1167 (2024). Lan Pham to the Associate Minister for the Environment

1167 (2024). Lan Pham to the Associate Minister for the Environment: Does the tonnage of synthetic fertiliser use reported by dairy farmers in the 2022/2023 year match what the Ministry for the Environment, and other environmental data sets (such as the state of the environment reporting), was expecting?

Hon Andrew Hoggard: Dairy farmers are only required to report on synthetic nitrogen. The tonnage of synthetic fertiliser used in 2022/2023 cannot be accurately calculated from dairy farm reports. Sales data published by the Fertiliser Association of New Zealand (FANZ) show that between June 2020 and June 2023, synthetic nitrogen sales fell by 22%, from around 450,000 tonnes to around 350,000 tonnes.