The Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food has been warned of the crisis facing Irish farmers as fertiliser prices surge – after a new report this week warned that Irish dairy farmers could see their profit margins slashed by more than 50 per cent this year.
The Society of Chartered Surveyors (SCSI) along with State agency Teagasc said this week that the projected fall is attributable to a global fall in oil prices and the input cost shock brought on by the US-Israel war with Iran and its impact on the price of oil.
It said that Irish agricultural land sale and rental prices will grow by just 4 per cent this year – lower than the 7 per cent seen in 2025.
The two bodies said: “The impact on agriculture will be particularly acute given the large share of the costs of production on Irish farms that are directly or indirectly tied to energy and fertiliser prices.”
Speaking in the Oireachtas, Danny Healy-Rae TD, said that the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) – an EU regulation designed to prevent “carbon leakage”—where companies move production outside the EU to avoid high carbon costs – acts like a carbon tax. CBAM applies a fair carbon tax to a number of imported goods such as cement, iron, fertilisers, and steel – meaning that from October 2023, importers must comply with EU reporting and buy CBAM certificates for embedded emissions from January 2026.
The Rural TD told the Committee that there is currently nothing in place to replace chemical fertiliser – as he called for co-ordinated action with the North on the creation of a fertiliser register to avoid uneven treatment. However, the committee was told bringing in fertiliser from northern Ireland would “not be in the national interest” and would create “an unlevel playing field.”
“No one seems to be worrying about the farmer,” argued Healy-Rae.
“This is one of the most serious issues that we’ll discuss here this year,” said Healy-Rae, hitting out at the CBAM charges. “They’re hurting farmers double and triple with this CBAM and the carbon taxes – they’re making it impossible for us.”
He said the charge was “intended to deter people from buying fertiliser.”
“If costs are going to go up, at the end of the day, consumers will pay the piper, because farmers and those involved in the production of food need to be paid […] to keep going and stay working,” said Healy-Rae, adding that younger people were reconsidering going into the farming profession.
He said it was clear that grain growers were going to be “worse off this year than they were last year.”
The rising price of fertiliser was the main focus of the meeting at Leinster House, which also heard from representatives from the Irish Cooperative Organisation Society (ICOS) and the Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI).
According to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon, increases in fertiliser prices in Ireland have varied with the price of calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) which are projected to have soared by around 20% since the beginning of March, while urea has increased by as much as 60%.
Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food cathaoirleach Deputy Aindrias Moynihan that the committee was “very aware that the recent increase in fertiliser prices has added huge pressures for Irish farmers.”