14 May 2024

Fertiliser sales at lowest point in two decades

Recently released data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) have shed light on the volume of fertilisers sold over the 2023 crop year, which ran from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023.

During this timeframe, total fertiliser sales decreased by 18% for the second year in a row to 1.135 million tonnes, following a fall to 1.377 million tonnes over the 2022 crop year. Compiling data as far back as the 2000 crop year, the CSO data show that 2023’s total fertiliser sales were at the lowest level in the 24-year period. The next lowest year in terms of sales was 2009, when 1.172 million tonnes of fertiliser were sold.

Figure 1: Total fertiliser sales 2000-2023 (Source CSO)

Ireland’s national statistics office has also tracked the nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium content of fertiliser and the volumes of lime sold.  In the 2023 crop year period, the nitrogen content of fertilisers sold was 18% lower than in 2022 at 280,569 tonnes. In the period from 2000-2023, the nitrogen content of fertiliser sold was at its highest in 2018, when 408,495 tonnes were sold, the CSO reports.

In terms of phosphorous, 30,762 tonnes of phosphorous were sold in fertilisers in Ireland in 2023. This was a fall of 10% compared with 2022. Looking to previous years, the CSO reports that phosphorus content was at its highest level of the period 2000-2023 in 2000 at 49,267 tonnes and was lowest in 2009 at 20,231 tonnes. Additionally in terms of potassium, 81,956 tonnes were sold during the 2023 cropping year, down 13% on the year previous, and the lowest volume sold since 81,179 tonnes were sold in 2012.

Figure 2: Nutrient content of fertiliser sales by nutrient (N,P,K) 2000-2023 (Source: CSO)

Meanwhile, 1.0 million tonnes of lime were sold in 2023, a decline of 27% on the year previous when lime sales reached 1.4 million tonnes – the highest level in the 2000-2023 period.