While in Washington, D.C., Farm Director KC Sheperd talked with the president of The Fertilizer Institute, Corey Rosenbusch, about the latest in the fertilizer industry.
“We represent the entire fertilizer supply chain,” Rosenbusch said. “Manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, and we make sure we advocate for policy that helps ensure farmers get the fertilizer supply they need.”
The fertilizer market softened around January and February, Rosenbusch said, but now that planting has begun, there will be an uptick in market demand.
“At the end of the day, global stocks to use ratios are still very tight,” Rosenbusch said. “We still have strong commodity prices, and we are expecting high planted acres, so we are going to see the demand for fertilizer this spring.”
A big concern of his, Rosenbusch said, is whether or not farmers made commitments early enough to ensure supply is positioned.
“Just to be clear, we are not going to have supply issues,” Rosenbusch said. “Just-in-time delivery is going to dictate whether that product is where it needs to be for the farmer.”
Rosenbusch said the transportation issues farmers faced last year have not improved.
“We dealt a little bit with some of the geopolitical concerns last year with Russia and Belarus,” Rosenbusch said. “We are always going to have rail constraints and river issues. Those aren’t going to go away, and that is why pre-planning is so critical.”
Rosenbusch also talked about his recent comments with the House Ag Committee.
“The most important thing they can do for the fertilizer industry is to provide regulatory certainty,” Rosenbusch said. “When you talk about a nitrogen facility, it is three to four billion dollars to build. Those kinds of investments are made on the back of regulatory certainty, and we need Congress and this administration to deliver that for the industry.”
The feedback received from these comments, Rosenbusch said, was excellent.
“I think everyone realized how critical fertilizer supply is and how dependent we are on where phosphate and potash reserves are,” Rosenbusch said. “We had a number of members of Congress that are now on board with introducing the concept of phosphate and potash being a critical mineral, believe it or not, it wasn’t. We also had a lot of interest in ensuring permitting gets streamlined.”
The most important thing The Fertilizer Institute would like to see in the farm bill, Rosenbusch said, is to ensure conservation resources in the farm bill can get to the farmer.
