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NeCGA: fertilizer company is leaving ‘farmers out to dry’

The president of the Nebraska Corn Growers Association says tariffs on imported fertilizer are coming at the expense of farmers.

Andy Jobman tells Brownfield farmers have been sharing their concerns about prices and shortages to Mosaic Company, but he says, “we just don’t seem to be getting through to them that this is a big problem. If they want the whole market, they need to be able to supply the whole market. Right now, they can’t.”

The U.S. Department of Commerce found in favor of a complaint filed by CF Industries that Urea imports from Russia, Trinidad and Tobago are subsidized by their governments and recommended countervailing duties on fertilizer from those countries.

In March, the U.S. International Trade Commission granted a petition by Mosaic Company to apply tariffs to phosphorous fertilizer imported from outside of the country.

And, the Southwest Nebraska farmer says “They idled plants, they’re exported domestic production out of the United States and kind of leaving U.S. farmers out to dry right now and leaving a lot of people in some pretty bad positions.”

Jobman says prices have jumped 200 to 300 percent since August and he’s struggled to purchase the input from his distributor. “They’re so many unknows when you can’t purchase an input whether you can actually raise corn or a particular crop if you don’t have the fertilizer to go into that production cycle,” Jobman says. “It’s been extremely concerning, and it seems like there is no opportunity for some relief in sight.”

Data from DTN says the average price for UAN 32 percent is $661 per ton.

Brownfield’s Amie Simpson contributed to this story.