Ukraine's fertilizer imports down by nearly quarter in Jan 2024 due to difficulties on western border

MOSCOW. Feb 13 (Interfax) - Ukraine's fertilizer imports dropped 24.5% in January 2024 year-on-year due to difficulties on the western border, Ukrainian media said, citing the Infoindustria information and analytical agency.

"Such imports were supposed to be at least 100,000 tonnes, because January is the most important month for fertilizer supplies. However, the total amount this year fell to 89,000 tonnes, which 24.5% less than in 2023," Infoindustria analysts said, citing data from Ukraine's State Customs Service.

According to information from traders, at least 100,000-110,000 tonnes of this product were sent to Ukraine. However, customs procedures took much longer as a result of customs authorities' checks and after fertilizer samples were taken for testing.

Due to that situation, some traders had to keep their fertilizers at customs terminals on Poland. This is a large amount that will practically be formalized in February, the experts said.

The largest exporters of fertilizers to Ukraine were Bulgaria (30,712 tonnes), Poland (22,912 tonnes), Azerbaijan (14,518 tonnes), Greece (3,800 tonnes), and the EU (3,659 tonnes), they said.

The share of nitrogen-phosphorous and three-component fertilizers in the total amount of imports has increased, which is good, because "there is a threefold lag in the consumption of these fertilizers," the analysts said.

"The situation around production is the opposite. There is a 49% increase in output by Ostchem enterprises, but also an insignificant decline of 7% as far as other producers are concerned. Overall fertilizer output stood at around 197,000 tonnes. In total, the Ukrainian market received about 290,000 tonnes of fertilizers of all kinds in January," they said.