U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, delivered remarks at the Agri-Pulse Ag and Food Policy Summit conference.
In her remarks, Ranking Member Klobuchar addressed the need to strengthen domestic supply chains for producers. Senator Klobuchar also highlighted her bipartisan efforts to expand domestic fertilizer production and provide price transparency for consumers amidst high input costs this spring planting season. An excerpt of her remarks can be found below:
“I did want to mention one thing that’s really on my mind right now, and that’s the cost of fertilizer. Last month, as farmers began preparations for the spring plant season, fertilizer components like urea spiked 25%. Ammonia, phosphate, sulfate and potassium have also sharply eroded what little profit margin exists on the farms this year. But producers know that the high cost of inputs is not just a recent problem. Since the 1980s, the number of companies producing ammonia has declined substantially. Today, four companies control more than three-quarters of the nitrogen fertilizer in the US, while potash and phosphate fertilizer markets are 100% controlled by these four companies.”
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“The increased concentration in the fertilizer industry has put farmers in a really hard situation. And then, of course, you add Iran and what’s happening within the Mideast right now, that has exponentially made things harder. So, Leader Thune and I just introduced the Fertilizer Transparency Act, which would create a mandatory price reporting structure, providing wholesalers, retailers and farmers of all sizes with comparable levels of market information on fertilizer costs, creating reasonable reporting requirements, which would help ensure that farmers can better access information about supply, about pricing and market trends. I also introduced with Senator Marshall the Homegrown Fertilizer Act, which would create a grant and loan program to expand domestic fertilizer production and improve fertilizer storage capacity. And by strengthening the supply chaos that we’re seeing to these supply chains at home, by making sure that we reduce the supply chaos and that we actually have stronger supply chains, we would be much better off.”
Last week, Klobuchar, along with Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), introduced bipartisan bills to address high fertilizer costs in the wake of the war in Iran, tariff threats on fertilizer imports, and fertilizer market consolidation.
A full recording of Ranking Member Klobuchar’s remarks is here.
