Anhydrous Leads Retail Fertilizer Prices Lower in Fourth Week of July 2024

MT. JULIET, Tenn. (DTN) — Anhydrous fertilizer costs less than half of what it did in 2022, as the nitrogen fertilizer’s average retail price continues its summer shrinkage.

The average retail price of all eight major fertilizers declined from the previous month, according to DTN survey data for the fourth week of July 2024. No prices moved more than 5%, a benchmark DTN uses to determine if a price change is significant.

At $677/ton, anhydrous is $14/ton less expensive than last year and $754/ton cheaper than 2022. It also had the largest month-over-month decline of all the fertilizers tracked by DTN at $28/ton.

Two other nitrogen fertilizers saw declines. The average prices of UAN28 and UAN32 dropped to $339/ton and $377/ton, respectively. Those prices are down $6/ton and $11/ton from last month.

DAP prices dropped $15/ton from last month to $745/ton.

Potash prices were $4 lower than last month at $502/ton. MAP prices declined $3 to $818/ton, and urea prices were $2 below last month at $504/ton.

The average price of 10-34-0 was $642/ton, just a few cents lower than last month.

On a price per pound of nitrogen basis, the average urea price was at $0.55/lb.N, anhydrous $0.41/lb.N, UAN28 $0.61/lb.N and UAN32 $0.59/lb.N.

All fertilizers except one are lower compared to one year ago. MAP is 3% more expensive compared to last year. Anhydrous is 2% cheaper; DAP is 6% lower; 10-34-0 is 10% less expensive; UAN28 is 11% lower; urea is 13% lower; potash is 15% less expensive; and UAN32 is 15% cheaper compared to a year prior.

In addition to national averages, MyDTN.com subscribers can access the full DTN Fertilizer Index, which includes state averages, here: https://www.mydtn.com/agriculture/web/ag/markets/fuels-fertilizers#!/fertilizers.

In last week’s column, we summarized a recent report highlighting how farmers change their buying habits when commodity prices fall. You can read more on that here: https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/crops/article/2024/07/24/retail-fertilizer-price-declines.

Katie Dehlinger can be reached at katie.dehlinger@dtn.com

Follow her on social platform X at @KatieD_DTN