Geopolitical shifts drive fertiliser market volatility – Ravensdown
According to Ravensdown's most recent Market Outlook report, a combination of geopolitical movements and volatile market responses are impacting the global fertiliser landscape.
Dr Bert Quin (right) receiving his Life Membership of the NZ Soil Science Society late last year, for “Distinguished Service to Soil Science”.
Quinfert owner, Bert Quin says his autumn fertiliser sales are nearly double last year’s.
This is despite farmer difficulties with the extended drought and getting their stock processed, not to mention complications arising from COVID-19.
He claims this a clear sign that more and more farmers are seeing through the “disinformation campaign” about Quinfert’s Algerian RPR, touted as an environmentally protective fertiliser<.
“It has longed been ranked one of the very best RPR’s internationally, in all the internationally used tests, and even more importantly, in field trials”, Quin says.
“Putting the hard facts forward in regular print advertising has had a large role to play in this”.
Quin believes farmers are becoming increasingly cynical about what they are being told by their regular supplier.
“They have been told for decades that soluble P doesn’t get lost in significant amounts to the environment in runoff or leaching. Now, with Quinfert appearing on the scene with its true RPR, farmers are being offered a drilling super type product as the saviour for the environment because it has far lower P losses than superphosphate,” he adds.
“Farmers were also told that high-performance RPR had become very hard to get.”
But Quin says that Algerian RPR had been available all the time and was offered to the industry.
Legal controls on the movement of fruits and vegetables are now in place in Auckland’s Mt Roskill suburb, says Biosecurity New Zealand Commissioner North Mike Inglis.
Arable growers worried that some weeds in their crops may have developed herbicide resistance can now get the suspected plants tested for free.
Fruit growers and exporters are worried following the discovery of a male Queensland fruit fly in Auckland this week.
Dairy prices have jumped in the overnight Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction, breaking a five-month negative streak.
Alliance Group chief executive Willie Wiese is leaving the company after three years in the role.
A booklet produced in 2025 by the Rotoiti 15 trust, Department of Conservation and Scion – now part of the Bioeconomy Science Institute – aims to help people identify insect pests and diseases.