EuroChem - Our world

Population

Population growth is one of the core challenges facing the global food system. The world's population is growing at a rate of around 75 million people per year according to the World Bank. Agricultural producers must continue to increase output and efficiency to keep up.

Arable land

There is a limited amount of land that is suitable to be used in feeding the world’s growing population. Between 1961 and 2007, global population increased 115%. Arable land increased just 10% during that same period – one acre of land fed 2.4 people in 1961, while that same acre must feed 4.7 people today.

Changing diets

Years of economic growth, especially in emerging markets, have led to dietary changes that have increased food consumption per capita and consumption of increasingly resourceintensive foods like meat. The World Economic Forum projects that food demand will grow 70-90% by 2050. More than 25% of the increase in grain demand will be due to changes in diet rather than population growth.

Emerging markets

The per capita gross national incomes (GNI – in PPP dollars) of Brazil, Russia, India and China combined rose by 119% between 1998 and 2008. US per capita GNI in the same period rose by 33%. This growth is helping to drive the dietary changes and increase consumption, and will continue to demand more from the world’s food system.

Alternative fuels

Biofuels account for a small but rapidly growing share of consumption of the world’s food resources. Since 2001, total corn production has increased rapidly (from 9.5 billion bushels to 13 billion bushels in 2007) and the share of corn used for ethanol has jumped from 7% to 24%. According to recent projections, 30% of the US maize harvest could be used for ethanol by 2010.

Soil fertility

Arable land also needs fertile soil to grow the crops that are in demand. Nitrogen, phosphate and potash fertilizers help make arable land more fertile and therefore more productive.

We are the 10th largest producer in the global mineral fertilizer industry by nutrient capacity. But we have embarked on far bigger plans. There are huge opportunities for us as we aim to become a top five global player in all three market segments: nitrogen, phosphate and potash.

In a commodity business our competitive advantage is to remain highly cost-competitive through vertical integration, investing in efficiency, product flexibility and securing access to lower-cost resources.

Today we produce a full range of nitrogen, phosphate and complex fertilizer products that help the agricultural industry meet the challenges of tomorrow’s world. In 2009 we added granulated urea and CAN to our product mix. By 2014 we plan to be a significant producer in the potash segment as well. We keep investing in growth and improvement because…

…the world needs fertilizers.

It starts here. EuroChem.

The key to growth