EU Set to Approve Fertiliser Tariffs on Russia

In a move set to reshape Europe’s agricultural supply chain, EU lawmakers are poised to approve new tariffs on fertiliser imports from Russia this Thursday, despite growing concerns among farmers that the policy could push global fertiliser prices even higher.

Currently, more than 25% of the EU’s nitrogen-based fertilisers are sourced from Russia, with additional volumes coming from Belarus, a close ally of Moscow.

The European Commission aims to phase out this dependency in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine, arguing that EU purchases indirectly fund Russia’s war efforts.

The proposed tariffs will be introduced from July and gradually increased through 2028, a phased strategy Brussels hopes will ease the shock to European farmers. But farm unions and producers across the continent remain deeply skeptical.

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“European farmers must not become collateral damage,” warned Copa-Cogeca, the continent’s largest agricultural umbrella organization. It emphasized that Russian fertilisers have been the most cost-effective option, thanks in part to well-established logistics that make them competitively priced and widely accessible across the EU.

Yet EU officials remain firm. Inese Vaidere, the European Parliament member leading the charge, said the bloc must stop “fuelling the Russian war machine” and protect the long-term security of Europe’s food production systems. “We must limit the dependency of Europe’s farmers on Russian fertilisers,” she said.

Not everyone in Brussels is on board. While the European Parliament is expected to greenlight the plan, some right-wing lawmakers have called for a temporary one-year suspension of the measure, arguing that current inflation and energy costs are already squeezing Europe’s agricultural sector.

To calm the backlash, the EU has floated possible relief strategies, including lifting import duties from other fertiliser-exporting countries like North Africa, Central Asia, the U.S., Trinidad and Tobago, and Nigeria. These measures are intended to ease potential supply shortages and offset price hikes.

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Still, the European fertiliser industry has largely welcomed the proposal. Tiffanie Stephani, a spokesperson for Norwegian fertiliser giant Yara, said the move is long overdue. “We’ve been calling for EU-level action for three years,” she said, though she acknowledged that farmers’ frustrations are “more than legitimate.”

On the ground, those frustrations are already boiling over. In central Belgium, grain and beet farmer Amaury Poncelet expressed disbelief over the EU’s direction.

“We’re losing money because of these European decisions that treat us like pawns,” he said. Poncelet buys his fertiliser from a local dealer in Ghent and, like many others, has no way of knowing its country of origin. “I just don’t understand the idea of punishing farmers like this.”

According to Yara’s Stephani, imposing tariffs on Russian fertilisers could lead to a price increase of $5 to $10 per tonne, mainly due to higher logistics costs. With nitrogen fertiliser prices already hovering around $400 per tonne, that added cost could be significant for farmers already stretched thin by rising production costs and administrative burdens.

The coming days will determine whether the EU can effectively balance its geopolitical stance with the urgent economic concerns of its agricultural sector. For now, Europe’s farmers are bracing for what could be another hit to their bottom line.