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Hurricanes deliver one-two punch to Florida phosphate production

Hurricanes Helene and Milton have delivered a one-two punch to fertilizer production in the southern U.S.

Stone X vice president of fertilizer Josh Linville says the phosphate market has been hit back-to-back.

“If Helene was more of a glancing blow, it kind of touched on that west coast of Florida on its way up to ravage the southeastern U.S., but Milton was a direct shot. This was kind of the absolute worst-case scenario for western Florida, and the problem with that is the phosphate market.”

He tells Brownfield a tremendous amount of U.S. phosphate production is based in Florida, and more specifically near Tampa.

“So as we’re sitting here, the hurricane has gone through and now we’re waiting with bated breath to see just how bad is the damage not only to the facilities but to the workers’ homes and their friends’ homes because that cleanup needs to occur before they get back to work.”

Linville says any downtime will negatively affect phosphate production and farmers intending to apply fall fertilizer should plan for price volatility and issues with supply.

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