A huge rally in food prices is stoking record fertilizer demand – by Marcy Nicholson and Justina Vasquez (Bloomberg News – December 9, 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Fertilizer producers are next in line to benefit from rising crop prices, with farmers poised to plant more acres in 2021.

For the world’s handful of companies that produce potash — a potassium-rich fertilizer mined underground from evaporated sea beds — it is the light at the end of the tunnel following several volatile years. Bloomberg’s Green Markets pegs global potash demand at a record in 2021, while Morningstar Inc. says it will likely set a new “high watermark.”

Farmers’ incomes in the U.S. and Canada are up from a year earlier, boosted by crop prices that surged to multi-year highs on the back of strong demand from China and by pandemic-related government stimulus.

As farmers invest their profits back into their farms and expand their plantings, they’ll need more fertilizer.

“That was a false start with the pandemic and all the talk of a terrible year, but now we see a huge rally in food prices ll the vital signs,” Pedro Farah, chief finance officer of Canada’s Nutrien Ltd., said during a presentation last week.

For the rest of this article: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/a-huge-rally-in-food-prices-is-stoking-record-fertilizer-demand-1.1534281