Several of the world’s largest fertilizer producers were hit with a class-action lawsuit last week, accusing the companies of conspiring to inflate fertilizer prices for U.S. farmers. They say the conspiracy added thousands of dollars in input costs per farm and raised major concerns across the agricultural supply chain. Union Line Farms of Iowa, filed the suit and targets many of the companies currently dominating the global fertilizer market.
The suit names companies like Mosaic, Nutrien, Koch Agronomic Services, and others, alleging they coordinated production and pricing strategies to artificially increase the cost of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash, key inputs for crop production across U.S. agriculture. When prices began rising sharply during supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions in 2020, the suit alleges that prices remained elevated long after those pressures had ceased. The suit said fertilizer costs increased by 60 percent between 2021 and 2022, adding an estimated $128,000 in additional costs per farm in 2022 alone.
-NAFB