By Ryan Hanrahan
Iowa Capital Dispatch’s Cami Koons reported that “U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden was in Iowa Friday, asking farmers from across the country to share their experiences dealing with consolidation and pricing issues in the fertilizer industry.”
“Vaden, who previously served as a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade and as USDA’s general counsel, said the individual stories from farmers will help as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigates the industry for potential unfair pricing or anti-competitive practices,” Koons reported. “‘Anybody can explain away one thing, you might be able to explain away two or three things, but if we’ve got 100 such stories from farmers all across this country, it becomes very difficult for even sophisticated lawyers to explain away such a large and broad-based phenomenon,’ Vaden said.”
“Several farmers and folks trying to add additional fertilizer options to the market spoke on a panel Friday about their experiences,” Koons reported. “Linda Thrasher is the co-founder of Greenfield Nitrogen, a farmer-formed company attempting to build a regional-sized anhydrous ammonia manufacturing and storage facility in Iowa. Thrasher said the company has been working for 12 years to try and secure sufficient off-take agreements in order to open the 300,000-ton facility.”
“Thrasher said Friday the retailers and farmer cooperatives they have approached won’t make a deal with them, for fear of being ‘blackballed’ by the main companies they purchase from,” Koons reported. “‘They’re scared,’ Thrasher said. ‘I think the intimidation is very real.'”
Source : illinois.edu