Russian farmers could increase fertilizer purchases to 8 mln tonnes per year by 2030 - Agriculture Ministry

PERM. Nov 29 (Interfax) - Russia's farmers plan to increase mineral fertilizer purchases to at least 8 million tonnes per year by 2030, Roman Nekrasov, director of the department of crop production, mechanization, chemicalization and plant protection at the Russian Agricultural Ministry said.

"If in 2017 we purchased just over 3 million tonnes of mineral fertilizers measured in active substances, then in 2022 we reached the level of 5.2 million tonnes and continue to increase the purchase of mineral fertilizers," Nekrasov said during the 15th Mineral Fertilizers conference in Perm.

As for forecasts, farmers are planning to increase their use of mineral fertilizers to at least 8 million tonnes of active substances by 2030, he said.

Meanwhile, the current level of mineral fertilizer use is just over 60 kilograms per hectare of active substances and "very seriously lags behind the levels of the world's leading agricultural powers," he said. For example, in the USA, EU countries and in China, this figure is more than 300 kg per hectare of sown area.

The Ministry also expects that not only will application methods improve, but new products will appear as well.

"We are focusing on increasing the availability of nutrients for plants. To do this, we need mineral fertilizers in liquid and gaseous form. In fact, this is what the whole world is using today," Nekrasov said.

He also added that farmers have managed to achieve a gross grain harvest of 157.7 million tonnes and 27 million tonnes of oilseeds.

"Thus, Russia is reaching a new level not only in food self-sufficiency, but as far as new export opportunities on the global market are concerned," he said.

Executive Director of the Russian Association of Fertilizer Manufacturers Maxim Kuznetsov said at the conference that investments in the mineral fertilizer industry over the past ten years have exceeded 1.8 trillion rubles.

The volume of mineral fertilizer production in Russia could increase to 70 million tonnes in the next five years if export volumes remain unchanged, Kuznetsov said.