UK Farmers Urged to Order Fertiliser Early as Prices Rise
06 September 2026, London: UK arable farmers and merchants are being urged to place fertiliser orders for the coming season as early as possible, as prices for key nitrogen products rise again and industry groups warn that late orders risk running into supply chain bottlenecks, Farmers Weekly reported on September 3.
The advice comes from traders and the Farming Fertiliser Stakeholder Group, a body bringing together UK farming unions and industry organisations that monitors fertiliser supply and price trends on behalf of the sector. According to prices reported this week, granular urea was trading at around £470 a tonne delivered, up roughly £10 a tonne over the past week alone. UK-produced ammonium nitrate, sold under the CF Nitram brand, was priced between £455 and £460 a tonne, with other ammonium nitrate products trading higher still. Diammonium phosphate (DAP) was quoted at £760 to £770 a tonne delivered, triple superphosphate (TSP) at around £650 a tonne, and muriate of potash (MOP) at about £350 a tonne. Polysulphate, a sulphur and potassium fertiliser, has held relatively stable at around £220 a tonne.
James Davies, business development manager at farm procurement cooperative AF Group, said rising raw material costs mean suppliers are adjusting urea and ammonium nitrate prices on a near-daily basis. The Farming Fertiliser Stakeholder Group’s statement warned that if too many orders arrive late in the buying season, the supply chain will struggle to process and deliver them in time for spring application.
Geopolitics behind the price rise
Behind the latest price moves lies a familiar set of geopolitical pressures. The war in Ukraine continues to disrupt Russian fertiliser and gas exports, while instability in the Gulf region is affecting the natural gas supplies that feed ammonia and urea production across Europe. European gas prices have climbed to around 70 euros per megawatt hour, the highest level since 2023, and utilities have reportedly secured only about 60 percent of their normal winter gas needs, compared with a typical 80 percent at this point in the year. Because ammonia and urea production is highly energy intensive, sustained high gas prices tend to feed directly through into fertiliser prices within weeks.
An additional factor specific to Great Britain is the UK’s planned carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), due to take effect from January 2027. The scheme will apply a carbon cost to imports of certain goods, including fertiliser, based on the emissions associated with their production overseas. Traders expect the looming deadline to encourage some buyers to bring forward purchases before the new year, adding further demand pressure to an already tight market in the run-up to Christmas.
What growers should do now
For farm businesses, the practical advice is straightforward: engage with suppliers now, lock in tonnage where budgets allow, and avoid waiting for a price dip that traders say is unlikely to materialise given current supply dynamics. Growers who delay decisions risk being caught out twice over, first by further price rises, and second by suppliers unable to guarantee timely delivery once demand peaks closer to spring drilling and application windows.
The pattern is a familiar one to buyers outside the UK too. Nitrogen fertiliser markets are globally linked through natural gas prices and shipping routes, so a supply squeeze that starts in Europe or the Middle East typically shows up in import costs elsewhere within a matter of weeks, regardless of where the fertiliser is ultimately applied.
The United Kingdom imports the large majority of its nitrogen fertiliser, making it a useful early indicator of stress building in global urea, ammonium nitrate and phosphate markets. India, one of the world’s largest fertiliser importers, along with buyers across Latin America, typically feels the same upstream pressures, rising natural gas costs, freight disruption and geopolitical risk to key exporting regions, with a short lag. Tracking UK price moves and buyer behaviour offers a practical early signal for procurement planning in other major importing markets.
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