By Ryan Hanrahan
Agri-Pulse’s Oliver Ward, Kim Chipman, and Noah Wicks reported that “Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says she is working directly with ag input companies to address rising prices amid mounting warnings over fertilizer supply and ongoing disruptions.”
“‘We want real relief for our farmers,’ Rollins told Fox News on Saturday. The president, she said, has tasked her with holding discussions with business leaders ‘to make sure that the farmers are seeing that relief,'” Ward, Chipman and Wicks reported. “The administration is grappling with high diesel and fertilizer prices, which shot up since the onset of the Iran war. Price and supply concerns are looming over planting season and dimming financial outlooks.”
“‘We’re now talking about this likely being not just a spring problem, but a fall problem,’ a fertilizer industry source told Agri-Pulse Friday,” according to Ward, Chipman and Wicks’ reporting. “Adding to the challenge is that while U.S. prices have climbed, they have not jumped as high as other countries, creating supply worries. If fertilizer companies can make more in other markets, the source said, ‘product is not going to flow here,’ the source said.”
Fertilizer and Fuel Prices Continue Increasing
AgWeb’s Michelle Rook reported that “the conflict in the Middle East is having a negative impact on input costs. farmdoc daily recently reported significant price increases for various inputs, ranging from sulfate and DAP to diesel. These rising costs are further stressing profit margins that were already tight or even negative. Unfortunately, the recent improvement in corn prices is not enough to offset the increases.”
“farmdoc daily reports a significant spike in on-farm diesel fuel. Prices are now working toward the record levels seen in March 2022, according to Nick Paulson, professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois,” Rook reported. “‘If we look at diesel relative to last year, we’re looking at more than a $1 increase relative to where we were at,’ Paulson says. ‘An even bigger increase relative to some of the lows we were at prior to the conflict breaking out this year, closer to the $1.50 range in terms of that increase.'”
Source : illinois.edu