Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of trends in the price of ammonium nitrate over the last 12 months; and if he will publish his assessment in the form of a percentage change.

Ammonium nitrate prices are at 12-month highs, having increased by around a half since last August. From August 2020 through to July 2021, the most recent month for which we have data, the price of imported ammonium nitrate has risen progressively from £202 per tonne to £311. This represents an increase of 53%. Over the same time period, the price of UK-produced ammonium nitrate has also risen, from £218 per tonne to £326, an increase of 50%.

The average price since January 2017 is £247 per tonne for UK-produced ammonium nitrate, and £235 for imported ammonium nitrate. Focussing on UK-produced ammonium nitrate, prices initially rose after January 2017, peaking at £293 per tonne in November 2018. Prices then fell, bottoming out at £200 per tonne in June 2020, before commencing their current increase. Prices are now at the upper end of their 5-year range and are returning to levels last seen in the early years of the previous decade.

The data on ammonium nitrate price movement is already in the public domain and there are no plans to publish any deeper assessment of the trends.