Sulfur Shortage Looming

As if there weren't enough big challenges for agriculture right now, especially when it comes to inputs, there is another looming situation that farmers need to be aware of. The Fertilizer Institute's president and CEO Corey Rosenbusch has more.

“The bigger story that I don't think actually has hit yet is sulfur. So sulfur is not only an important fertilizer, but it's a key raw material for manufacturing phosphate fertilizer. And more than half of the globally traded sulfur passes through the Strait of Hormuz. We have not seen any ships come out with any of the fertilizer, any of the sulfur. We saw sulfur trading as high as $1,300 a metric ton from the Gulf near the Houston area.”

Wind sulfur normally sells for about $100 a metric ton. So where is the sulfur going?

“Mainly being bought up by the Chinese for mining operations. If they're going to use it in their operations to mine copper or nickel, that's getting $18,000 a metric ton, they can afford to run up that price when phosphate fertilizers only sells for $600 a ton. So it's at a point now where it's not even affordable to manufacture that product. So you've got Morocco, the Middle East, the United States, all starting to shutter phosphate production right now.”

Rosenbusch reiterates that the sulfur crisis has not yet arrived in the United States.