Fertilizer Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

The global population is increasing at a rapid rate. This growing population is adding to the food demand. Supplying food to this growing population has become a threat. On the other hand, arable land is declining, due to industrialization and urbanization. The FAO, revealed in “The Resource Outlook to 2050”, that at this time, more than 1.5 billion hectares of the globe’s land surface (about 12%) is used for crop production. There is little scope for further expansion of agricultural land. There is pressure on the existing arable land to produce more food by using technologically advanced fertilizer in a sustainable way.

On the other hand, due to industrialization and urbanization, the available arable land is decreasing including for countries such as Armenia, Austria, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Australia, India, Japan, Turkey, and many others. For instance, the percent of arable land out of total land declined from 6.11% to 5.9% between 2014 - 2016 in Australia. Hence, there is a need to increase the productivity of the crops, in order to meet the demands. The application of fertilizers has been proved to increase the productivity of crops, thus the demand for fertilizers is expected to increase.

Asia - Pacific accounts for about 60% of the fertilizer market. South Asia and East Asia are the major fertilizer consumers in Asia. With China representing approximately half of the consumption. In Asia, rice is a big nitrogen-consuming crop. Owing to the growing concern over the current pattern of fertilizer use, with heavy reliance on nitrogenous fertilizer, declining soil fertility, and weak marketing and distribution systems, biofertilizers and micronutrient fertilizers have emerged as new alternatives, and this fuel the fertilizer market in the region.

NPK has been the fastest-growing fertilizer product in the major fertilizer markets of Asia. The highest share of fertilizer consumption is from the grains, cereals, pulses, and oilseeds segment since crops like rice, wheat, pulses, and oil palms are largely grown in the region which consumes higher fertilizer. In 2017, rice production in Asia used the most fertilizer, accounting for 35% of total consumption. Oil palm, the second-largest consumer of fertilizer, accounts for 17% of total fertilizer consumption and 50% of potash consumption in Asia. Rice and oil palm production growths are expected to remain robust, driven by population and economic growths in the region.