Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack has asked for a Department of Justice Investigation on price fixing by fertilizer suppliers and Iowa’s Attorney General Tom Miller has joined on with the same request. Farmers are concerned about the record high prices for fertilizer and price gouging with only a handful of companies producing and controlling fertilizer supplies in the U.S. National Corn Growers Association President Elect Tom Haag says they’ve talked to the companies and were hoping to avoid this action.
He says NCGA recently met with CF Industries a major player in nitrogen fertilizer, as well as Mosaic, which is the largest producer of phosphate fertilizer. They asked Mosaic to drop their push for import tariffs on phosphate fertilizer, to which they declined.
Haag says Mosaic has a monopoly in the fertilizer market on phosphate, so does it may warrant anti-trust action.
Meanwhile the Iowa AG’s office is joining Vilsack and eight other state AG’s to ask for an investigation of fertilizer prices. Miller says the action was prompted by the Iowa Corn Growers Association but was supported by other Iowa farm groups.
