Ranked: The Countries That Dominate the Fertilizer Trade

Who Leads the Global Fertilizer Trade?

Key Takeaways

• Russia is the world’s largest fertilizer exporter, shipping 23.2 million tonnes by nutrient content in 2024.

• Canada, China, Morocco, and Russia together account for 53% of global fertilizer exports.

• Mineral deposits and energy supplies help shape which countries lead the fertilizer trade.

The global food supply depends on a fertilizer trade concentrated among a relatively small group of countries.

Farmers use fertilizers to replenish nutrients and support crop growth. Producing them at scale depends heavily on access to key mineral deposits and energy resources.

This visualization ranks the world’s largest fertilizer exporters using the latest figures available (2024) from the Food and Agriculture Organization. It combines nitrogen, phosphate, and potash exports, measured by nutrient content rather than the full weight of fertilizer products.

The Big Four Fertilizer Exporters

Global fertilizer exports topped 113.3 million tonnes in 2024, with the four largest exporters accounting for more than half of the total.

Russia leads the ranking with 23.2 million tonnes, followed by Canada (14.4 million), Morocco (12.2 million), and China (10.1 million).

The table below ranks the world’s top fertilizer exporters in 2024 based on total tonnes exported.

RankCountry2024 fertilizer exports (tonnes)

1 Russia23,234,623

2 Canada14,419,294

3 Morocco12,154,362

4 China10,126,069

5 U.S.6,372,572

6 Saudi Arabia5,589,139

7 Germany3,136,446

8 Israel2,782,901

9 Qatar2,471,034

10 Belarus2,436,719

11 Netherlands2,244,415

12 Egypt1,910,594

13 Belgium1,830,168

14 Algeria1,753,242

15 Oman1,649,407

16 Norway1,641,508

17 Laos1,629,908

18 Nigeria1,415,355

19 Poland1,070,679

20 Malaysia1,061,170

21 Turkmenistan1,024,841

22 Spain865,510

23 Indonesia748,316

24 Lithuania727,186

25 Trinidad and Tobago689,636

26 Vietnam610,681

27 Chile601,601

28 Türkiye513,686

29 Brunei497,215

30 Jordan433,747

31 Bulgaria381,202

32 South Korea374,965

33 Slovakia360,260

34 Uzbekistan359,536

35 Bahrain318,528

36 France301,235

37 Italy297,626

38 Venezuela276,721

39 Australia271,208

40 UK265,615

41 Bolivia263,910

42 Kazakhstan260,759

43 Azerbaijan259,871

44 South Africa254,092

45 Greece245,335

46 Tunisia223,833

47 Brazil205,427

48 Sweden201,946

49 Thailand198,058

50 Serbia184,174

51 Portugal175,072

52 Hungary174,732

53 India155,111

54 Czechia145,631

55 Georgia131,526

56 Taiwan124,326

57 Mexico121,036

58 Japan105,137

59 Romania95,519

60 Côte d'Ivoire94,742

61 Croatia86,147

62 Latvia64,310

63 Slovenia59,726

64 Lebanon59,118

65 Finland51,017

66 Colombia40,997

67 Namibia40,182

68 Honduras36,650

69 Mozambique34,813

70 Tanzania29,417

71 Denmark29,249

72 Senegal28,976

73 Kenya28,094

74 Dominican Republic22,095

75 Peru21,757

76 United Arab Emirates20,627

77 Guatemala19,637

78 Ghana19,325

79 Philippines19,041

80 Iran16,938

81 Austria15,574

82 Singapore15,198

83 Ireland14,811

84 Madagascar14,692

85 Costa Rica13,587

86 Ukraine13,291

87 Mali13,089

88 Luxembourg12,538

89 El Salvador12,420

90 Eswatini9,464

91 Uruguay7,628

92 Estonia6,768

93 Panama4,340

94 Guyana3,527

95 North Macedonia2,869

96 Ecuador1,585

97 Bosnia and Herzegovina1,543

98 North Korea1,265

99 Hong Kong1,244

100 Kuwait1,237

101 Malawi1,000

102 Paraguay972

103 Bahamas884

104 Syria612

105 Angola583

106 Iraq579

107 Pakistan570

108 New Zealand543

109 Burkina Faso539

110 Cameroon523

111 Tajikistan450

112 Libya349

113 Uganda334

114 Switzerland327

115 Togo315

116 Botswana233

117 Moldova232

118 Kyrgyzstan176

119 Mauritius155

120 Bangladesh131

121 Armenia116

122 Gambia101

123 Benin54

124 Jamaica42

125 Albania36

126 Liberia20

127 Congo18

128 Cyprus9

129 DR Congo8

130 Palestine8

131 Cuba6

132 Niger6

133 Cambodia3

134 Montenegro3

135 Sri Lanka2

136 Suriname1

Total113,373,883

These totals combine different parts of the fertilizer industry, each supplying essential nutrients for agriculture. Potash supplies potassium, while phosphate fertilizers supply phosphorus. Nitrogen fertilizers follow a different production process.

As a result, strength in one fertilizer category does not necessarily translate to strength in another. The four leading exporters dominate different parts of the market.

Mining Potash and Phosphate

Canada’s position starts underground. Its potash industry draws on extensive deposits in Saskatchewan, giving the country an advantage that producers without comparable resources cannot easily replicate.

Canada supplies over 70% of the potash consumed in the United States. Efforts to replace Canadian supply with smaller producers, such as Belarus (2.4 million tonnes), therefore face significant logistical challenges.

Morocco, meanwhile, is a major producer of phosphate rock. State-owned OCP Group mines the resource and processes it into phosphoric acid and phosphate fertilizers. OCP alone holds over 30% of the global phosphate market, generating revenue of nearly $10 billion in 2024.

Energy-Intensive Nitrogen Production

For nitrogen fertilizer, the constraint is different. Nitrogen is abundant in the air, but converting it into ammonia, the starting point for mineral nitrogen fertilizers, requires substantial energy and a source of hydrogen.

Natural gas commonly provides both the fuel and the raw material needed to produce that hydrogen. Access to relatively low-cost gas has helped Russia, along with exporters such as Qatar (2.5 million tonnes) and the U.S. (6.4 million tonnes), expand ammonia production.

China, meanwhile, developed much of its ammonia industry around abundant coal supplies instead. The country produces more coal than the rest of the world combined.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To see how one major market has maintained demand for fertilizer, check out EU Has Continued to Buy Russian Fertilizer Throughout War on Voronoi.