Hurt U.S. Farmers
Duties protecting a small number of U.S. fertilizer producers have cut off essential imports, causing supply shortages and soaring prices for farmers
Hurt U.S. Farmers
Duties protecting a small number of U.S. fertilizer producers have cut off essential imports, harming security and supply.
About the Duties Hurting Farmers
Farmers are facing insecurity and reduced fertilizer supply. How did it come to this?
About Phosphate Fertilizer
Phosphate fertilizer is used by farmers throughout the United States to produce food that feeds the world.
What Others Are Saying
Farmers, farm groups and elected officials have spoken out against fertilizer tariffs. View their voices and add yours.
What You Can Do
Washington and the farming community need to understand how farmers are hurting. Learn how you can help.
STAND WITH US FARMERS VIDEO
Access to Phosphate Fertilizer Supply: U.S. Farmers Need Friends
Dear American Farmers,
You deserve better.
Access to reliable, affordable sources of phosphate fertilizer is critical to your ability to produce crops that can feed Americans and compete on the global market. Unfortunately, America’s domestic supply of phosphate ore is running low and domestic production of phosphate fertilizer is steadily shrinking and insufficient to meet your needs. To make matters worse, almost half of that shrinking domestic production is exported to serve farmers on other continents.
While the threat of adverse weather conditions, a volatile commodities market, inflationary pressure and access to capital are near-perennial risks that occupy the minds of farmers, artificially constrained supply of necessary crop nutrients should not be on that list.
Over the last few decades, imports from nations rich in phosphate have countered declining U.S. production of phosphate fertilizers. Morocco, which holds the world’s largest reserves of phosphate and is a long-time US trade partner, has in particular increased its imports, even creating an entire US subsidiary to be closer to US farmers. However, a recent countervailing duty case and the resulting tariffs have led to the cessation of much-needed imports of phosphate fertilizer – making a bad situation worse for American farmers.
Thanks to a growing chorus of American growers, a bipartisan, bicameral coalition of leaders in the U.S. Congress have taken notice of the unnecessary hardship this case has brought upon farmers. Over the course of this fight, this coalition has sent a number of letters to both the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission urging the agencies to reconsider the duties placed on phosphate fertilizer products imported from Morocco.
Thankfully, the voice of American Farmers was heard. In late 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce reduced the tariff rate on phosphate fertilizer imports from Morrocco to 2.1%.
However, this isn’t the end of the process. While OCP Group is eager to return to the U.S. market, given the inherent uncertainty in the CVD appeals and annual review process – which can lead to retroactive increases in the tariffs on phosphate imports — the company has little choice but to continue defending itself and working through the process to its conclusion.
We stand firm in our belief that there is no justification for continued tariffs – look no further than the impassioned testimonies of the farmers who work tirelessly to keep U.S. agriculture a world leader.
The American Farmer deserves better. The American Farmer deserves unimpeded access to reliable, high-quality supplies of high-quality phosphate fertilizers that are essential to enabling American farmers to feed their fellow citizens and the wider world. And that is exactly what we’re fighting for and why we must see this process through to the very end.
Sincerely yours,
OCP North America
Stay Informed
A Letter to American Farmers...
Dear American farmers,
As you plan for spring planting, and wrestle with the complex choices you must make at this time each year, we know that you are particularly concerned about having reliable, timely and affordable supplies of high-quality and appropriate inputs, including fertilizers. As you have certainly heard, serious supply constraints have sent fertilizer prices soaring, and in many cases it is difficult — if not impossible — to get the product you want.
We hope to help.
As the custodian of the world’s largest reserves of phosphate, and a leading global producer and supplier of phosphoric acid and a broad range of phosphate fertilizers, the OCP Group has been proud to serve American farmers for many years with reliable supplies of high-quality phosphate fertilizers from our home base in Morocco — which was, in 1777, the first country to publicly recognize the United States and remains today one of America’s proud free-trade partners.
A few years ago, we established OCP North America to work more closely with farmers and partners across the agricultural innovation space to help build the future of agriculture here in the United States and lay the groundwork for innovations that can spread across the globe. We were grateful for the positive response we received from the retailers, cooperatives and other partners who serve your needs, who welcomed another dependable, high-quality source of vital inputs and a long-term commitment from a key U.S. ally and partner.
As you may know, unfortunately, in the fall of 2020, we had to make the painful decision to suspend our sales in the American market because of a U.S. government decision to impose burdensome duties on phosphate fertilizer imports from Morocco and from Russia — two of the most important sources of phosphate fertilizer for American farmers. The duties were imposed at the request of Mosaic, the dominant U.S. producer of phosphate fertilizers, along with one much smaller producer. Chinese imports to the United States already had been blocked by other duties. The only other major long-term source of imports, Saudi Arabia, was not a target of the petition. Other smaller foreign producers have tried to pick up the slack, but they cannot meet the full need of the market, and you have witnessed the shortages and dramatic price hikes that have resulted. At the same time, Mosaic continues to export substantial portions of its own U.S. production. Reliable estimates are that in 2021 they exported almost half of their phosphate fertilizers to farmers elsewhere, even though their total output for that year was reduced by weather events and production problems. In 2020, estimates are that they exported a bit more than half. To make matters worse, after a dramatic concentration of the phosphate fertilizer industry over the last 20 years, only four domestic producers remain, and total domestic production has shrunk. Mosaic dominates, with 60% of U.S. production of phosphoric acid, the phosphorus component of fertilizers.
We are in the process of appealing the imposition of duties on phosphate fertilizer from Morocco, which we believe is based on incomplete and inaccurate information, faulty arguments, misapplication of the law and a misreading of the dynamics of fertilizer trade in the United States. As a result, we are hopeful that the court will require the Department of Commerce and U.S. International Trade Commission to reconsider their determinations and that the agencies ultimately will terminate the countervailing duties order. We also are grateful that, both in the first phase of this process and now at the appeals phase, those who represent American farmers — producer groups, retailers, Members of Congress and others — have strongly and publicly opposed these damaging and unjustified duties. In the end, those duties only hurt you, forcing you to use whatever is available — often from one supplier, and not necessarily the product you want, if you can get it at all.
U.S. farmers need reliable, diverse and timely sources of phosphate fertilizers. While the OCP Group is proud to continue serving farmers across the globe, including Canada and Mexico, we are deeply committed to American farmers, who are among the best in the world.
As this process moves forward over the next several months, we invite you to learn more about the process, the facts and your options to make your voice heard by visiting www.standwithUSfarmers.com.
We wish you a productive season, and we look forward to serving you again as soon as this matter gets resolved.
Sincerely yours,
OCP North America