The European Commission has committed to launching an EU Fertilisers Market Observatory in 2023. On Thursday 16 March, it published the call for applications with a view to officially launching the group of experts before the summer of 2023.
The call is open until 4 April. This new observatory will build on the market observatories already in place for several agricultural sectors, notably milk, crops and fruit and vegetables. Applications are invited from organisations representing stakeholders from at least 10 EU Member States and active in the fertiliser supply chains within the EU.
The Observatory, chaired by the Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture (DG AGRI), will be composed of a maximum of 20 members appointed for a period of five years. Its tasks will include providing first-hand information, including data, on the state of the fertiliser market and the factors influencing it, and exchanging experience and best practice.
Fertilisers play an important role in food security. Since the war in Ukraine launched by Russia, global food security and food prices have been affected by a general crisis in mineral fertilisers and energy. In this context, the European Commission presented at the end of 2022 a wide range of actions to address the immediate challenges and to reduce dependencies on third country fertilisers.
Link to the call for applications: https://aeur.eu/f/5w7 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)