As farmers continue to grapple with volatile input costs, one Saskatchewan farmer has offered a blunt assessment of why he believes fertilizer companies often appear to come out ahead during wars, sanctions, and global supply disruptions.
He shared his comments on the popular prairies’ discussion forum Agriville.com.
In a recent online discussion, the producer with the handle SaskFarmer argued that fertilizer markets are fundamentally different from grain markets—and that difference helps explain why fertilizer prices tend to rise quickly during global shocks and fall far more slowly afterward.
At the heart of the argument SaskFarmer argues that industry structure is the issue. Unlike grain markets, which involve thousands of producers selling into competitive global exchanges, fertilizer production is controlled by a relatively small number of multinational companies.