Thinks Yara’s fertilizer prices threaten Norway’s self-sufficiency – NRK Nordland
The price of complete fertilizer has increased considerably in the past year.
Yesterday, NRK told about the farmer who reacts to the fact that Yara is making good money, which the farmers are so dependent on.
And the price gallop doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
– There is a great risk of nitrogen deficiency and further price increases if the gas situation in Europe worsens further.
Director of Communications at Yara, Kristin Nordal, tells NRK.
By “gas situation” is meant both access to gas and the price of gas.
Expensive fertilizers can lead to less food: – Challenges self-sufficiency
Farmers usually use 50–60 tonnes of fertilizer a year.
Now it can cost farmers half a million kroner a year to fertilize the land.
I cost a kilo approx. NOK 10. It was almost double the cost of fertilizer in September, according to the report Bondebladet.
If prices continue to rise, it could affect Norwegian food security.
Eli Berge Ness, acting leader of the Norwegian Farmers’ and Small Farmers’ Association, believes so.
– It is paradoxical that Yara must ensure food safety, but at the same time has prices that lead to less food production in Norway.
She believes that if the Government wants to follow through on its own policy that Norway must produce more food, more must be done. For example, compensate even more of the costs, she says and adds:
– We cannot produce at a loss.
– Must import from a world market that should have had the food itself
Both the Small Farmers’ Association and the Farmers’ Association are unique in that it was a good agricultural settlement to compensate for precisely the large financial gap.
But the farmers don’t get the money until September. There is a partial payment of approx. NOK 40,000 (varies from farmer to farmer).
The rest of the money will not arrive until February.
– How do you think it will be for Norwegian farmers if the fertilizer price continues to rise before they are paid the money?
– Then farmers buy less fertiliser, or they wait and accept that prices will fall. Many farmers have told us that they have not been able to afford to buy as much fertilizer as in the past.
That’s according to deputy chairman of the Norwegian Farmers’ Association, Egil Christopher Hoen.
– What happens then?
– Then there will be less food. And we have to import food from a world market that absolutely should have this food itself, says Hoen.
He believes that questions should be asked as to whether Yara should not have taken greater responsibility for global food safety and moderated its prices.
Double the price of fertiliser, but four times as expensive gas
Although the price of fertilizer has doubled, gas prices have quadrupled in one year.
Which in turn results in more expensive fertilizer worldwide.
– Are there no opportunities to moderate Norwegian prices?
– Yara is a global company and pricing will always be determined by the international price picture. At the moment, we are in a market situation with limited supply and high demand, and this pushes prices up.
That’s what Yara communications director Kristin Nordal writes.
– Does Yara think that you take enough responsibility to ensure that Norwegian self-sufficiency is sufficient?
– Our social mission is to help ensure that enough is grown for the world. In recent years, Norwegian grass and grain crops have increased significantly, and Yara has contributed to this.
Another point that Nordal has highlighted in a previous case is that such high prices are necessary to ensure stable operations in uncertain times.
The Minister of Agriculture: – Can meet again
Agriculture and Food Minister Sandra Borch writes to NRK that the Government wants to pursue a policy that will contribute to more food production.
And that the agricultural settlement should be sufficient for the farmers, in addition to other measures.
– The agreement provides security that Norwegian farmers will be able to cover the extraordinary increase in costs and will have significantly increased income possibilities already from the current year.
She also points out at the cost development both when the agreement was set and now is unpredictable.
– The government and the farmers’ organizations therefore agreed that at the time it was uncertain how fertilizer prices would develop. And that the parties can meet in the autumn for a new assessment.
Read more about the farmer who criticizes Yara for its high operating profit:
Here you can understand more about the relationship between Yara and the Norwegian state:
In July, Russia and Ukraine agreed on a grain agreement: