24 As Table 3.2 shows, the largest consumers of phosphate fertilisers include the countries with a large agricultural sector such as China, the US and India. China and India do not export substantial amounts of food – which is mainly used for internal consumption (see e.g. FAO, 2009b) -, and the fertiliser statistics reflect the total net consumption of phosphate in these countries. On a per capita basis, fertiliser consumption is highest in New Zealand and Australia (117 and 56 kg P2O5 per capita respectively). Like the US, these countries have a substantial agricultural sector and export a considerable amount of the food they produce (see e.g. FAO, 2009b). At the lower end of the spectrum are the developing countries with a consumption of less than 1 kg P2O5 per capita. Figure 3.1 presents the latter figures in a more illustrative way. In particular, the backlog in the African world is striking in spite of the fact that this continent hosts the largest reserves of phosphate rock in the world. Although this does not necessarily apply to all countries, the prevalence of malnourishment among the population is generally the highest in countries with the lowest fertiliser consumption (<1 kg P2O5 per capita). Fertiliser consumption in the Netherlands in 2005 was much lower and amounted to some 51 000 t (CBS, 2009a), with a per capita consumption of 3.1 kg P2O5. However, as will be explained in section 5.1, the consumption of imported animal feed plays a much more important role in the phosphate budget of the Netherlands. Using our net total phosphate consumption in 2005 – i.e. including animal feed, feed additives and other commodities -, per capita consumption would amount to some 11 kg P2O5 per capita in 2005. As such, the fertiliser statistics presented in Table 3.2 do not always reflect a country’s overall phosphate consumption. 3.3 Historical trends of phosphate consumption and prices In the last 100 years, the global mine production of phosphate rock increased from 3.2 Mt/year in 1900 to 163 Mt/year in 2008, which amounts to an average increase of 3.4% per year (Figure 3.2). As far as we are aware there is no significant stockpiling of phosphate and consequently the production and consumption of phosphate show similar patterns. The strongest increase in phosphate production – and hence consumption - occurred during the period from 1945 to 1988, when annual growth reached an average of over 7% per year. During the early 1990s, the production of rock phosphate suddenly collapsed to a pre-1980 level of 120 Mt/year, the cause of which was most likely new environmental regulations to prevent the over-application of phosphate on agricultural soils in western Europe and the US. Also, the collapse of the former Eastern Bloc caused a stop to all national Pagina 33

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