Union hits out at strong Yara results

Strong fourth-quarter figures posted yesterday by international fertiliser giant Yara boosted share dividends – but also drew criticism from the National Farmers Union of Scotland.

The Norwegian company admitted that sales had dropped, with fertiliser customers reluctant to buy ahead of spring application. But president Jørgen Ole Haslestad was adamant that crop prices and farm margins remained “healthy” and fertiliser deliveries worldwide would need to recover to avoid a decline in global grain stocks.

However, Allan Bowie, the NFUS vice-president, said fertiliser manufacturers had to look at building long-term relationships with farmer clients rather than “focusing on taking short-term advantage of the marketplace”.

Bowie referred to the recent European Parliament report into input costs and last week’s Scottish farm income figures, both of which highlighted the huge impact that volatile input prices had on farming profitability.

“Fertiliser is a key cost to food production and it is a worry to see a major manufacturer choose to grow its margin despite a reduction in sales,” he said.The union has met GrowHow, the UK’s only manufacturer – which is part-owned by Yara – to seek a forward pricing policy that benefits both manufacturer and users.