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Retailer: fertilizer price likely to stay flat or go down

Fertilizer prices continue going down.  Retailer Bob Sprat of Leroy Fertilizer Services in Leroy, Illinois, tells Brownfield the trend has been evident for months.  He says he hopes that farmers see it as an increase in productivity.

“Acres that they have are actually [farmers’] factory, and factories are most efficient when they output the most product for the least amount of money,” said Sprat.  “I guess that’s the positive; they really need to look at it that way, that they can get the same amount of bushels for less money.”

A Wisconsin fertilizer retailer is less certain when farmers ask about where fertilizer prices are headed.

“The most informed answer I can give the grower right now is that I don’t foresee the prices going up very much at all,” said Tony Grapsas at Jay-Mar in Plover, Wisconsin.  Some fertilizer market uncertainty results from growers who avoid committing to fertilizer, said Grapsas.

“December/January of 2017, if we as dealers don’t really have an indication of what the grower’s going to do, and I have to do a lot of spot buying of the tons we need,” said Grapsas, “that could drive prices upwards on the fertilizer part.”

Grapsas says the greater likelihood is that fertilizer prices will stay flat or go down in the coming year because of foreign competition.

Bronwfield reporter Larry Lee contributed to this article.

AUDIO: Bob Spratt (5 min. MP3)

AUDIO: Tony Grapsas, interviewed by Larry Lee (4 min. MP3)