Fertilizer prices soar, but makers cite oversupply

In the eyes of many farmers and agricultural experts, fertilizer prices have seemed to defy the normal laws of economics. Despite the high prices, makers of phosphate and potash—key fertilizer ingredients—say there’s an oversupply and earlier this month, Plymouth, Minn.-based Mosaic Co. said that it would scale back production, the second major company in recent weeks to announce production cuts.

Mosaic, the world’s largest producer of phosphate and potash, said it will cut phosphate production by 500,000 to 1 million metric tons over the next several months. That’s about 10 percent of the company's annual production. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, another large fertilizer company, in September idled about 30 percent of its production capacity because of a labor strike. Full story: Press and Dakotan