Nitrogen is a critical input to agricultural production. In the EU, approximately half of this nutrient is supplied from organic livestock-derived sources while the other half comes from mineral nitrogen (specifically in 2023, organic nitrogen supplied amounted to 8.3 million tonnes and mineral nitrogen 8.7 million tonnes across the EU27, UK, Switzerland and Norway, source Fertilizers Europe 2024).
A significant share of this mineral nitrogen (either directly or in the form of ammonia which is the main feedstock) is imported, which can be a significant source of vulnerability. In this post we examine the extent of this vulnerability in terms of the dependence on nitrogen imports and the main sources of import supply.… Read the rest