UK’s Biggest Fertiliser Producer Shuts Facility; Farmers Say There Is ‘Unprecedented Risk’ to Supply

A tractor cultivates the ground for rapeseed oil crops at a farm in southern England, on March 28, 2022. Daniel Leal / AFP via Getty Images

Fertiliser producer and carbon dioxide supplier CF Fertilisers blames high gas prices as it permanently shuts one of the UK’s only two major facilities, leaving the food supply chain and farming open to “threats,” according to farmers and food trade organisations.

The company supplies 60 percent of the country’s CO2 production, including fertiliser for farmers. CO2 is a by-product of fertiliser manufacturing and is used in areas such as meat processing, in the slaughtering process, and the packaging of chilled foods, according to Just-Food.