Global fertilizer affordability is still weak into 2025 as high fertilizer prices — mainly for urea — continue to weigh on farmer affordability.
Nutrient affordability fell to 0.94 points in the first week of January, unable to recover from a declining trend that started in October 2024.
An affordability index — comprised of a fertilizer and a crop index — above one indicates that fertilizers are more affordable, compared with the base year, which was set in 2004. An index below one indicates lower nutrient affordability.
The fertilizer index — which includes global prices for urea, DAP and potash, adjusted by global usage — reached the highest value since October, driven by firmer urea prices, which weighs heavily on the fertilizer index owing to the relatively higher global usage when compared with DAP and potash fertilizers.
Prices for urea climbed to levels last seen in late 2023, with activity ramping up across the globe. Prices appear well supported through the month with India entering the market over the weekend, seeking 1.5mn t of urea for loading by early March.
A slight increase in the crop index owing to a rise in the first week of January for corn and soybeans was unable to offset higher fertilizer prices as the new year started.
Crop prices for corn and soybeans, which represent 52pc of global consumption for key crops, also rose into early January following lower production estimates made by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the upcoming crop campaign in the US.
The USDA revised earlier estimates made for the 2024-25 corn and soybeans crop by 1.8pc and 2pc, respectively.
