New Survey: Fertilizer Prices Show Little Movement
Nearly 40% of those polled say retail DAP prices have not budged, despite cheaper fresh supplies at the Gulf.
Mike Wilson
Published: Jan 28, 2009
Retail prices for Diammonium phosphate, or DAP, have not budged much in recent weeks despite wholesale prices falling dramatically.
According to results of a new online poll taken by Farm Futures magazine, farmers were asked if fertilizer dealers in their area had dropped the price of DAP to reflect cheaper wholesale prices of fresh supplies at the Gulf. Thirty-nine percent of those who responded said there had been no price change on the retail level, and 38% said there had been a price drop of 20% or less.
Seventeen percent of those who responded said prices had fallen from 20 to 50%. Six percent said prices had dropped by over half in recent weeks.
The poll had 495 responses and was open from Jan. 19 to Jan. 26 at www.farmfutures.com.
Many fertilizer dealers find themselves in a difficult spot because they purchased fertilizer prices at two or three times higher than typical wholesale prices last fall. Now they must sell that product for what they paid for it, or suffer deep financial losses.
Even so, many of those who left comments in the poll seem to have little sympathy for the dealers' dilemma. "They are ripping us off," said one respondent. Said another: "Really no change... a slight bit lower, referred to as 'cost averaging down,' which means 'cost averaging up' to the farmer. Their response is that they still have some high priced inventory to move. Ask them what happened to their low priced inventory left from last year... it magically became high priced!"
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