Is Coronavirus Causing Shortages of Fertilizer and Pesticides?

For decades we have seen much of our manufacturing capacity in the United States moved overseas. There were many reasons companies moved their factories to other countries. They included environmental regulations, out tax structure in the United States and the other major reason I have heard is cheap labor!

We now find that a lot of fertilizer, herbicides and insecticides farmers need to grow a crop come from China. With the coronavirus outbreak in China and the shipping ports shut down there are questions about availability and price increases. Due to the timing of the outbreak and shutdown maybe we caught a break?

Earlier this week I called a couple of the Coop's in our area that provide the fertilizer, herbicides, insecticides and other crop production inputs to area farmers. The inputs that farmers need for this spring are already in their sheds or at least on the way maybe in a barge on the Mississippi River. In fact late in the fall and early winter the Coops begin filling fertilizer sheds and herbicide tanks.

We did get lucky that the China Shipping ports being shut down along with many of their factories will not likely affect our supplies or prices this year. Hopefully the coronavirus will not be a factor for next year? It does sound like activity is starting to pick up and hopefully back to normal soon.

Maybe the coronavirus is a "wake up call" for the CEO's of our major companies and Elected leaders about our national security and being too dependent on one country?