The proposal to index domestic fertilizer prices is supported by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Economic Development, said the head of the Ministry Anton Alikhanov.
"We, as well as our colleagues from the Ministry of Economic Development, support indexing, but the Ministry of Agriculture is against this idea for obvious reasons. I can say that for not all fertilizer producers this is a matter of great importance, but for some there is already a price limit in place," he said at the International Arctic Forum.
According to Alikhanov, the ministry proposed raising prices by the amount of past inflation.
The head of the company PhosAgro, Mikhail Rybnikov, previously stated that fertilizer producers requested internal prices to be indexed by at least 10%. At the end of last year, the Russian Fertilizer Producers Association appealed to the authorities to increase prices by 15%.
Alikhanov noted that the situation varies among different producers, but in general, more fertilizers are being produced in the country, and most new projects are aimed at exports. "Of course, the domestic market is important, undoubtedly. But we understand that all our major players in this market are doing well enough," he noted.
A decision on indexing domestic fertilizer prices will be made by summer, said Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Vitaly Korolev. In 2021, manufacturers set maximum prices for fertilizers following FAS recommendations. Prices were indexed by 5% in June 2022 and by 5-10% in September. There was no indexing in 2023 and 2024. Currently, prices are frozen at the September 2022 level until May.
