NPK Market - Forecast(2023 - 2028)

NPK market size is forecast to reach $XX.X billion by 2025, after growing at a CAGR of 4.2% during 2020-2025, owing to the vital role of NPK in controlling the diseases, insects and weeds that harm or destroy the food crops and improving the health and appearance of plants. Increase in demand for high-efficiency fertilizers, rise in adoption of precision farming, ease of use & application, and enhanced crop protection provided by NPK fertilizers are major factors that are driving the market growth. With growing global populations that constantly challenge food production, NPK fertilizers offer a means towards meeting the challenge of more food from less land. They are being extensively used to destroy or suppress the growth of harmful microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, or fungi on the crops. Thus, the extensive usage of NPK as a crop care product is anticipated to drive the NPK market substantially during the forecast period.

The report: “NPK Market – Forecast (2020-2025)”, by IndustryARC, covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the NPK Industry. 

By Type: Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium

By Form: Solid, and Liquid

By Mode of Application: Soil, Foliar, Fertigation, and Others

By Crop Type: Food Crops, Cash Crops, Horticulture Crops, Plantation Crops, and Others

By Geography: North-America, South-America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and RoW

The phosphorous segment held the largest share in the NPK market in 2019, as phosphorous is the main nutritional element in plants. Phosphorus is involved in photosynthesis, respiration, energy storage and transfer and many other processes in the plant. Phosphorus is known to improve the quality of fruit, vegetable, grain crops, and they are vital for seed formation. A lack of phosphorus causes plants to remain small and stunted and stalks to remain thin. Also, the leaves turn color, the roots hardly grow and flowering is delayed. Thus, the essential functions of phosphorus for the transmission, storage of chemical energy, and root formation is driving the demand for phosphorous NPK market during the forecast period. 

The solid segment held the largest share in the NPK market in 2019, as solid NPK fertilizers have a longer shelf life compared to liquid NPK fertilizer. The solid NPK fertilizers are convenient to apply, transport and they are more efficient for heavy pre-plant applications. In addition, the cost of converting equipment to handle NPK liquid fertilizer can be an obstacle due to which NPK solid fertilizers are preferred. NPK granules are produced by the compaction technology in which a mixture of the nutrient carriers for nitrogen (N), phosphate (P), and potassium (K) is compacted to a flake.  Also, solid NPK fertilizers are cheaper in bulk and easier to store than liquid NPK fertilizers. Thus, these superior advantages of solid NPK fertilizers over liquid NPK fertilizers are anticipated to propel the solid NPK market growth during the forecast period.

The food crop held the largest share in the NPK market in 2019 and is growing at a CAGR of 4.5%, owing to the increasing demand of NPK fertilizers for production of food crops such as wheat, rice, pulses and others. There is an increasing demand for food crops as they are a staple food in various regions especially in the Asian countries. The global use of rice for livestock feed has steadily increased over the past several decades. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) the global use of rice for feed in 2013 was 33.6 million mt and that feed use has been growing by 0.5 million mt per year since 2003, an average growth rate of 1.7 percent. According to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) rice consumption in 2019-20 was approximately 102 million tonnes, an increase of 3% and the rice consumption is expected to increase further in 2020-21 to 108 million tonnes with the government pushing more subsidized rice. Thus, the increasing food crop protection and production will require more NPK fertilizers, which are anticipated to drive the NPK market in the food crop sector during the forecast period.

Asia Pacific region held the largest share in the NPK market in 2019 up to 30%, owing to the increasing agricultural investments by the government in the region. The governments are spending heavily on initiatives and investments in the field of agriculture as it is one of the most effective ways of reducing hunger and poverty, promoting agricultural productivity and enhancing environmental sustainability for the increasing population. In 2016, according to China’s Ministry of Agriculture, over 1,300 Chinese enterprises had overseas investments in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries valued at $26 billion. The total quantum of private investment in India is projected to increase (with added investment of Rs. 78,424 crore) from Rs. 61,000 crore in 2015-16 to Rs. 139,424 crore by 2022-23. The Indian government introduced Pradhan Mantri Samman Nidhi Yojana under Budget 2019-20, in which a minimum fixed pension of Rs 3000 (US$ 42.92) is to be provided to the eligible small and marginal farmers, on attaining the age of 60 years. In Japan, a digital farming technology has been developed to help experienced farmers to use water and fertilizers more efficiently. According to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Asia Pacific accounts for more than 90 percent of world rice production and consumption and some developing countries in Asia Pacific will need to increase their food production by up to 77 percent to feed their people by 2050. Thus, such government initiatives are increasing the demand of agricultural crops which is further increasing the NPK fertilizers demand. The increasing demand of NPK fertilizers for easy production of crop is anticipated to drive the NPK market in APAC during the forecast period.

Due to heavy pressure of population in underdeveloped and developing countries and its rapid increase, the demand for food is increasing at a fast rate owing to which the governments are spending heavily on initiatives and investments in the field of agriculture. The United States Department of Agriculture took an initiative – “The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI)” to ensure food safety and security and train the next generation of the agricultural workforce. In 2020, the Canadian government invested a total of $560,000 on the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) to develop the Canadian Agri-Food Sustainability Initiative. The European government has take initiatives such as Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Young Farmers. The 2010- 2013 National Strategy for France’s Sustainable Development aimed to develop a more sustainable food production and support green economy and business innovation, and during the tenure it achieved a higher domestic organic production and consumption. Thus, due to the various initiatives by the government the agricultural production is also increasing in the various regions, which acts as a driver for the NPK market during the forecast period.

Organic fertilizers are obtained from animal sources such as animal manure or plant sources like green manure. The continuous usage of inorganic fertilizer affects soil structure. Hence, organic fertilizers can serve as an alternative to the inorganic fertilizers for improving soil structure and microbial biomass. The Government is promoting use of organic / ecological fertilizers by providing financial assistance for setting up of production units of organic fertilizers under following schemes National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF) and National Horticulture Mission (NHM). Under National Project on Management of Soil Health and Fertility (NPMSHF) there is provision for promotion of organic fertilizer up to Rs. 500/- per hectare. Assistance is also available for organic fertilizers under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY). These increasing government initiatives are resulting in the adoption of organic fertilizers which hinder with the NPK market growth during the forecast period.

Due to the covid-19 pandemic, there’s been a supply chain disruption in the global and local enterprises which are dealing with manufacturing of NPK ingredients. Due to the covid-19 outbreak the production in these sectors are expecting to experience difficulties like untimely deliveries of NPK. Also the governments banned export and import of certain commodities such as on March 31, 2020, the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), banned number of food products, most notably sunflower seeds and soy beans, which would mostly affect Russia, which is a large exporter of sunflower seeds and soybeans. These import and export restrictions are limiting the NPK market growth during the forecast period.

Technology launches, acquisitions and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in the NPK market. In 2019, the market of NPK has been consolidated by the top five players accounting for xx% of the share. Major players in the NPK market are Acron Group, Agroliquid, Compo Expert GmbH, EuroChem Agro GmbH, Haifa Chemicals Ltd., Helena Chemical Co., Helm AG, Israel Chemical Ltd., Teralytic, Shandong Liaocheng Luxi Chemical Sale Co. Ltd., and Yara International ASA.