Farming threat as fertiliser price skyrockets amid high fuel costs: Food producers 'can't absorb increases indefinitely', warns body in call for government action
A farmers’ body has hit out after the price of fertiliser spiked by more than 25% over the course of a year, at the same time as fuel and energy costs spiralled.
Showing how the cost of living crisis is hitting agriculture in Northern Ireland, latest figures show that over the course of 2025 the amount of money the province’s farmers spent on fertilisers and lime went up to £133m – an increase of almost one-third on the year before.
Much of that was down to a steep rise in the price of fertiliser, which rose by 25.9% last year, while energy costs went up by 20% over the same period.
At the same time the money farmers were able to take for their produce fell, the index for agricultural outputs dropping by 4.3% year-on-year.
The resulting instability could spell disaster for the agricultural sector, the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has now warned, not least as a Westminster tax cut on fuel is set to expire on New Year’s Eve.
Stated a senior official: “Sticking plaster politics will soon become ineffective.”
What the UFU describes as “sustained volatility” in the cost of both energy and necessary products for farming such as fertiliser causes serious problems in short-term competitiveness and the long-term ability to invest in future plans, the body says.
The union is calling on provincewide authorities to protect Northern Ireland’s food-producing base, arguing that doing so must be made “a strategic priority” at a time when political conflict around the world is exposing “vulnerabilities in global supply chains”.
Said UFU deputy president Glenn Cuddy: “The impact of geopolitical instability continues to be reflected in the costs facing our farm businesses.
“Fuel, fertiliser and energy are fundamental agricultural inputs; sustained increases are having a direct impact on margins, investment decisions and ultimately the capacity of farms to maintain viable production.
“At the very least, we need the government to extend their welcome rebated fuel duty cut beyond December 2026 to avoid a damaging 72% increase.”
Introduced in June this year, the tax move reduced the fuel duty on red diesel used in farm vehicles by more than a third. At the time it was hailed as a useful move amid the Middle East conflict.
In recent days that conflict has widened, however, as Yemeni rebel group the Houthis came close to controlling a stretch of coastline at a strait on the Red Sea that leads to the Suez Canal, potentially further throttling global energy supplies that were already restricted by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
For the UFU, the impact of foreign conflict on farming here is proof the government needs to “take domestic food security seriously” by folding it into “national security and contingency planning”.
Mr Cuddy reinforced that although Northern Ireland’s farmers are resilient, they don’t have “an unlimited capacity to absorb cost increases”. He believes the government needs to make sure food producers can weather economic storms.
“What is particularly concerning is the disconnect between rising production costs and the return available,” he said. “There must be a sustainable return for agricultural produce which properly reflects the cost and risk involved in its production.
“The past months should be a clear reminder of why maintaining domestic food production matters."