New FBN report: drastically different prices for the same agrochemicals in US

Farmers confront numerous challenges as they strive for profitability, including the lack of transparency in the chemical market, which can add extra costs to an already expensive farming essential. 
 

In fact, herbicides and insecticides can account for as much as 15 percent of a farmer’s variable cost of production. As farmers fight for margin, every dollar matters. Small price variations can add up to have a big impact.
 

U.S. farmers continue to pay different prices to buy the same ag chemicals
 

According to Updated Ag Chemical Price Transparency Report published by Farmer's Business Network (FBN), farmers continue to see extreme price differences on the same products, even when brands and geographies are the same. "The same product" or "the same chemical," refer to the same active ingredient with the same concentration. 
 

FBN has aggregated chemical invoices and price quotes for the 2018 crop year submitted anonymously by FBNSM members in the Updated Ag Chemical Price Transparency Report. 
 

FBN received more than 14,000 unique pricing data points, representing 30 states and more than 250 insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and adjuvants. (The report outlines the pricing variations observed on some common ag chemicals. These prices do not include rebates.)
 

 

Even for staple products like Roundup PowerMAX®, it has been seen that up to a 151 percent difference between the lowest and highest price paid within a single state. In Minnesota, there was a 151 percent difference between the lowest and highest price paid, while in Missouri there was a 134 percent difference between the lowest and highest price paid. In Kansas, the difference was just 16 percent.

 

For 2,4- D Low Volume 6, a product with one of the largest price variations, a greater than a 203 percent difference between the lowest and highest price paid within a single state. In fact, it has been seen that 89 products with a greater than 100 percent difference between the lowest and highest price.
 

When FBN first published the Ag Chemical Price Transparency report in 2015, they learned that farmers had little transparency into hidden industry practices around chemical pricing. This meant that there was wide variability between the prices farmers paid for their chemicals. Now, three years later, price variation continues in the industry.