Ministry corrects ‘monopoly’ claim about fertilizer maker

Finland’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has corrected its description of fertilizer producer Yara after the company objected to the use of the word “monopoly”, Yle reports.

Sebastian Hielm, head of the ministry’s food and research department, said he had used an inaccurate expression in an interview with the Finnish News Agency STT in late July. His comments were also quoted by Yle.

“My intention was to describe the availability and market situation for phosphate fertilizers in Finland. I did not intend to claim that Yara has a monopoly in Finland’s fertilizer market,” Hielm said in a statement published by the ministry.

The interview concerned a regulation that temporarily raised the maximum permitted cadmium level in phosphate fertilizers in Finland. The previous limit was twice as low. The change is intended to improve fertilizer availability and reduce prices.

Hielm told Yle that he had been too direct in the interview and had oversimplified the situation. Yara has a strong position in the Finnish market, he said, but that does not mean it has a monopoly.

“Our aim throughout has been for Yara’s products to continue being used, but we also hope that Yara will lower its prices to the same level as in neighbouring countries,” Hielm said.

Yara confirmed that it had contacted the ministry by email to request a correction. The message was sent to both Hielm and his supervisor, according to Gunilla Stedt, the company’s communications manager. Yara also published its own statement about the correction.

The Norwegian company has about an 80 per cent share of Finland’s fertilizer market. Yara said that no one is preventing other companies from entering the Finnish market, and that this has not happened in the past either.

In legal terms, a monopoly means a situation in which one operator has exclusive rights to a product or service and competition from others is prohibited. In everyday language, the word is often used to describe a company with a strong market share even when competitors exist.

Hielm said other fertilizer producers had previously found it difficult to enter the Finnish market because the cadmium limit was so low. Yara’s strong market position dates back to the period of state-owned Kemira. Kemira’s fertilizer business was sold to Yara in 2007.

Yara has four factories in Finland and the European Union’s only phosphate mine, which provides phosphorus used as a raw material for fertilizers.