The President and CEO of the Fertilizer Institute says the U.S. fertilizer supply chain’s just-in-time system has reached a tipping point. Corey Rosenbusch says over time the system has changed from flexible and predictable to strained and reactive.
“I think this may really start to change the behavior going forward where we may actually move less just in time. Decisions and conversations between growers and retailers and commitments start happening earlier so that we can pre-position some of this product.”
Rosenbusch says global shocks, like the conflict in the Middle East, continue to impact availability. At first, he says the concern was urea, but now it’s sulfur, used to make sulfuric acid, which is a key input in producing an ingredient for MAP and DAP fertilizers.
“Phosphate producers around the world started to curtail production because they cannot make $1,300 sulfur pencil with $700 DAP prices and so, I think we’re really going to start to see a huge supply challenge going forward.”
Rosenbusch says there is no quick fix to address pricing and availability challenges, which is expected to linger into 2027.
EDITOR’S TAKE:
In other words, get orders in early and expect to pay higher prices until all the conflicts are resolved and shipments are back to normal. Everyone from farmers to Congress and USDA are looking for the culprit of higher fertilizer prices. Even university researchers are looking for ways to reduce fertilizer use and cut costs in the process. Unfortunately, this problem is not going to be solved in the halls of Congress or at USDA. This is the result of geopolitical unrest in key fertilizer production areas. If the mining cannot take place and shipments are not made in a timely manner, the problem will linger. Of course, building more domestic mining and processing capacity here in the U.S. will help reduce our dependence on overseas sources, but that will not happen overnight.
As a reminder, AgPack® contains a $2,000 allowance for liquid fertilizer from your AgPack partner AgroLiquid. Why not promote this to farmers/ranchers in your area. And while you’re at it, go ahead and mention that the total potential savings offered by AgPack are nearly $50,000! And that, my friends, is no laughing matter!
