The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has said that total fertiliser sales have increased by almost 8.3% in a year.
The latest figures, published by the department, show that from October 1, 2023 to September 30 nearly 1.3 million tonnes of fertiliser was sold across the country.
This is comprised of 662,000t of compound fertilisers and 567,760t of straight fertilisers.
In the 2022/23 fertiliser year, 1.14 million tonnes of fertiliser was sold which was down by 17.6% when compared with the 2021/22 season (1.37 million tonnes).
DAFM
DAFM said that total sales of nitrogen (N) fertiliser stood at almost 1.2 million tonnes, which is an increase of 8.2% on the 2022/23 figure (1.1 million tonnes).
The data shows that phosphorus (P) fertiliser sales were down by 3.5% to 610,453t.
There was a 3.5% annual increase in sales of potassium (K) fertiliser to 674,115t.
The most popular compound fertilisers based on sales over the year were 18-6-12 (157,155t), 27-2.5-5 (120,444t) and 24-2.5-10 (104,407t).
The data shows that 30,848t of protected urea compounds were sold in the year up to September 30, along with a further 59,961t of stabilised urea 46 and 51,930 of stabilised urea 38+7 straights.
The department said that over 132,000t of Calcium Ammonium Nitrate (CAN) 27% and 120,000t of CAN 26% + 5% Sulphur (S) was bought during the period, along with 81,000t of CAN 27% + 3.6% S.
Meanwhile, Teagasc has said that the amount of money farmers spend on farm inputs across most sectors is set to decrease in 2025.
The Teagasc Outlook 2025 report, published on Tuesday (December 3), provides estimates on farm incomes for 2024, and attempts to forecast how things will progress in 2025.
Teagasc said it is difficult to anticipate how fertiliser prices might evolve in 2025, as energy prices and trade policy are the subject of uncertainty. For 2025 as a whole, it is forecast that fertiliser prices will decline by 5% on the 2024 level.