EU farms cautious over fertilizer purchases – Yara

Yara International highlighted caution among European farmers over buying fertilizers, taking some of the shine from quarterly results which narrowly beat expectations, despite a drop in urea prices.

The nutrient giant said that, with agricultural commodity prices high, farmers had a “strong” incentive to boost fertilizer applications to boost yields and exploit “improved margins for most arable crops”.

“Pre-buying incentives for the new season are significantly stronger than a year ago, with higher grain prices and lower nitrogen fertilizer prices,” the Norwegian-based group said.

However, Europe’s farmers “remain cautious” despite profitability prospects, Yara said, noting the “negative macroeconomic environment”.

Yara chief executive Joergen Haslestad said: “We have seen a cautious behaviour in Europe, and the farmers are sitting a bit on the fence.

“We do believe that they now are now sitting and waiting as they did last year.”

Market headwinds

The comments throw up a second question mark for a fertilizer sector which earlier this week witnessed a profit warning by PotashCorp, the top potash group by capacity, blamed on delays to China and India signing new contracts.

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