Yara takes advantage of farmers’ dependency on fertilizers to make profits. The company made record profits during the 2022-23 energy crises while the prices farmers had to pay for fertilizers tripled in one year. During the recent protests in 2024, many farmers pointed at the unsustainable prices of fertilizers to which they saw no alternative than paying for it since political support for transitioning to more resilient agricultural practices is lacking.
Yara also abuses its own workers. For instance, after more than ten years of ecological and safety infringement on its Montoir site (France), and years of promises to renovate the plant to comply with the law, Yara actually announced the plant activities would shut down and 80% of its employees would be dismissed (139 out of 173). Today, workers denounce years of unsafe working conditions – a 50-year-old worker died in the Montoir site in 2023, which could relate to the toxic ammonia air he breathed.
Despite record profits and many cases of environmental law infringement, Yara benefits from public subsidies in different countries. In France, despite being in the sixth most surveilled companies for its law infringements, Yara is receiving millions of public money to develop its activities. In the Netherlands, the ammount of public subsidies goes up to more than 1,3 billions in 2022.
References:
GRAIN. (2023). The AfDB strategy to agro-industrialise Africa. (report on public expenses for fertilizers during the energy crises).
Roussel, H. (2023, November 6). Montoir : un salarié de l’usine Yara meurt sur le site après un malaise. Ici Par France Bleu Et France 3. (press release)
Van Gelder, J. W., & Werkman, M. (2023). Fossiele subsidies voor grote klimaatvervuilers: Inventarisatie voor Milieudefensie. In Milieudefensie. Profundo. (report)
