Sánchez announces a state fertilizer plan to alleviate dependence on the Middle East
The Spanish government also publishes the list of the first beneficiaries of the €665M aid for the purchase of fertilizers
BarcelonaThe President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, has announced the launch of a state fertilizer plan to mitigate Spain's dependence on the Middle East, a region that concentrates – through the Strait of Hormuz – one-third of the world's fertilizer trade. At an event held this Monday in San Martín de la Vega (Madrid), the head of the executive indicated that he expects the initiative to be completed during the first quarter of 2027, with three lines of action that he considers "priorities": the commitment to precision agriculture, strategic autonomy, and price transparency.
While the Spanish government has stated that interministerial working groups have already begun working to shape the plan, the executive has not detailed the investment it will allocate to it. "It will be a plan with resources, a timetable, and concrete measures," Moncloa has limited itself to explaining.
According to Sánchez, the initiative presented this Monday is proposed as "a complement" to the moves announced by the European Commission to support farmers who depend on fertilizers from abroad. "We must do it with a certain speed, because in Europe we are moving at a slow pace," stated the President of the Spanish Government.
For now, the community executive has proposed advancing already allocated subsidies to member states and diverting European funds from the common agricultural policy (CAP) to subsidize the purchase of fertilizers. This latter initiative foresees mobilizing around 200 million euros at the community level, although the European Parliament and member states still have to approve it definitively for it to come into effect this very summer.
Aid for the purchase of fertilizers
In addition to announcing the state fertilizer plan, the Spanish government published this Monday the first list of 425,000 beneficiaries who will be able to receive direct aid for the purchase of fertilizers, subsidies framed within the package of measures approved last March due to the war in Iran.
The aid totals 665 million euros. Initially, Madrid gave the green light to an extraordinary allocation of 500 million euros, but last Monday the council of ministers increased the fund by 165 million.
Taking this and other items into account, the Spanish government boasts of having mobilized more than 1.1 billion euros in aid to the primary sector since the first attacks by Israel and the United States against Iran. This is a figure that, from Moncloa, they indicate is more than double the European average.
