PhosAgro proposes European Commission to rethink its strategy

The European Commission has announced the “Farm to Fork” strategy which aims to solve the problems of sustainable development of food systems. It also develops the acceptance of the relationship between a sustainable food production process and the environmental and public health protection.

PhosAgro agrees with the stated goals in the strategy for sustainable use of fertilizers. These goals set in response to growing public concern about the environmental impact of agriculture through the integrated action plan called Green Deal. As PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev noted, “transition to the more sustainable use of fertilizers to protect the environment should be a mandatory step in every country.”

In the “Farm to Fork” strategy, the European Commission announced its desire to reduce the loss of nutrients by at least 50%. At the same time to avoid the decrease of soil fertility as a result of reduced fertilizer usage by at least 20% by 2030.

PhosAgro fears that as a result of the chosen strategy, which implies reducing the use of fertilizers without specifying possible environmental risks, the approach to the use of fertilizers will not be differentiated concerning their environmental friendliness. Therefore, the use of harmless fertilizers can also be reduced. At the same time, European agriculture still has a wide variety of fertilizer suppliers available that meet high environmental standards.

In this regard, the company offers the European Commission to limit the use of fertilizers from the perspective of clearly defined and scientifically based criteria for possible harm to the environment. Namely, to reduce the use of fertilizers with a high content of toxicants by 20%. And to increase the positive effect for growing crops and soil fertility as a result of the use of fertilizers, which contain no cadmium concentrations and other toxicants.

“Otherwise, it will be farmers who suffer the most because they will lose fertilizers as a tool to increase productivity. Achieving the goals set in the strategy should not put a strain on the farmers. On the contrary, this is the task for the mineral fertilizer industry, which has the opportunity to reduce possible negative implications of using products that do not meet environmental standards”, said Andrey Guryev.