What is annual fertilizer production?
This data is all from the 2023 International Fertilizer Association report "Medium-Term Fertilizer Outlook 2023-2027". It's a short report (11 pages) and I'm only extracting these numbers to make it easier to see the whole picture.
Measures
- capacity: theoretical supply based on typical maximum operating rates. I'm not sure how this is calculated exactly.
- capability: actual amount of fertilizer that will be produced given real-world constraints, like demand, energy supply, raw material availability.
- production: what we actually produced
- use: what farmers applied
Data
| capacity (2022) | capability (2022) | production (2022) | use (2023) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrogen (megatons N) | 192 | 157 | 150 | 109 |
| Phosphorus (megatons P) | 27 | 22 | 26 | 20 |
| Potassium (megatonst K) | 52 | 39 | 33 | 31 |
Units
The report switched between what exactly they were weighing often, and I converted all weights to the actual N, P, and K weights. Units I saw:
- nutrient tons: weight of the N, P2O5, or K2O content of the fertilizers
- Plants just care about P and K ions. Noting the weight of P2O5 and K2O is a historical thing, I think.
- element tons: weight of the N, P, or K content of the fertilizers
- N is 82% of NH3.
- P is 44% of P2O5.
- P is 31% of H3PO4.
- K is 83% of K2O.
- K is 53% of KCl.
- product tons: weight of the actual fertilizers (eg urea)