A Florida fertilizer manufacturing project will be one of eight to receive funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Fertilizer Investment & Expansion for Long-Term Domestic Supply (FIELDS) Program.
The selected projects represent more than $1.34 billion in total proposed investment, including approximately $573 million in proposed USDA funding. The FIELDS Program is intended to strengthen domestic fertilizer manufacturing, reduce America’s dependence on foreign suppliers and increase long-term fertilizer availability for American farmers.
The Florida project is selected for approximately $19.9 million in proposed USDA funding toward a $50.6 million project to expand fertilizer manufacturing in Bartow. The project is expected to produce approximately 250,000 tons annually of nitrogen, phosphorus-, potassium-, and sulfur-containing fertilizer products.
USDA launched the $500 million FIELDS Program to expand domestic fertilizer manufacturing and address one of the most significant supply-chain vulnerabilities facing American agriculture.
Vice President J.D. Vance said that “1.87 million farmers who are farming over 874 million acres … are going to have fertilizer at lower costs that is made by Americans.”
USDA stated that America’s fertilizer industry has become increasingly consolidated, leaving farmers with fewer suppliers and less competition. It reported that four companies control approximately 77% of North American nitrogen fertilizer production capacity, two companies account for more than 90% of phosphate production capacity, and two companies produce approximately 90% of North America’s potash.
The selected FIELDS projects are expected to help reverse this trend by increasing domestic fertilizer production and strengthening competition. USDA economic analysis estimates that the additional production could reduce nitrogen fertilizer prices by 4.4% and potash prices by 5.3%. It added that the additional production could increase domestic nitrogen production by 3.7% and potash production by nearly 40% once the projects are operational.
The projects will support new and expanded manufacturing capacity for nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur fertilizers. The investments are expected to support approximately 1.08 million tons of annual domestic fertilizer production and capacity across the selected projects.
The FIELDS Program is administered by USDA Rural Development’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service using Commodity Credit Corporation authorities.
See the full announcement about the fertilizer investment here.
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