A shortage of weedkiller could soon entail a price hike, making it even more expensive for farmers to grow food. Bayer AG, the maker of Roundup, whose active ingredient is glyphosate, last week announced that it may not be able to meet its sales agreements.
A possible supply crunch could therefore be on the cards, according to analysis company AgbioInvestor. Rising production costs are viewed as partly being responsible for near-record high global food prices. “These impacts will place farmers under further pressure in a number of key markets”, it said.
Bayer has communicated that their supplier is “on track to restore production”, that the company has sourced additional materials, and that the impact will be marginal in terms of annual glyphosate production.
But farmers remain anxious. Aprosoja, an association of soybean producers in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, sent a letter to Bayer’s chief executive officer in Brazil asking for assurances that there will be no shortages of glyphosate. Over 90pc of soybeans grown in Brazil are genetically modified to resist glyphosate.
Bayer previously said that glyphosate pricing gained 25pc between January 2021 and November, and the company expected prices to keep rising
“Problems within industrial structures are not atypical events, and that’s why corporations as big as Bayer have contingency plans” that the group wants to be informed of, Aprosoja’s president Fernando Cadore added.
LSL News.