Market Trends
Key Emerging Trends in the Specialty Fertilizers Market
The need for fertilizers is growing, and most of them are made from phosphorus-containing minerals found in nature. Phosphorus (P) is like food for living things, especially in farming. The kind of phosphate found in rocks, called apatite, isn't easy for plants to use. So, they have to treat the phosphate rock to make it useful for plants. There are also other sources of phosphate, like manure, bone meal, and waste from cities, but these are not used much because they cost more and there's not enough to make all the fertilizers the world needs. The most common fertilizers are diammonium phosphate (DAP), monoammonium phosphate (MAP), and triple superphosphate (TSP). These make up half of all phosphate-based fertilizers used. According to IFA, fertilizers with high amounts of phosphate, like DAP, and compounds with nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), known as NPK, will be the main ones in demand in the next five years. DAP is the most used phosphate fertilizer globally because it has a lot of nutrients and works well for plants like wheat, barley, fruits, and vegetables. In 2020, the world wanted about 30 million tons of DAP. NPKs are compound fertilizers that have different amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. In 2020, the demand for NPK was about 20 million tons worldwide. In 2020, the world needed a lot of fertilizer, around 201.66 million tons. This happened because the weather was good after a strong El Niño event, and farming was looking profitable in some countries. The supply of fertilizer was good, and prices were low for most crops. Economic prospects were going up in developed countries like Russia, Brazil, and Sub-Saharan Africa, but there was some uncertainty in big markets that use a lot of fertilizer. The situation in 2020 supports a modest increase in demand for fertilizer in the next five years, unless there are big changes in the weather or the economy. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations thinks the global farming industry will be worth more than USD 4.1 trillion by the end of 2020, growing at a rate of around 4%. They also estimate that the world wanted over 200 million tons of fertilizer in 2020. The global fertilizer market is expected to grow by around 2%. Asia-Pacific, especially India, is a big market for fertilizers. The United Nations predicts that the world's population will be more than 8.6 billion by 2030, and there will be less land for each person to grow crops. This means we need to grow more from the same land. In places like India, Brazil, China, and Turkey, using phosphate-based fertilizers has increased crop yields. So, with the growing farming industry and the need for more crops, the demand for phosphate in making fertilizers is likely to go up in the coming years.
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