Farmers warn British food supply is ‘vulnerable’ after major fertiliser plant is closed down

Green taxes and energy costs blamed for closure of the Ince facility, which also supplies carbon dioxide

‘It affects everything from the cost of milk and meat products on the shelves to the price of bread’

BRITAIN’S food supply is now “vulnerable” after spiralling energy bills prompted the permanent closure of one of only two major fertiliser plants, farmers have warned.

Farmers and meat processors warned that domestic fertiliser supplies are now under threat after CF Fertilisers announced it would shut down one of Britain’s largest ammonia plants.

The company will shut down its Ince manufacturing plant near Chester which provides crucial supplies of nitrogen fertiliser and carbon dioxide.

CF said it could no longer keep the plant open amid soaring gas prices and high environmental taxes.

Production has been suspended since September.

CF will keep its Billingham facility open after the Government stepped in to secure a rescue deal for the plant with the company’s suppliers.

Brett Nightingale, UK managing director of CF, said: “As a high-cost producer in an intensely competitive global industry, we see considerable challenges to long-term sustainability.”

Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association, said: “You’d sooner have two plants rather than one, because if something goes wrong with that one plant you’re in trouble … It leaves the whole industry a lot more vulnerable that’s for certain. We are becoming more dependent on individual points in the supply chain.”

Jo Gilbertson, at the Agricultural Industries Confederation, said: “This is very sad and disappointing news. Nitrogen fertiliser is the meat in a balanced diet for plants. If we don’t have access to nitrogen fertilisers it affects everything from the cost of milk and meat products on the shelves to the price of bread because milling wheat needs the high protein level you get from nitrogen.

“Then you have to import grain and there’s a shortage of that because of the crisis in Ukraine.

“Then there are the knock-on effects. Carbon dioxide is a byproduct and it is also valuable for the food supply chain. The whole food chain grinds to a halt if the carbon dioxide is now unavailable, from meat processing plants not being operational to hospitals having to cancel operations because they use it for surgery. We have a resilience issue now.”

The cost of fertiliser has risen from about £200 per ton before the pandemic to £625 in recent months.

Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers’ Union, said: “There will be some people thinking we can just import what we cannot produce, but that is not a given. There is going to be a global shortage in some areas.”

A spokesman for CF said the proposals did not affect the ability of the business to supply CO2. They added: “The proposals would have no immediate effect on the availability of fertiliser in the UK, as the Ince manufacturing facility has not produced ammonia since September 2021. The Billingham facility has enough capacity to meet the demand for fertiliser that the business had been serving from both plants, prior to the halt in operations in September 2021.”