Sixty-five state and national groups, including the National Corn Growers Association, have called again on U.S. authorities to lift countervailing duties placed on phosphate fertilizers imported from Morocco to ease the pain felt by farmers as fertilizers prices reach new highs.
In a letter sent lately to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the American agricultural groups said the soaring “costs land on an already fragile farm economy.”
The announcement comes less than a week after Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson announced a major, industry-wide investigation into the fertilizer industry’s pricing practices and concentration.
While Net U.S. farm income has fallen roughly 31 percent from its 2022 peak, fertilizer prices are mounting more than 150 percent since 2020, and Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies have surged to their highest levels in several years, added the American farmers.
They said they are suffering major losses for the fourth consecutive year, and that countervailing duties only exacerbate their financial outlook and could mean the difference between sustaining family farms for generations to come or seeing legacies come to an end.
The countervailing duties, requested by the U.S.-based Mosaic Company and Simplot, have been in effect since March 2021. The letter noted that the duties not only hurt farmers, but they also do not accomplish their intended goals.
“The duties do not protect a vulnerable domestic industry from unfair competition,” the letter said. “Rather, they further prop up two companies who already dominate the domestic market and will continue to dominate that market absent CVD protection.”
An independent analysis by the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University has estimated that the countervailing duties on Moroccan phosphate raised input costs for farmers of corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, sorghum and cotton by roughly $6.9 billion over the 2021 through 2025 growing seasons. At its full initial rate of 19.97 percent, the duty drove up the U.S. price of diammonium phosphate by an estimated 28.6 percent.
