Food costs could jump as fertiliser plant shuts

BRITONS are facing the prospect of higher food prices after a US firm rejected an offer to save a crucial manufacturing plant, an MP has warned.

The shutdown of CF Industries’ fertiliser factory in Ince, Cheshire, is all but complete after a UKbased group of investors failed in a rescue bid. Hundreds of jobs have been lost at the facility, and CF said that the restructuring had cost the company £137 million.

CF produces 60 per cent of Britain’s CO2 supplies as a by-product of agricultural fertiliser. The gas is crucial in packing and preserving fresh food and salads.

The closure means it now has just one UK factory, in Billingham, Teesside, which CF also threatened to mothball earlier this year.

The company received a Government bailout worth millions in 2021.

Labour MP Justin Madders, whose constituency includes Ince, said the factory closure means CF has a ‘stranglehold over fertiliser prices in the UK’.

He said: ‘It means that we are far more exposed to global shocks. The monopoly that CF has got is going to put upward pressure on food prices.’

The Mail on Sunday previously revealed that the former head of the Army, Lord Dannatt, was spearheading a plan to snap up the plant.

A member of his consortium said he was ‘massively disappointed and very surprised’ that CF did not want to sell.

A CF spokesman said it had spoken with several parties but no offer ‘appeared likely to secure the long-term future’ of the facility.