Categories: Base Metals
Topics: General Base Metals

Fertilizer Hits the Fan

Fertilizer Hits the Fan

Arcane rules over phosphates have critical geopolitical implications for the EU’s ties to Russia and North Africa.

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An obscure debate over EU fertilizer rules has spiraled into an incendiary geopolitical fight that threatens to roil Europe’s delicate relations with Russia and North Africa.

Russia and Morocco have massive stakes in the EU’s move to regulate the multi-billion euro fertilizer industry. Both countries mine the phosphate required to make fertilizers, but the African minerals contain a significantly higher level of a toxic, carcinogenic metal called cadmium.

Knowing that this contentious topic of cadmium content will finally be addressed as part of the EU’s forthcoming rules on fertilizers, Moscow and Rabat have launched intense, rival lobbying efforts in Brussels to try to protect their domestic phosphate industries.

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