Farmers Denounce 300-percent Increase in Fertilizer Prices

Farmers from Guanajuato and Puebla are suffering after fertilizer prices increased 300 percent. People are moving away from cultivating their land, which would cause shortages and an increase in the cost of some foods, experts warned.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), tightened its rules on how dairy animals enter organic production to create a fairer environment for farmers and consumers. The new rule would end the practice of cycling dairy animals between organic production and feeding on lower-cost, non-organic rations.

AMLO Does not Rule out the Elimination of Food Tariffs

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not rule out the elimination of tariffs on foodstuffs to contain the increase of prices Mexico is seeing under the highest inflation rates the country has suffered since Jan. 2001, reported El Economista.

“In a free market world, if there is a situation of price increases due to lack of food or raw materials in Mexico, the market is open to imports. [We can] remove tariffs so chicken meat, eggs and grains enter the country at better prices. This is a mechanism that we do not rule out to face inflation," said López Obrador.

Mexican Farmers Denounce 300-percent Increase in Fertilizer Prices

Farmers from Guanajuato and Puebla denounced increases in the price of fertilizers of up to 300 percent, reported El Economista. During 1H2021, Mexico bought from Russia almost 30 percent of its fertilizers, said Cristian García de Paz, Director, PROCCYT. But the Russia-Ukraine conflict may decrease the global fertilizer supply by 25 percent.

The most affected parties are small landlords, said Luis Eduardo González Cepeda, President, UMFFAC. “We have worrying reports from farmers who have reduced the dose of fertilizers by 30-50 percent and in the Bajio region they have reduced the area planted due to the uncertainty of the prices at which they will sell their crops. [Small landlords] estimate that neither the government nor the costs of production guarantee the necessary returns, so they have stopped risking the little capital they have,” he added.

USDA Announces Organic Dairy ‘Origin of Livestock’ Rule

USDA has tightened its rules on how dairy animals (cattle, goats and sheep) enter organic production to promote a fair environment for farmers and consumers. The new “origin of livestock” rule would end the practice of cycling dairy animals between organic production and feeding on lower-cost, non-organic rations, reported Successful Farming.

“Now, all organic livestock producers will have the confidence and certainty they are operating in a fair and competitive marketplace,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. Under the new rule, milk and dairy products must come from animals that were organically managed from the last third of gestation onward, explained Agri-Pulse.