EU imports €900 million of phosphorous from Russia

In 2025, the EU imported Russian phosphorus products worth close to €900 million, making Russia one of the EU’s largest suppliers of a nutrient critical to European food production.

“No phosphorus means less food and more inflation. As long as Europe remains dependent on imports from a handful of countries like Russia and Morocco, food supply remains insecure. If the EU is serious about food security, it must start recovering the phosphorus already circulating in our wastewater,” said Pär Larshans, Chief Sustainability Officer at Ragn-Sells.

Phosphorus is essential for producing mineral fertilizers and animal feed. Yet almost all phosphorus used in the EU is imported, mainly from Russia and Morocco. The EU’s only active phosphate mine, in Finland, supplies under 10% of European agricultural demand.

In 2025, European companies imported phosphorus fertilizers and phosphates from Russia worth around €890 million, according to preliminary data from the European Commission analysed by Ragn-Sells. While this represents a slight decrease compared with 2024, Russian phosphorus still accounted around one fifth (21%) of the EU’s total phosphorus imports.

“Europe is sleepwalking into a phosphorus crisis. Recognising phosphorus as strategically important and removing remaining barriers to recycled phosphorus is essential for European competitiveness, food security and long-term resilience,” stated Jan Svärd, EasyMining CEO.

EasyMining, a Ragn-Sells innovation subsidiary, has developed the Ash2Phos technology. This process recovers more than 90% of the phosphorus from sewage sludge ash and produces RevoCaP, a high-purity recycled calcium phosphate that can replace imported, mined phosphorus.

Although the European Commission has approved recycled phosphorus for organic farming, a decades-old law still bans its use in animal feed. Sweden is asking the Commission to request a new risk assessment from European Food Safety Authority as a basis for revising the legislation. Sweden and Finland have also urged the EU to stop fertilizer imports from Russia.

“Europe has the technology to produce phosphorus domestically, but outdated rules keep us dependent on imports. Updating an annex in EU feed legislation could unlock significant investment, strengthen competitiveness and reduce dependency on Russia,” commented Pär Larshans.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldfertilizer.com/phosphates/16022026/eu-imports-900-million-of-phosphorous-from-russia/