Sales of fertilizers and plant protection agents decreased in the last quarter of last year

By: STA Date: 2023. 02. 08. 09:30

The volume of fertilizer sales decreased by 40 percent in the last quarter of last year compared to a year earlier, and farmers bought 54 percent less plant protection products than in the last three months of 2021, according to the summary of the Institute of Agricultural Economics (AKI).

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Among the fertilizers, the biggest decline occurred in the case of ammonium nitrate (AN), potash and MAP (monoammonium phosphate). The demand for AN decreased by 70 percent, for the fifth, for káliso and MAP. The turnover of urea increased almost two and a half times, while distributors sold 28 percent more of Nitrosol, DAM, than in the fourth quarter of 2021. Sales of MAS saltpetre also decreased by 20 percent.

The largest demand in terms of volume was for lime-ammonium-nitrate (MAS) and urea, these two products accounted for 81 percent of fourth-quarter sales. Although sales prices increased by 1.6-2.7 times compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, they started to decrease somewhat in the last quarter of 2022, according to AKI’s compilation.

Farmers bought 54 percent less of the pesticides observed by AKI than in the last quarter of 2021

They did this despite the fact that the number of substances observed last year was much lower than in the period under review. Among the fungicides, the sales volume of Caramba Turbo and Falcon Pro increased somewhat. Among the insecticides, the turnover of Force 1.5 G fell by more than half, while that of Karate Zeon fell by 23 percent. The demand for herbicides in the fourth quarter of 2022 decreased by two-thirds compared to the same period in 2021. The average sales price of the products examined by AKI increased, the rate of price change varied widely, the price of Roundup Mega herbicide increased the most (by 2.4 times), while the price of Pulsar 40 herbicide increased the least, by only 3 percent.

MTI