Fertilizer Prices Going Down

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Story Published: Jan 6, 2009 at 6:20 PM PDT

By Molly Kelleher

PASCO - It's a little ray of hope in a doom and gloom economy. Farmers are getting some relief from fertilizer prices.

Lou Larsen is a grower with Columbia Bean and Produce out of Moses Lake. He came out to the Pasco Ag Show to find more growers to put their beans in rotation. Larsen says demand for his product is up, but so are prices for start-up.

But now the break farmers have been asking for, fertilizers prices are starting to come down according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. It's the first time in six years wholesale fertilizer prices are heading down.

Things like fertilizer, seeds and water are called input prices. It's the money you put in to grow the crop.

"The more inputs come down more money you have in the end. So yeah it's a good thing," said Larsen.

With the news of a price drop also comes a dose of reality, in this economic climate nothing is for sure prices right now are not steady.

"It's certainly encouraging to see where they are compared to earlier in the fall. Fossil fuel related costs up 275% and fertilizer was up 450% but it's too early to tell if it's a trend or not," said Bob Gore Washington Department of Agriculture.

So just as unpredictable as the weather can be for farmers, prices can be the same in 2009.

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