Call for end to potash import duty

Faced with a doubling in the price of potash, which is one of the three main ingredients in fertilisers, farming leaders and politicians yesterday combined to ask the EU to drop its import charges on the product.

Peter Garbutt of the English NFU described the charges on imported potash as "unjust" when farm incomes were critically low and producers were feeling the pinch on prices.

"Potash is an essential nutrient used by farmers on a range of crops but while EU anti-dumping duties on imports from Belarus and Russia have been in place, the price has rocketed from around 137 per tonne in 2006 to 340 tonne today," Garbutt said.

The EU regulation imposed five years ago stipulates a minimum import price and an annual quota of 700,000 tonnes of imports before a duty of 27.5 per cent is imposed on top of market prices from imports of potash from Belarus. There are also similar, but smaller duties imposed on potash from Russia.

Garbutt added "We have consistently argued that anti-dumping duties on fertiliser imports are unjust."