No Silver Bullet When It Comes To Phosphate Shortages

For most of the last year, geopolitical issues have been a big factor in the reduced availability of phosphorus around the world. Craig Dick, the vice president of sales and marketing for Phospholutions, said the problem is persisting and needs to be addressed.

“For the past few years, there have been major export restrictions from some of the large producing countries like China and Russia," Dick noted. "And then recently, with the disruptions in the Middle East and the Strait of Hormuz, sulfur prices have been at an all-time high. Sulfur is a key component of making phosphoric acid. So, the challenge is, even if we improve the availability of fertilizer, the markets just don't reset overnight, so it's going to take some time to rebuild supplies and for the sulfur and nitrogen prices to come down. Recently, we did temporarily suspend duties on Moroccan phosphate, but the challenge is that it doesn't create more fertilizer. We still have to import it into the U.S., and the global markets are higher. U.S. is one of the lowest-priced markets globally.”

Additional Production Isn't Enough

Dick said there isn’t one silver bullet for ensuring an ample fertilizer supply.

“Recently, our government has recognized the need to expand domestic phosphate production," said Dick. "They've termed phosphate as a critical mineral, and so, at the end of the day, production alone isn't enough. We also need to improve the efficiency of how we use phosphorus, and the reason is that we can find new mines of phosphate, we can build new fertilizer plants, but these are billion-dollar infrastructure projects that take many years to develop. So, in the short term, looking at efficiency technologies that can extend the phosphate resources we have and make them more accessible to the crop and over more acres with that phosphate, is really the best way to lower near-term cost pressures for our farmers.”

Make That Phosphate More Available To Your Crop

Phospholutions believes its RhizoSorb Technology can be a big part of the solution.

“RhizoSorb is designed to make the applied phosphate more available to the crop," Dick said. "Our technology is incorporated into dry phosphate fertilizer, and it replaces conventional products like MAP, and so it actually helps so that when we apply the fertilizer to the soil, it's feeding the crop and not the soil. Once our phosphate is applied, traditional phosphate fertilizers are applied to the soil. Much of what we apply gets tied up in the soil, and so historically, our farmers have responded by applying more phosphate to the soil, building that soil value to protect their yield and make sure they have high-yielding crops. With RhizoSorb, we have shown that we can help farmers maintain yields by applying half the phosphorus per acre as traditional fertilizer, and this translates to a lower upfront fertilizer cost to the grower and improved ROI on every acre.”

Do You Really Need Phosphate?

Dick added farmers will likely be facing higher fertilizer costs for some time and said he believes RhizoSorb can help.

“There's really nothing in the near-term that shows that prices are going to ease, and certainly not before the end of the year," he said. "So, work with your trusted agronomist or retailer. Help decide whether you actually need to apply phosphate to your soil. If you're a farmer that hasn't applied phosphorus for many years because the price has been elevated for so long, cutting back another year may not be the best decision, but again, through soil testing and discussion with your agronomist, you can determine that. And if you need phosphorus, RhizoSorb could help bridge that gap and ensure that we continue to grow high-yielding crops with lower-cost inputs.”

For more information, visit Phospholutions' Website.

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-9791, or e-mail glenn.vaagen@townsquaremedia.com