Fertilizer prices on the rise

If you didn't get around to nailing down your fertilizer needs for the 2011 crop, or if you've changed your mind on your plantings for next year, get ready for a little sticker shock. Between static global inventories for some fertilizer types, increased demand for more acres worldwide and higher crop and input prices across the board, fertilizer prices are headed one direction right now, according to University of Nebraska Extension soils specialist Gary Hergert.

Nitrogen as urea ranges between US$400 and US$520 per ton, according to Hergert, with some projections pointing to that market moving as high as US$580/ton by spring. That's "approaching prices paid a couple of years ago," Hergert adds. Ammonia prices, which are topping out around US$750/ton right now, will likely move to as high as US$780/ton by spring. "World demand for fertilizer has recovered from the recession," Hergert says. "Shut-downs of ammonia plants in Trinidad, Venezuela and Russia recently tightened ammonia supply and kept prices increasing."

Dry phosphorous, right now ranging from US$640 to US $710/ton, could top out at US$760/ton in the spring, while liquid phosphorous (10-34-0) could pass the US$650-per-ton mark in a few months. The highest potash prices in the Corn Belt right now are around US$600/ton, but could be as high as US$730/ton by spring, Hergert says. Read more...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine from Perendale Publishers.