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Trump admin eyes new fertilizer plants, a fix to address high fertilizer costs
The Trump administration is working on a plan to increase domestic nitrogen fertilizer production and infrastructure in the United States.
Following a Missouri farmer roundtable, Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters, “America has off-shored for far too long, far too much of our fertilizer production, leaving us dangerously reliant on Russia and China.”
Rollins tells Brownfield this long-term solution will take time and money. She’s asked U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to identify a certain amount of money that can be used to build out nitrogen fertilizer plants in America, “We’ve already begun to identify all over the country, some are under production, how do we move them along more quickly, but some of them are in the permitting bureaucracy, which, sometimes it takes years to get through permitting, and our goal is to, instead of years, to get through permitting in a matter of weeks, or perhaps months.”
Rollins says she’s optimistic that would allow new production facilities to be running in the next three years, and in the near-term, the administration is focused on short-term solutions like looking at countervailing duties, and extending the Jones Act waiver. And she said to expect more details in the next week.
Garrett Hawkins with Missouri Farm Bureau says fertilizer costs were part of the farmer roundtable discussion and something needs to change, “It is very unique, and I appreciate the fact that at the highest level across the Cabinet, they are talking about supply chain issues and way to bring back the critical components we need and rely on.”
Rollins met with farmers at GR Farms in Higginsville, Missouri on Friday.
Hear Brownfield’s interview with GR Farms’ Garrett Riekhof.
Hear Brownfield’s interview with Garrett Hawkins.
This makes zero sense. Imposing more duties on less expensive fertilizer imports to try to make them the same price as fertilizer produced in the US will drive prices up, not down.
Having competition from imports is what keeps prices down because there are more options. 2/3 of fertilizer is still made in the US- you can’t expect all of it to come from the US.
Why don’t they care about all the billions of dollar of all the other stuff made in China?