Tag: IFA

Latin America has confirmed its status as a pre-eminent global marketplace for fertilizers. We report on demand growth and fertilizer supply and capacity developments within this diverse region.

Brazil’s phosphate industry is on a growth dash to meet rising domestic demand. We report on the major acquisitions, investments and expansions by CMOC, Mosaic, Yara and Itafos.

The two agricultural products most strongly associated with the economies of Southeast Asia are the food staple rice and export commodity palm oil. We explore the link between the region’s agricultural productivity and its fertilizer consumption.

Nelson Silva was appointed to Nutrien’s board of directors in the second week of August. His appointment coincided with the retirement of David C Everitt from Nutrien’s board, where he has been a director since 2013.

The last three years has seen a renaissance in fertilizer production and blending in sub-Saharan Africa. We highlight the expansion of capacity in Nigeria and other countries within the region.

Enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EEFs) occupy a small but high-value segment of the overall fertilizer market, although their production and use is accelerating. This trend is unsurprising given that their higher costs are usually more than offset by better efficiency and lower application rates.

The Sulphur Institute (TSI) has announced the selection of Ron Olson as its agronomist. Olson has over 30 years of experience as an independent consulting agronomist as well as 15 years with Cargill and The Mosaic Company. His agronomic consulting company worked directly with farmers and agricultural retailers offering custom soil sampling and soil analysis, and crop management expertise. The company pioneered the implementation of using precision agriculture tools for taking soil samples on a 2.5 acre grid, converting that data to computer maps and linking that data to GPS/GIS technology to develop crop management programs to achieve maximum economic yields. With Cargill and Mosaic he served as Research and Development Manager and led the team that developed the MicroEssentials™ suite of products., which has grown to become the leading commercial sulphur enhanced fertilizer sold globally.

Agricultural markets represent 75% of nitrogen demand worldwide. Rising populations, changing crop types, moves towards sustainability and the spread of speciality fertilizers and new technologies are all changing the market for nitrogen fertilizers, but the Covid pandemic may affect markets in a variety of different ways.

Merchant ammonia capacity, only a relatively small 10% of overall ammonia demand, has been expanding in recent years and was already in surplus even before the current Covid crisis, but longer term a shortage of new projects may tighten the market again.

IFA has announced the appointment of its Senior Director of Agriculture, Patrick Heffer , as the organisation’s Interim Director General as of May 1st. A formal search process for the next Director General has already been launched. Previous IFA Director General Charlotte Hebebrand stepped down at the end of April to assume a new role as Executive Vice-President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Nutrien, and says that she looks forward to continuing engagement with IFA.