PEORIA, Ill. — The price of ingredients needed to make and use fertilizer for crops in the U.S. will continue to rise, according to ag business analysts and it’s due to the much lower supply of Russian made and exported pot ash, among other things.
The reduced supply of Russian made fertilizer product is largely due to U.S. and Western nation sanctions resulting from Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
There is major concern about price gouging by fertilizer companies as well.
“We folks have an extremely efficient and productive agricultural system in the US and without affordable and easy access to fertilizer, we don’t continue to produce an abundant food supply,” said Greg Gunthorp, a farmer in LaGrange, Indiana.
The price of nitrogen rich fertilizers is also increasing steadily putting pressure on corn, soybean and wheat farmers to begin considering how they might need to price their crops in coming harvest seasons.
“The thing about this is if you increase the input costs to raise a crop…guys were looking at needing about $5 per bushel to make a living or pay the bills and now the market action has given the producer and idea that we maybe need to get closer to $6 per bushel,” said Commodities Broker Curt Kimmel with Bates Commodities in Normal, Illinois.
Raising crop prices is something farmers traditionally do only ever with extreme caution and Kimmel said he expects any increases would happen slowly.
He noted how grain producers in Central Illinois have more of a buffer against fertilizer supply shortages, due to the chemical makeup of the soil they work on, but eventually, the impact would be expected to create significant challenges if the war in Ukraine stretches to a year or more.
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