Strongly increased producer prices due to the increase in the price of natural gas are also slowing down the fertilizer industry in Germany.

The Federal Statistical Office announced on Monday that the quantity of fertilizers sold in Germany fell significantly in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the same period last year.

The production of most fertilizers is very energy-intensive, natural gas is required both as a raw material and as an energy source in the production process.

According to the Wiesbaden statisticians, domestic sales of phosphate fertilizers halved to 14,000 tons within a year.

Potash fertilizer sales also fell by a good half (minus 52.3 percent) to 55,900 tons of potassium oxide.

The volume of nitrogen fertilizer fell by 18.5 percent to 238,000 tons.

Only sales of lime fertilizer remained almost unchanged.

In the sales figures, the Federal Office takes both fertilizers produced in Germany and imported fertilizers into account.

Mineral fertilizers are used on a good two thirds (69 percent) of the agriculturally cultivated area in Germany.

According to statisticians, the high gas prices and the associated decline in fertilizer production have been increasingly reflected in fertilizer prices since the spring.

In August, producer prices for fertilizers and nitrogen compounds more than doubled compared to the same month last year (plus 108.8 percent).

According to calculations by the Federal Office, in March 2022, the first month after the start of the war in Ukraine, they were 87.2 percent higher than a year earlier.