EU Phosphorus Index: EU imports phosphorus worth close to €900 million from Russia despite efforts to cut dependence 

Despite Russia’s war in Ukraine, the EU continues to import large volumes of phosphorus from Russia, a new analysis by Swedish environmental company Ragn-Sells shows. In 2025, the EU imported Russian phosphorus products worth close to €900 million, making Russia one of the Union’s largest suppliers of a nutrient critical to European food production. 
 
“No phosphorus means less food and more inflation. As long as Europe remains dependent on imports from a handful of countries like Russia and Morocco, food supply remains insecure. If the EU is serious about food security, it must start recovering the phosphorus already circulating in our wastewater,” says Pär Larshans, Chief Sustainability Officer at the Ragn-Sells Group. 
 
Phosphorus is essential for producing mineral fertilisers and animal feed. Yet almost all phosphorus used in the EU is imported, mainly from Russia and Morocco. The EU’s only active phosphate mine, in Finland, supplies less than 10 percent of European agricultural demand. 
 
In 2025, European companies imported various types of phosphorus fertilisers and phosphates from Russia worth around €890 million, according to preliminary data from the European Commission analysed by Ragn-Sells. While this represents a slight decrease compared with 2024, Russian phosphorus still accounted around one fifth (21%) of the EU’s total phosphorus imports. 
 
“Europe is sleepwalking into a phosphorus crisis. Recognising phosphorus as strategically important and removing remaining barriers to recycled phosphorus is essential for European competitiveness, food security and long-term resilience,” says Jan Svärd, CEO of EasyMining. 
 
EasyMining, a Ragn-Sells innovation subsidiary, has developed the Ash2Phos technology. This process recovers more than 90 percent of the phosphorus from sewage sludge ash, and produces RevoCaP, a high-purity recycled calcium phosphate that can replace imported, mined phosphorus. 
 
Although the European Commission has approved recycled phosphorus for use in organic farming, a decades-old law still bans its use in animal feed. Sweden is urging the Commission to request a new risk assessment from European Food Safety Authority as a basis for revising the legislation, which forces recycled phosphorus to be sold outside of the EU. 
 
Phosphorus and other fertilisers have largely remained outside EU measures to sever economic ties with Russia, which have instead focused on phasing out energy dependence. Sweden and Finland have recently called on the EU to stop fertiliser imports from Russia. 
 
“Europe has the technology to produce phosphorus domestically, but outdated rules keep us dependent on imports. By simply updating an annex in the feed legislation, the EU could unlock significant investment, strengthen its competitiveness and reduce dependency on Russia,” says Pär Larshans. 
 
For further comment or interviews, please contact:  
Pär Larshans, Chief Sustainability Officer, Ragn-Sells Group, +46 70 927 29 63,  par.larshans@ragnsells.com  
Debby Porter Laffitte, Press Officer, Ragn-Sells Group, +46 10 723 24 00, press@ragnsells.com  
 
 
Fact box: EU import sources for phosphorus fertiliser and phosphate January-December 2025 
In 2025, companies in the EU imported phosphate fertilisers and phosphates worth around €4.1 billion. Around one fifth (21%) of these phosphorus products came from Russia. The five largest supplier countries were (according to preliminary data as of 10 February 2026): 
1. Morocco: €1.6 billion 
2. Russia: €890 million 
3. Israel: €300 million 
4. Norway: €240 million 
5. Tunisia: €160 million 

Source: The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI). Categories included are Phosphatic fertilisers, Phosphates and Mixed Fertilisers. The latter encompasses several products based on phosphorus, primarily NPK (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium), DAP (diammonium phosphate), and MAP (monoammonium phosphate). 
 
Fact box: EU measures on Russian fertilisers 
• Since 2022, the EU has adopted multiple sanctions packages targeting Russian energy exports, including oil, gas and coal. 
• Fertilisers and phosphorus products have not been subject to direct import bans under the sanctioned regimes, partly due to concerns over global food security. 
• In 2025, the EU introduced new tariffs on certain fertiliser products from Russia and Belarus as part of broader trade measures. 
• Sweden and Finland have recently called on the European Commission to stop imports of fertilisers from Russia. 

Source: Ragn-Sells 
 
Fact Box: What is Phosphorus? 
Phosphorus is essential for all life and plays a key role in plant growth, making it vital for both mineral fertilisers and animal feed. EasyMining’s Ash2Phos technology recovers more than 90 percent of the phosphorus from sewage sludge ash, enabling Europe to replace imported phosphorus with locally produced recycled material. 

The first Ash2Phos plant is now being built in Schkopau, Germany. The product is a calcium phosphate marketed as RevoCaP. Recycled calcium phosphate has been approved for use in organic farming in the EU but remains banned in animal feed, under outdated rules introduced during the BSE crisis. Sweden has called on the EU to revise this ban.

Source: Ragn-Sells 
 
Further reading: https://www.ragnsells.com/circular-transition/think-circular/foodsecurity/