Mineral Fertilizer Use and the Environment International Fertilizer Industry Association United Nations Environment Programme

1.3. Where are fertilizers
produced
Increasingly the manufacture of fertilizers is a
global industry, located near the source of the
raw materials or in developing countries with
expanding markets for the products. Fertilizer
production is decidedly not a monopoly of the
developed world.
1.3.1. Nitrogen fertilizers
The energy required for nitrogen fertilizer
production is found around the planet and there
is production in every region of the world.
However, there has been a trend towards
increased production not only in locations where
cheap natural gas is available, such as the Middle
East and the Caribbean, but also in the main
consuming regions, such as South Asia and
China.
Average rates of application
Source : Fertilizer Use by Crop. FAO/IFA/IFDC. 1996
Rate
Kg nutrients per ha
Russia
25
France
240
Wheat
Korea Rep.
320
Cambodia
4
Rice
USA
257
Tanzania
12
Maize
Tadjikistan
461
Benin
45
Cotton
of N + P
2
O
5
 + K
2
O
Rates of fertilizer use in the Russian Federation
have fallen greatly since 1989.

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Mineral Fertilizer Use and the Environment
9
1.3.2. Phosphate
The main producers of phosphate rock and
phosphate fertilizers are the USA, the FSU, China,
Africa and the Middle East. Several of these
countries are developing countries and the
phosphate industry makes an important
contribution to their economies.
Over the past two decades there has been a
distinct trend towards the processing of
phosphate rock in countries with substantial
natural resources of this material, especially in
North Africa and the USA, but also in the Middle
East and South and West Africa. There have
been several plant closures in West Europe,
where phosphoric acid production capacity and
output have fallen by 60% since 1980, for
economic and environmental reasons, particularly
the problem of gypsum disposal.
1.3.3. Potash
Potash is produced in the few countries where
the ores are located. In 1996 Russia and Belarus
accounted for 23% of the world’s production,
Canada for 35%, West Europe for 23% and
Israel and Jordan for 11%, these few regions thus
accounting for a total of 92% of world
production.

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