Mosaic scales back phosphate fertilizer production 

Mosaic, a Florida-based fertilizer company, said Monday it is scaling back phosphate production in the United States and Brazil.

“Mosaic is closely monitoring raw material markets, particularly sulfur, which recently hit record prices because of limited availability,” the company said in a news release.

“As a result, Mosaic has withdrawn its phosphate production guidance for 2026 as it reviews its operating plan for the rest of the year. As part of this review, Mosaic has taken initial steps to partially curtail production at Louisiana and Bartow and is scaling back additional production in Brazil.”

“This unsettling news from Mosaic comes at a time when U.S. soybean farmers are facing major economic headwinds, and neither the skyrocketing cost nor the availability of inputs — like phosphate fertilizer — are helping ease those challenges,” said American Soybean Association President Scott Metzger, an Ohio farmer. 

“This is the worst time possible for Mosaic to decrease domestic phosphate production,” Metzger said. “High sulfuric acid costs are disrupting the global fertilizer market, and farmers are ultimately paying the price through higher input costs.”

ASA repeated its calls on the Trump administration to help address the high cost and availability of phosphate fertilizers by terminating the countervailing duty on imported phosphate fertilizers from Morocco and Russia, Metzger said.

“This ill-conceived duty has increased the cost of phosphate fertilizer for farmers by $6.9 billion over the past five years while commodity prices continue to trend downwards,” Metzger said. “We urge the president to remove the CVD on phosphate fertilizers to address the availability and affordability of this important input.”