Fertiliser bills won't keep falling: co-op

Ballance chief Larry Bilodeau says superphosphate prices are 'unlikely to slip back to the levels of three years ago'. Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

Fertiliser co-operative Ballance Agri-Nutrients has cut its prices but warned farmers not to expect a return to traditionally lower levels of recent years.

Ballance chief executive Larry Bilodeau said the feeling heading into next week's International Fertiliser Association conference in Shanghai was that prices had stabilised.

"There may be some minor adjustments, but we shouldn't see big price movements like we saw last year, when some commodities rose by US$100 [$166] a tonne in a week.

"I know there are farmers expecting to see superphosphate prices slip back to the levels of three years ago, but this is looking exceedingly unlikely," Bilodeau said.

"We may have seen $200 a tonne superphosphate for the last time."

New prices from Ballance effective next week included superphosphate down 3 per cent to $388, urea down 6 per cent to $650, DAP down 17 per cent to $830 and potash up 13 per cent to $1146, he said.

"We're cutting the prices to what we expect we will get out of the conference in Shanghai."

The price of nitrogen-based fertilisers such as urea and DAP were likely to soften this year, although generally prices were expected to be stable.

The global fertiliser market was watching India to see how much urea it would buy in the next two months, he said. "If it tops one million tonnes again this season it will provide a foundation to launch the market higher.

"The US and Europe are not buying at present, but Brazil could join in soon, signalling another boost."

Farmers were cutting back on buying fertiliser.

"What you sometimes find is now farmers are getting to below maintenance levels of fertiliser and in time that will affect their productivity."