PULSE NEWS MEXICO

The Dutch company Tarafert announced on Thursday, Feb. 16, that it will invest a total of $1.5 billion over the course of the next three years to construct a fertilizer plant in the northern Mexican state of Durango.

The new plant, which will include additional seed capital from eight other foreign companies, is slated to begin production in 2026, with an eventual annual output of about 1 million metric tons of ammonia-based fertilizer.

Once in operation, the plant will provide at least 500 jobs for skilled Mexican workers.

Currently, Mexico imports about 900,000 metric tons of fertilizer from abroad, and with the new plant the country will become self-sufficient in fertilizer production, according to Durango Governor Esteban Villlegas, who made the announcement along with Tarafert representatives on Thursday.

“Currently, there is not a single company producing fertilizers in Mexico, so we have to import all the fertilizers we use,” Villegas said. “Since Ukraine was one of the main producers of urea, a key ingredient in ammonia-based fertilizers, global costs have skyrocketed dramatically, affecting Mexican farmers.”

Villegas noted that a package of fertilizer that a year ago cost 400 pesos, currently costs 1,100 to 1,300 pesos, which makes farming costs unsustainable.