Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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25. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will request that the European Commission Competitions Office investigate, as requested by farming organisations, the soaring price of fertiliser. [18581/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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No fertilisers are now manufactured in Ireland, resulting in indigenous fertiliser companies being price-takers, dependent on global supply and demand and subject to Euro exchange rates against the US dollar and other currencies. Fertilisers (as with crude oil and gas) are mainly traded in US dollars and are thereby subject to fluctuations in currency exchange rates. A weak euro means increased costs for fuel and fertiliser imports and this has impacted on recent price trends.

Currently, Europe is only 80% self-sufficient in fertiliser production and must import 20% of its requirements. As such, European and Irish fertiliser prices are strongly linked to global prices and heavily influenced by supply and demand.

With global demand outstripping supply, Irish fertiliser prices have increased by 6-8% so far in 2015. It is anticipated that world demand will continue to increase into the future maintaining upward pressure on prices to the final consumer in Ireland.

I understand that the issue of price of fertilisers is an important issue for farmers and the advice from Teagasc is for farmers to keep in contact with merchants as prices often spike at periods of high demand when European order books are full. Purchasing fertilisers at off-peak periods will help minimise prices.