the American Soybean Association issued a statement in response to reporting on The Mosaic Company’s plans to scale back domestic phosphate production:
“This unsettling news from Mosaic comes at a time when U.S. soybean farmers are facing major economic headwinds, and neither the skyrocketing cost nor the availability of inputs – like phosphate fertilizer – are helping ease those challenges,” said ASA President and Ohio soybean farmer Scott Metzger. “This is the worst time possible for Mosaic to decrease domestic phosphate production. High sulfuric acid costs are disrupting the global fertilizer market, and farmers are ultimately paying the price through higher input costs.”
ASA again calls on the Trump administration to help address the high cost and availability of phosphate fertilizers by terminating the countervailing duty on imported phosphate fertilizers from Morocco and Russia, Metzger said, adding, “this ill-conceived duty has increased the cost of phosphate fertilizer for farmers by $6.9 billion over the past five years while commodity prices continue to trend downwards. We urge the President to remove the CVD on phosphate fertilizers to address the availability and affordability of this important input.”
