European farmers love fertilisers. More plant growth means higher yields, good income for farmers, and relatively cheap food for the rest of us.
Imports cover 30% of EU nitrogen fertiliser demand, 70% of its phosphate, and 40% of its potash (potassium-based fertiliser) needs. Europe was so dependent on Russian and Belarusian fertiliser imports that it only started restricting them in mid-2025, three years after it initially introduced sanctions over the Ukraine war.
On top of these trade restrictions, an energy crisis and new charges on carbon-heavy imports have sent fertiliser prices soaring. Farmers now pay 71% more for nitrogen fertilisers than they did two years ago. Fertilisers can comprise up to a fifth of their costs.
The EU is importing less fertiliser as a result, but you might not see the effect until next year, when farmers start delivering lower yields.
Christophe Hansen, the EU's agriculture commissioner, told reporters on Tuesday that a French cereal farmer recently told him he'd only plant half of his land if fertiliser prices remained at this level.
Farmers have been pleading with the Commission for financial help to buy chemical fertilisers, lifting carbon-based import charges, and looser environmental and climate emissions regulation.
The latter has been a constant complaint for farmers. EU nitrate rules seek to avoid fertilisers being overused and runoff washed into rivers, causing algae blooms and dead fish. Fertiliser production also uses a lot of energy, and has been targeted by measures such as carbon trading that add costs if emissions aren't cut.
The EU's fertiliser action plan nudges farmers to use more “bio-based and circular fertilisers” based on manure. These could be made from European farm animals' waste, as well as human waste, if treated to make it less polluting.
But the plan acknowledges “major hurdles” to decarbonising fertiliser production and getting more bio-based fertilisers on the market in the short term.
For now, the Commission suggests rerouting some agricultural funding to help farmers with cash flow, but the money on offer – €400 million if governments and the European Parliament agree – isn't huge compared to the size of fertiliser sales – around €7.5 billion in imports last year.
While Europe's biggest farming group wasn't thrilled, Hansen said the EU needs to think long-term. “We have no supply problems; we have a price problem, and that is what we need to resolve,” he said, with measures to make Europe more resilient to geopolitical shocks.