DTN Retail Fertilizer Trends

OMAHA (DTN) -- Retail prices tracked by DTN for the first week of June 2022 show the price of most fertilizers continue to be lower compared to the month prior. This marks the second consecutive week most prices are lower after 19 months of mainly higher prices.

Seven of the eight major fertilizers prices were lower than last month, but none were down a substantial amount. DTN designates a significant move as anything 5% or more.

DAP had an average price of $1,057/ton, MAP $1,077/ton, potash $880/ton, urea $977/ton, 10-34-0 $905/ton, anhydrous $1,518/ton and UAN28 $633/ton.

One fertilizer was slightly more expensive compared to last month but nothing significant. UAN32 had an average price of $731/ton, which maintains the all-time high price.

On a price per pound of nitrogen basis, the average urea price was at $1.06/lb.N, anhydrous $0.93/lb.N, UAN28 $1.13/lb.N and UAN32 $1.14/lb.N.

An agreement to extend a $2 million partial trade guarantee in the African nation of Ghana will help the country's farmers have access to fertilizers, which will boost yields, food security and incomes of farmers, according to a press release from The African Fertilizer Financing Mechanism (AFFM).

The AFFM will extend $2 million to ETG Inputs Ghana Limited to support 200,000 smallholder farmers in Ghana's upper east, savannah, northeast and northern regions. The group will deliver 10,000 million metric tons (mmt) of fertilizer.

"This project with ETG comes at a time when Africa's farmers --recovering from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic -- now face rising market prices for fertilizer, largely due to Russia's war in Ukraine," Beth Dunford, the African Development Bank's Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development. "This partial trade credit guarantee helps improve access to these inputs at more affordable prices."

The war in Ukraine has contributed to fertilizer shortages in Africa. In Ghana, farmers have seen their fertilizer costs skyrocket as a 50-kilogram (kg) bag of fertilizer has jumped from $26/bag in November 2021 to $46/bag in April of 2022.

The project will last one year and will support as many as four wholesalers to sell fertilizer with a value of up to three times that of the partial credit guarantee. It will also link wholesalers to around 200 fertilizer retailers who will sell the fertilizer to farmers.

Most fertilizers continue to be considerably higher in prices than one year earlier.

10-34-0 is 46% more expensive, MAP is 50% higher, DAP is 61% more expensive, UAN28 is 74% higher, UAN32 is 77% more expensive, urea is 85% is higher, potash is 96% higher and anhydrous is 111% more expensive compared to last year.

DTN gathers fertilizer price bids from agriculture retailers each week to compile the DTN Fertilizer Index. DTN first began reporting data in November 2008.

A majority of retail fertilizer prices were lower for the first time since the third week of Nov. 2020, a span of about 19 months. You can read it here:

https://www.dtnpf.com/….

Russ Quinn can be reached at Russ.Quinn@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @RussQuinnDTN

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