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7 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 74/2000
The potash industry must become fully sustainable.
That was the call this morning from the world's potash workers' unions, meeting at a conference in Germany.
Company speakers also took part in the event, as did EU officials and parliamentarians.
The emphasis was on two types of sustainability - in the management of a finite resource and in the impact of fertilisers on the environment.
Organised by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), the event was hosted by the ICEM-affiliated German mining, chemical and energy union IG BCE. The venue was the German town of Rotenburg an der Fulda, which is in the middle of Europe's biggest potash mining area.
HELP FOR EX-SOVIET POTASH INDUSTRY
The conference, which has just ended, followed up on an ICEM commitment made in Berezniki, Russia, in June 1999. An international conference of potash mining unions there raised the question of the anti-dumping measures imposed by the EU vis-a-vis potash producers in Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine.
The ICEM and IG BCE promised to organise another conference in order to continue the dialogue on this question, but also to promote the sustainability of the potash industry worldwide.
The key to resolving the dumping issue is to revive internal demand for potash in the countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union, said speakers at the Rotenburg conference.
The EU anti-dumping measures "have not built up any insuperable barriers to trade," IG BCE Vice-President Klaus Südhofer pointed out. In fact, German imports of potash from Russia rose by 35 percent in the first quarter of this year. "But home market sales of potash in Russia and Belarus have fallen to just 20 percent of their 1990 level," Südhofer said. The problems caused by this should be tackled at source, rather than being exported.
One solution was outlined by ICEM Mines Officer Damien Roland. He called for "large-scale" EU assistance in order to "revitalise a healthy and adequate level of demand" for potash in the countries of the CIS (former Soviet Union). The assistance should be under the EU's TACIS programme of aid to these countries, "supported by well-targeted commercial loans which could emanate from institutions such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the International Finance Corporation." The programme should aim to rebuild the potash distribution circuits destroyed by the collapse of the centrally planned economies in these countries. But it should also promote "environmentally optimal use of potash and occupational health and safety, as well as the overall management of social issues within the potash mining industry."
Both the ICEM and the European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers' Federation (EMCEF) are "committed to support the formulation and financing of such an assistance programme," Roland said. The two organisations "will also try to enlist the support of employers in the potash industry."
SUSTAINABILITY NEEDS A SOCIAL DIMENSION
Potash is used mainly as a fertiliser. Worldwide consumption declined during the 1990s, chiefly due to the collapse of demand in the former Soviet Union. But global demand for potash is now recovering, and is predicted to continue rising up to and beyond the year 2030. Potash is under less pressure from environmentalists than are nitrogen-based nutrients, speakers in Rotenburg pointed out. It is also less subject to fluctuations in the price of energy, notably gas. The biggest importer of potash is China.
"The efficiency of fertilisation is increased by a higher and therefore more balanced use of potash in relation to nitrogen," Dr. Ralf Bethke told the conference. He is the Chairman of leading German potash and salt producer K+S. Potash is vital to "meeting the increasing food requirements of a world population that is continuing to grow," he insisted. Available agricultural land per head of the world's population will have dropped from about 3,000 square metres in 1975 to "significantly less than 2,000 square metres" by the year 2025, Bethke said. In Asia, the corresponding figure will be just 800 square metres by the same year. Consequently, he argued, a further intensification of agriculture is "unavoidable".
"If everyone acts wisely, the clear increase in demand for our potash will ensure that none of the potash producers need fear for their economic viability," Bethke stated. "Quite the reverse. However, in my view, new potash capacity will not be needed in order to maintain supply over the next five to seven years."
Bethke made a strong link between the sustainability of the global potash industry and its treatment of its workers: "A joint aim of the international potash industry and the people working in it should, I believe, be that we achieve - everywhere in our enterprises - similar working conditions, social provisions and environmental standards."
The same linkage was made by union speakers at the conference.
"To be truly sustainable," said the ICEM's Damien Roland, "development must encompass the recognition of a series of rights whose respect must be monitorable. From the ICEM's perspective, this should lead to global agreements between mining companies and the trade unions representing the workforce employed by these companies."
IG BCE Vice-President Klaus Südhofer called for a general raising of standards: "The constantly increasing globalisation of the economy also demands the establishment of new standards. These will not just be confined to the quality of the goods produced. The rules of production must include social and environmental norms. Understanding of the need for these extended standards, which have so far attracted interest principally within the European Union, should grow worldwide. In order to abide by these norms, there will have to be a raising of standards in, for example, vocational training, occupational safety, research and environmental protection."
That was the call this morning from the world's potash workers' unions, meeting at a conference in Germany.
Company speakers also took part in the event, as did EU officials and parliamentarians.
The emphasis was on two types of sustainability - in the management of a finite resource and in the impact of fertilisers on the environment.
Organised by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), the event was hosted by the ICEM-affiliated German mining, chemical and energy union IG BCE. The venue was the German town of Rotenburg an der Fulda, which is in the middle of Europe's biggest potash mining area.
HELP FOR EX-SOVIET POTASH INDUSTRY
The conference, which has just ended, followed up on an ICEM commitment made in Berezniki, Russia, in June 1999. An international conference of potash mining unions there raised the question of the anti-dumping measures imposed by the EU vis-a-vis potash producers in Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine.
The ICEM and IG BCE promised to organise another conference in order to continue the dialogue on this question, but also to promote the sustainability of the potash industry worldwide.
The key to resolving the dumping issue is to revive internal demand for potash in the countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union, said speakers at the Rotenburg conference.
The EU anti-dumping measures "have not built up any insuperable barriers to trade," IG BCE Vice-President Klaus Südhofer pointed out. In fact, German imports of potash from Russia rose by 35 percent in the first quarter of this year. "But home market sales of potash in Russia and Belarus have fallen to just 20 percent of their 1990 level," Südhofer said. The problems caused by this should be tackled at source, rather than being exported.
One solution was outlined by ICEM Mines Officer Damien Roland. He called for "large-scale" EU assistance in order to "revitalise a healthy and adequate level of demand" for potash in the countries of the CIS (former Soviet Union). The assistance should be under the EU's TACIS programme of aid to these countries, "supported by well-targeted commercial loans which could emanate from institutions such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the International Finance Corporation." The programme should aim to rebuild the potash distribution circuits destroyed by the collapse of the centrally planned economies in these countries. But it should also promote "environmentally optimal use of potash and occupational health and safety, as well as the overall management of social issues within the potash mining industry."
Both the ICEM and the European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers' Federation (EMCEF) are "committed to support the formulation and financing of such an assistance programme," Roland said. The two organisations "will also try to enlist the support of employers in the potash industry."
SUSTAINABILITY NEEDS A SOCIAL DIMENSION
Potash is used mainly as a fertiliser. Worldwide consumption declined during the 1990s, chiefly due to the collapse of demand in the former Soviet Union. But global demand for potash is now recovering, and is predicted to continue rising up to and beyond the year 2030. Potash is under less pressure from environmentalists than are nitrogen-based nutrients, speakers in Rotenburg pointed out. It is also less subject to fluctuations in the price of energy, notably gas. The biggest importer of potash is China.
"The efficiency of fertilisation is increased by a higher and therefore more balanced use of potash in relation to nitrogen," Dr. Ralf Bethke told the conference. He is the Chairman of leading German potash and salt producer K+S. Potash is vital to "meeting the increasing food requirements of a world population that is continuing to grow," he insisted. Available agricultural land per head of the world's population will have dropped from about 3,000 square metres in 1975 to "significantly less than 2,000 square metres" by the year 2025, Bethke said. In Asia, the corresponding figure will be just 800 square metres by the same year. Consequently, he argued, a further intensification of agriculture is "unavoidable".
"If everyone acts wisely, the clear increase in demand for our potash will ensure that none of the potash producers need fear for their economic viability," Bethke stated. "Quite the reverse. However, in my view, new potash capacity will not be needed in order to maintain supply over the next five to seven years."
Bethke made a strong link between the sustainability of the global potash industry and its treatment of its workers: "A joint aim of the international potash industry and the people working in it should, I believe, be that we achieve - everywhere in our enterprises - similar working conditions, social provisions and environmental standards."
The same linkage was made by union speakers at the conference.
"To be truly sustainable," said the ICEM's Damien Roland, "development must encompass the recognition of a series of rights whose respect must be monitorable. From the ICEM's perspective, this should lead to global agreements between mining companies and the trade unions representing the workforce employed by these companies."
IG BCE Vice-President Klaus Südhofer called for a general raising of standards: "The constantly increasing globalisation of the economy also demands the establishment of new standards. These will not just be confined to the quality of the goods produced. The rules of production must include social and environmental norms. Understanding of the need for these extended standards, which have so far attracted interest principally within the European Union, should grow worldwide. In order to abide by these norms, there will have to be a raising of standards in, for example, vocational training, occupational safety, research and environmental protection."