Reviewed August 2026 against the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, FAO’s inorganic fertilizer statistics, and USDA’s Economic Research Service.

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China mines more phosphate rock than any other country — 110 million metric tons in 2025, or 44% of world output, according to the U.S. Geological Survey — and its ammonia plants have produced more nitrogen fertilizer than any single competitor’s for years. But no government agency publishes one official “total fertilizer” league table, because production is tracked mineral by mineral. On potash, Canada outproduces China by more than two to one. The breakdowns below use USGS and FAO data, split by nutrient, so you can see exactly which country leads which input and check the current figures for yourself.

In This Article

Who Produces the Most Fertilizer? The Short Answer

Fertilizer is not one product — it is three separate mineral and chemical industries stitched together under one label: nitrogen (N), phosphate (P₂O₅), and potash (K₂O). FAO’s statistics division put world production of all three combined at 208 million metric tons (Mt) in 2023, up 40% from 2002. Nitrogen made up 120 Mt of that (58% of the total), phosphate 45 Mt (22%), and potash 43 Mt (21%).

Each of those three nutrients has a different country in the lead. China dominates phosphate rock mining and has held the largest single-country nitrogen fertilizer output for years, because it has both the phosphate ore and the coal- and gas-fed ammonia capacity to produce at that scale. Canada and Russia dominate potash, because the ore bodies — buried evaporite deposits — sit almost entirely under Saskatchewan, Belarus, and the Russian Urals. There is no fourth country that leads across all three.

Fertilizer Production and Use: 2022 Compared With the Latest Data

2022 was the peak year for fertilizer prices and a trough year for fertilizer use. Natural gas costs spiked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ammonia plants curtailed output in Europe, and buyers everywhere cut back. FAO’s 2022 data release recorded global use of the three main nutrients at 185 Mt, down 7% from 2021 — nitrogen fell 4% to 108 Mt, phosphate fell 8% to 42 Mt, and potash fell 12% to 35 Mt. Working back from those percentage declines, 2021 use was roughly 112.5 Mt of nitrogen, 45.7 Mt of phosphate, and 39.8 Mt of potash — meaning potash absorbed the deepest cut of the three nutrients in 2022, exactly the mineral where Russia and Belarus (both sanctioned or logistically cut off that year) are among the top four producers.

By 2023, FAO’s production series (a different measure from the use series, but directionally comparable) showed the market had not just recovered but grown past its pre-2022 trend, reaching the 208 Mt figure cited above. The 2022 dip reads, in hindsight, as a one-year interruption in a three-decade growth line rather than a permanent shift — which is the main reason a page anchored only to “the 2022 numbers” goes stale: the underlying story is a continuing series, not a single snapshot.

Top Fertilizer-Mineral Producers, Country by Country

The table below is the closest thing to a single comparison an AI summary cannot hand you in one line — it puts the leading producer, the runner-up, and the world total side by side for each fertilizer input, with the exact vintage of each figure.

Phosphate Rock: China’s Lead, and Who’s Behind It

China’s 110 Mt of marketable phosphate rock in 2025 is more than Morocco (36 Mt), the United States (20 Mt), Russia (14 Mt), and Jordan (12 Mt) combined — those four next-largest producers add up to 82 Mt against China’s 110 Mt, per the USGS. Saudi Arabia (10 Mt), Egypt (5.5 Mt), Brazil (5 Mt), Peru (4.8 Mt), and Tunisia (3.3 Mt) round out the top ten. In the United States, phosphate rock is mined at ten mines across four states — Florida, Idaho, North Carolina, and Utah — run by five companies, and processed into roughly 20 Mt of marketable product a year.

Potash: Canada and Russia Dominate, China Lags

Potash is the one nutrient where China is not close to leading. Canada produced an estimated 15 Mt of potash (K₂O equivalent) in 2025, Russia 10 Mt, China 6.3 Mt, Belarus 6 Mt, and Germany 3 Mt, out of a world total of 49 Mt — up 5% from 2024, per the USGS. Laos (2.4 Mt) has become a notable sixth producer as its Asia-Potash project expanded. Global potash consumption reached 41.6 Mt in 2025, up from 40.6 Mt in 2024, and the USGS projects it rising to 45.3 Mt by 2029 as production capacity climbs from 66.1 Mt in 2025 to a projected 77.4 Mt in 2029. Recoverable reserves are estimated above 590 million metric tons, concentrated overwhelmingly in Canada, Russia, and Belarus.

Nitrogen: Ammonia Plants, Not Mines

Nitrogen fertilizer is not mined at all — it is synthesized by combining atmospheric nitrogen with hydrogen from natural gas, so “production” tracks ammonia capacity rather than ore deposits. That is why nitrogen output shifts with gas prices: USGS’s 2026 nitrogen chapter notes it revised prior-year figures for Egypt and Germany after new company and government reporting, and flagged new ammonia capacity coming online in Asia, Eastern Europe, and North America wherever gas is cheap. China’s plants have produced more contained nitrogen than any single competitor’s for years, but because ammonia capacity opens and closes with gas economics faster than a phosphate or potash mine does, the current country-by-country nitrogen table is worth checking directly each year rather than trusting a fixed ranking — see the verification section below.

What This Means for US Farm Input Costs

For a US row-crop farm, the country rankings above translate directly into a cost line. According to USDA’s Economic Research Service, anhydrous ammonia prices peaked above $1,600 per ton in 2022 and urea surpassed $1,000 per ton the same year, before trending down through 2023 and into 2024 — though remaining above pre-2021 levels even as prices stabilized at the start of the 2025 planting season. Since 2020, fertilizer has made up 33% to 44% of total operating costs for corn and 34% to 45% for wheat, per the same ERS analysis, making it the single largest swing factor in either crop’s budget most years.

USDA NASS collects the underlying prices-paid data every March from agribusinesses nationwide, and republishes it in its Agricultural Prices report — the source to check for a fresher number than the one above, since ammonia and urea prices move with natural gas costs and can shift materially between planting seasons.

The Mining Behind the Minerals

Phosphate rock and potash are both extracted through conventional open-pit and underground mining — not synthesized like nitrogen — which means their supply is exposed to ore-grade decline, permitting timelines, and the same exploration economics as any other mineral. The scatter below plots each country’s 2025 phosphate rock output against its potash output: China sits far out on the phosphate axis with almost no potash; Canada sits far out on the potash axis with almost no phosphate; Russia is the only country with a meaningful position on both.

This is exactly where satellite-based mineral prospectivity work fits in on the exploration side: identifying new phosphate or potash-bearing formations, or verifying resource extent on land already under license, without the cost and lead time of blanket drilling. Farmonaut’s satellite-based mineral detection platform applies multispectral and hyperspectral analysis to rank prospects before a single hole is drilled, and its satellite-driven 3D mineral prospectivity mapping extends that ranking into three dimensions for site-specific decisions.

Fertilizer Minerals and Gold: Same Agencies, Same Tools

The same USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries series that ranks phosphate rock and potash producers also ranks gold producers every year, and the overlap in countries is notable: worldwide gold mine production reached an estimated 3,300 metric tons in 2025, up from 3,280 tons in 2024, led by China (380 t), Russia (310 t), Australia (280 t), Canada (200 t), and the United States (160 t) — together 41% of the world total. Canada and Russia appear in the top tier for both potash and gold; China leads both phosphate rock and gold. That is not a coincidence of geology so much as a coincidence of geography: large, geologically diverse countries with active mining sectors tend to produce more of everything extractable, fertilizer minerals included.

For mining operators working any of these commodities, the practical link is the exploration method, not the mineral itself. The same satellite and AI-driven prospectivity workflow that ranks a phosphate or potash target applies to gold, lithium, cobalt, and rare earth exploration. Map your mining site at mining.farmonaut.com to see how that workflow applies to a specific location.

Farmonaut’s Satellite-Based Mineral Detection

Farmonaut’s mineral exploration platform has delivered satellite-based detection across five continents, covering more than 13 mineral types — including gold, phosphate-associated elements, lithium, cobalt, and rare earths — without ground disturbance during the early screening phase. Operators submit a site through the mining query form, and the platform processes multispectral and hyperspectral imagery to flag target zones in days rather than months, cutting exploration lead time by 80–85% relative to blanket ground surveys and reducing the drilling that would otherwise be needed to rule out low-probability ground.

• 🛰️ Fewer unnecessary field surveys, because imagery narrows the search area first
• 📈 Objective prospectivity ranking, independent of any single geologist’s site read
• ⏳ Days to weeks, not months to years, for an initial target list
• ♻️ No ground disturbance until targets are validated and drilling is warranted
• 🌏 The same method applies in Saskatchewan potash country, Moroccan phosphate basins, or a gold prospect anywhere else

For technical detail on the underlying method, see satellite based mineral detection. For project-specific estimates, including drilling guidance and integrated GIS models for larger programs, contact us at farmonaut.com/contact-us.

How to Check These Numbers Yourself

Every figure on this page carries a publication date because every one of these series gets updated on its own schedule. Rather than trust any single year’s snapshot, use this checklist the next time you need a current number:

• ✔ Phosphate rock and potash, by country: the USGS publishes both in its Mineral Commodity Summaries, released each February for the prior year’s estimates. Search “USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries phosphate rock” or “potash” for the current edition.
• ✔ Nitrogen/ammonia, by country: the same USGS publication carries a “Nitrogen (Fixed)–Ammonia” chapter, revised as company and government reporting comes in — useful because ammonia capacity changes faster than mined reserves.
• ✔ Combined N+P+K totals: FAO’s statistics division posts an annual “Inorganic fertilizers” highlight with global and regional totals; the underlying country-level series sits in the FAOSTAT database for anyone who wants a specific country’s full nutrient breakdown.
• ✔ US farm-level prices: USDA NASS runs its Agricultural Prices survey every March and publishes prices paid for anhydrous ammonia, urea, potash, and other inputs; USDA ERS turns that into its recurring fertilizer cost-share chart of note.
• ✔ Read the vintage, not just the headline: a “2025” USGS estimate is exactly that — an estimate for that year, refined the following February when final data arrives. Treat any country ranking as current for roughly one publication cycle, then recheck.

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