Publications /
Policy Brief

Back
Download PDF
English version
Potasse : une guerre des prix bien commune
Authors
Yves Jégourel
March 8, 2016
Related topics: 
Commodities & Energy
Natural Resources

La potasse constitue, avec le phosphate et l’azote, l’un des trois nutriments utilisés dans la fabrication d’engrais. Si les facteurs qui influencent sa demande sont pour la plupart communs aux autres fertilisants et en large partie déterminés par la conjoncture des marchés agricoles, son offre répond quant à elle à des facteurs propres. Longtemps connu pour être contrôlé par deux cartels de production et d’exportation, le marché de la potasse a connu une évolution majeure en 2013 marquée par la fin d’une entente russo-bélarusse. Dans un contexte économique dégradé, cette rupture se traduit par l’amorce d’une guerre des prix, à l’image de ce que l’on observe pour d’autres matières premières, telles que le minerai de fer.

RELATED CONTENT

  • RE-NEW IT - Teocah Dove, Trinidad & Tobago (ADEL 2015)
    February 21, 2020
    To strengthen the role of youth as agents of community development, the Policy Center for the New South launched a year ago a call for projects grounded in new and innovative approaches to existing local problems. RENEWIT’s aim is to help with the socio-economic situation in Guyana thro...
  • Climate Change: Three Reasons for Central Banks to Engage
    Authors
    Otaviano Canuto
    February 17, 2020
    - There are three possible justifications for central banks to engage with climate change issues: financial risks, macroeconomic impacts, and mitigation/adaptation policies. - Regardless of the extent to which individual central banks take action in each of the three areas, they can no longer ignore climate change. Last year, extreme weather events associated with climate change – floods, violent storms, droughts, and forest fires –occurred on all inhabited continents. In at least ...
  • Download PDF
    Le développement des hydrocarbures en Afrique de l’Est, Défis politiques et sécuritaires
    Authors
    Benjamin Augé
    October 29, 2019
    L’ Afrique de l’Est a le potentiel de connaître un boom gazier et d’ exportation de gaz naturel liquéfié (GNL) ces prochaines années grâce à plusieurs projets qui viennent d’être débloqués. Le Mozambique a ainsi sanctionné deux projets totalisant plus de 15 millions de tonnes par an (Mt/an) de gaz liquéfié et un troisième devrait être lancé d’ici la fin 2019. Un premier Floating Liquefied Natual Gas plant (FLNG) d’ ENI arrivera sur le marché en 2021-2022 et quatre autres trains de l ...
  • Download PDF
    From Asian Green Revolution 1.0 to Sustainable Green Revolution 2.0
    Authors
    Isabelle Tsakok
    Tharcisse Guedegbe
    September 27, 2019
    This paper is about the basic principles which should guide fertilizer policy for smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa It is not about detailed country-specific prescriptions on the “how” of policy. This important task should constitute the substance of detailed country studies. The overarching goal here is to use fertilizer to spearhead and sustain an African Green Revolution (GR). In this paper, fertilizer use is not considered as an end in itself, but as a necessary mean ...
  • The Thirsty Planet, and No End in Sight (II)
    Authors
    Helmut Sorge
    August 23, 2019
    “O! WRETCHED MORTALS, OPEN YOUR EYES” Leonardo da Vinci, creator of the ever beautiful and impenetrable Mona Lisa, noted 500 years ago that he realized the importance of water, which is, the artist jotted in his notebooks , “the driving force of all nature”, the vetturale di natura, the vehicle of nature. Da Vinci was not only acclaimed by kings and wealthy nobility like the Florentine Medici’s for his paintings , but the genius, possibly one of the greatest minds and creative pow ...
  • Download PDF
    Natural Wealth and Economic Growth: The Case of Sub-Saharan Africa
    Authors
    Otaviano Canuto
    Christos Daoulas
    August 22, 2019
    This note approaches the relationship between natural wealth and economic growth, using the case of Sub-Sahara African economies as an illustration. Delving into recent World Bank reports, it highlights how a sustained positive correlation between natural capital and GDP growth happens through the transformation of the former into other forms of assets: produced capital, human capital and other intangible assets. Governance features and the quality of macroeconomic policies are of t ...
  • The Thirsty Planet, and No End in Sight (I)
    Authors
    Helmut Sorge
    August 16, 2019
    Earlier this month, the World Resources Institute based in Washington D.C. revealed that 17 countries, home to one-quarter of the world's population, are facing extremely high water stress. Below is an international press review of the global water crisis by Helmut Sorge, former Foreign editor, and Middle East expert for Germany's leading newsmagazine "Der Spiegel", and columnist at the Policy Center for the New South.    “A QUARTER OF THE WORLD IS FACING A LOOMING WATER CRISIS” “ ...
  • Explaining the role of commodity traders: A theoretical approach
    Authors
    Raphaël Chiappini
    Yves Jégourel
    June 22, 2019
    Empirical models of international commodity trade ows tend to show that exchange rate volatility has either no or negative impact on export volumes. This analysis has a number of limitations. In particular, it underestimates the role of physical traders and, consequently, the importance of future markets. In this context, this article aims to provide the theoretical underpinnings to demonstrate that these traders play a very particular role and that they have an influence on the rea ...
  • Towards a worldwide integrated market? New evidence on the dynamics of U.S., European and Asian natural gas price
    Authors
    Raphaël Chiappini
    Yves Jégourel
    Paul Raymond
    June 12, 2019
    Has the integration of European, North American and Asian natural gas markets been fostered over the last few years by growing LNG export capacities and an increasing market share of spot transactions? This is the key question that this article sets out to answer. For this purpose, we develop bivariate error correction models with structural breaks and asymmetric responses among gas references prices, oil prices, and coal prices. We use daily prices of all reference prices spanning ...
  • Download PDF
    A Nexus Approach for the MENA Region—From Concept to Knowledge to Action
    Authors
    Holger Hoff
    Sajed Aqel Alrahaife
    Rana El Hajj
    Kerstin Lohr
    Fatima Ezzahra Mengoub
    Nadim Farajalla
    Kerstin Fritzsche
    Guy Jobbins
    Gül Özerol
    Robert Schultz
    Anne Ulrich
    May 13, 2019
    Adopting an integrated approach to the management and governance of natural resources including land, water and energy is seen as an effective way to improve the sphere of production while respecting the environment. Fatima Ezzahra Mengoub, economist at the Policy Center for the New South, was invited by Stockholm Environment Institute, alongside other prestigious research centers with expertise in environmental studies, to co-author this research paper and share her analysis of th ...