers early, review likely nutrient requirements and carry out soil testing where appropriate.
The objective is not necessarily to commit to the entire season’s fertiliser requirement immediately, but to give suppliers sufficient visibility to plan the movement of product through the supply chain.
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