The Phosphate Crisis - Part Three

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

There is no question that fertilizer prices are high compared to historical averages. But relative to the rest of the world, it’s important to note that we could have it a lot worse than we do here in North America. Itafos CEO David Delaney says that while there is still ample supply of phosphate in parts of the US, we are depleting supplies in Florida, and imports are likely here to stay.

Delaney… “ I mean, thank goodness we've got low cost and abundant natural gas to make nitrogen. We've got a lot of potash in Canada, more coming. And phosphate, we're just running out of phosphate in Florida. So that's a fact. You know, we're good for a while, but eventually we will be even more reliant on imports of phosphate down the road. Imports come now. We've been averaging two to three million tons of BAP or DAP of imports historically the last, you know, decade at least. It's a little bit down now, but that's really due to affordability and availability. But, it's a little bit at risk globally right now with geopolitically what's happening.”

Delaney says countries like Morocco and Saudi Arabia seem to be adding capacity to be leading exporters in the future.