800 326 9054As fertilizer prices stay stubbornly high, the Senate Agriculture Committee has scheduled a hearing next week focused on the supply and affordability of commercial crop nutrients.
The hearing, titled “Perspectives on the Fertilizer Industry: Ensuring a Stable and Affordable Supply for American Producers,” is slated for Tuesday, May 12, at 3 p.m.
One witness is Corey Rosenbusch, president and CEO of The Fertilizer Institute, which represents over 250 producers, wholesalers, retailers, and importers across the fertilizer industry. Price transparency has been a major focus for lawmakers and the administration.
The four additional witnesses set to testify include: Andy Green, president and senior adviser of Center Market Strategies; Trent Kubic, vice president of the South Dakota Corn Growers; Eddie Melton, president of the Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation, and Joshua Westling, CEO of J. Westling & Co.
Green was senior adviser for fair and competitive markets at USDA during the Biden administration.
The hearing comes at a critical time as the Strait of Hormuz, where much of the U.S. fertilizer supply is transported through on vessels, remains mostly closed as the conflict in Iran continues.
A North Dakota State Agricultural Trade Monitor study shows that even if the latest U.S. ceasefire with Iran holds and the Strait of Hormuz reopens in short order, damage to fertilizer infrastructure in the region will keep prices elevated through 2027 and into 2028.
Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins used a press conference at USDA last week to stress that the administration has pursued an “all-of-government” approach to boosting fertilizer supplies. She pointed to relaxed requirements on diesel exhaust fluid systems she says will boost urea supplies, as well as efforts to look into competition in the fertilizer sector, streamline permitting for projects, funding opportunities at USDA and the Department of Commerce for fertilizer production, and encouraging countries to avoid trade restrictions on fertilizer exports.
Rollins says the actions could spur a domestic fertilizer boom in just two years.
Analysts, however, have warned that expanding domestic fertilizer production alone may not provide the price relief the administration is looking for.
When asked about the fertilizer announcement by reporters last week, Senate Ag Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., stressed that lawmakers and administration leaders recognize that food security is national security.
“If there is a silver lining coming out of the war, I think it’s just the fact that now the whole country realizes how important some of these things are and how we do need to address it,” Boozman said. “This has been going on for a long time, and fertilizer has increased dramatically in the last several years under previous administrations. Now with this [war in Iran] is really exacerbating it.”
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*Sourced from Agri-Pulse.