Corn Growers Push Fertilizer Probe

OMAHA (DTN) -- Taking their cues from a top USDA official, corn producers are pressing for U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to explain what the Justice Department is doing to pursue possible antitrust action in the fertilizer industry.

The president of the Texas Corn Producers Association (TCPA) on Tuesday wrote Bondi requesting a formal status report about a Justice Department investigation into fertilizer pricing and market concentration.

The letter from Texas corn farmers follows a similar letter written last week by the president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

The letters reflect growing frustration over the financial situation facing crop farmers who continue to see higher input costs while commodity prices remain relatively flat.

"As farmers work to maintain a stable, high-quality supply of food and feed for the nation, they are being pushed to the breaking point by unsustainable input costs," TCPA stated.

TCPA added, "The current state of the farm economy is dire. Texas farmers are operating on razor-thin margins -- and in many cases at a loss."

The average national cash corn price on Tuesday was $3.96 a bushel, down 62 cents from a year ago, according to DTN's National Corn Index.

At the same time, DTN Retail Fertilizer Trends also show the two main phosphorus fertilizers, DAP and MAP, are both significantly higher priced than last year. DAP is $851 a ton now, $108 higher than a year ago; MAP is $879 a ton, $71 higher than a year ago. Potash is $488 a ton, which is $52 higher than a year ago.

Pointing to soft commodity prices, TCPA stated, "The costs of essential nutrients needed to grow them remains artificially inflated. This economic 'squeeze' is not merely a market fluctuation; it is a threat to the viability of the family farm."

Both Texas and Iowa corn groups highlighted comments made by leadership at USDA, citing "unacceptable" concentration in the fertilizer market and identifying a "duopoly" that "has constrained supply and exerted excessive pricing over American farmers," the Texas Corn Producers Association (TCPA) noted.

"When the USDA -- the very agency tasked with overseeing our industry -- openly questions the actions of this highly concentrated market, it is a clear signal that the status quo is failing America's farm families," TCPA stated.

In a webinar on Jan. 21 hosted by the National Agricultural Law Center, USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden alleged two major fertilizer companies, Mosaic and Nutrien, were colluding to restrict phosphate and potash supplies to increase costs. Vaden called Mosaic and Nutrien a "duopoly" as well.

"It should have never been allowed to happen in the first place that those two companies were able to so constrain the supply of so many fertilizers our farmers depend on that they were able to get pricing power," Vaden said in the webinar.

Still, Vaden also implied the two companies "have been so lazy in regard to their own investments" that they have enticed at least one company to build new mines in Saskatchewan, Canada, which should start exporting to the U.S. next year.

"We're not going to allow these two companies to do anything to undermine this or any other new market participant that wants to come in (and) provide new fertilizer supply and break up the cute little game that Mosaic and Nutrien have been playing the last several years," Vaden said.

DTN reached out to both Mosaic and Nutrien for comment, but did not receive immediate responses.

Before taking his post at USDA, Vaden served as a judge for the U.S. Court of International Trade and ruled in September 2023 that a nearly 20% countervailing duty on phosphate imports should be reexamined. In his ruling at the time, Vaden criticized Mosaic, which brought the case against Moroccan imports, for idling a fertilizer plant in Florida, which then led to a spike in phosphate imports.

The Iowa Corn letter, signed by the group's president, Mark Mueller, stated, "Over the past 20 years, the manufacturing of fertilizer has consolidated to the point where today, in the United States, we have only four main players across three products that farmers utilize to grow their crops."

Both Iowa Corn and TCPA cited a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between USDA and the Justice Department in September to help coordinate antitrust enforcement. "However, as we enter the 2026 planting season, Texas farmers need more than a memorandum. They need transparency. They need solutions," TCPA stated.

Iowa Corn stated, "The time is now to report back on the progress that is being undertaken to examine the fertilizer industry."

TCPA also called on Bondi to provide an update on the progress being made to break up anti-competitive "games" and provide more fair, open markets for agricultural inputs, the letter stated.

"The nation's farm families appreciate your attention to the stranglehold these inputs have on America's farmers," the TCPA letter stated.

The Texas letter, signed by Hagen Hunt, TCPA's president, also went to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

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