Amidst Volatile Market, FBN Releases 2023 Chemical Price Transparency Report

Date:03-24-2023

Farmers Business Network (FBN^®), the global AgTech platform and farmer-to-farmer network, today released its 2023 FBN Ag Chemical Price Transparency Report, highlighting the extreme price variation facing farmers and shining light on an opaque market.

The report collected more than 3,000+ unique pricing data points across 37 states, accounting for over 800 insecticides, fungicides and herbicides. The most analyzed products were Atrazine 4, Enlist One™ by Corteva Agriscience, Roundup PowerMAX^® 3 by Bayer CropScience, and Clethodim 2.

″FBN provides farmers with unique insights driven by our member network,″ said Kevin McNew, Chief Economist and VP of FBN Research. ″The last two years have seen extreme fluctuations in chemical pricing for farmers. Providing more transparency on the market enables producers to make informed buying decisions to drive ROI from every input dollar.″

In the past 18 months, numerous events created a perfect storm of volatility in agricultural chemical pricing and supplies. These events include Hurricane Ida in Louisiana, which shut down chemical plants for an extended period of time, a key raw material in glyphosate being reduced due to electricity constraints in China, port congestion on the U.S. west coast, and more. These events created a turbulent market and illustrated how U.S. farmers rely on well-functioning global manufacturing of key active ingredients, many from China, and an efficient transportation network to bring products to farms in a timely manner.

FBN's Ag Chemical Price Transparency Report pulls back the curtain and illuminates broader pricing trends in the market.

These include:

• Across 236 different chemical products, on average there was a 15% variance between the average list price of a product and the price farmers actually paid for it. For example, the average list price for Roundup PowerMAX® 3 in June 2022 was $60/gallon, but farmers paid between $45-$73/gallon during that time frame. Such extreme farmer-to-farmer variability suggests that chemical markets continue to be opaque and present a challenge for all farmers to get uniform costs for ag chemicals.

  
  

• The product with the widest price discrepancy was dicamba diglycolamine salt (DGA; 4 lbs). There was a 283% variation in what farmers paid for the product, meaning farmers paying the highest prices for dicamba DGA paid nearly three times as much as the farmers who paid the lowest prices for this product.

  
  

• There is a disproportionate impact on farmers paying higher prices. Half of farmers paid an average of 19% more than the average list price, but the other half of farmers who paid below average list price only got about a 14% discount.

  
  

• Farmers who did not buy from FBN could have saved an average of 34% by purchasing FBN chemicals through FBN Direct.

″Once again, the data shows farmers are paying very different prices for identical products, because by and large, crop protection sellers are not providing transparent pricing and many regions lack competition,″ said FBN Co-Founder, Charles Baron. ″FBN helps producers solve this by creating more transparency and providing transparent purchasing options online and through our farmer selling partners, with FBN Direct.″

FBN Direct provides farmers with both high quality generic and brand-name products at competitive, transparent list prices. Providing price transparency on chemical markets and buying provides farmers confidence and competitive markets. FBN’s unique chemical purchasing system enables growers to select & plan chemical programs, compare alternative products, see list prices and select delivery timing, get product support, and choose their financing options. FBN Direct now partners with over 500 farmer Community Builders who work with farmers locally as sales agents, providing farmers online convenience with local support.

For further details, download the FBN Ag Chemical Price Transparency Report 2023.