Monday, January 31, 2022

Prices: "Just When You Think Fertilizer Shortages are Improving, Trucker Vaccine Mandates Slam Supply Chain Into Disarray"

Following up on January 4's "Farmers Are Talking Higher Than Average Fertilizer Prices (CF; MOS; NTR)"

From AgWeb, January 27:

Fertilizer availability concerns have plagued agriculture for months, but recent COVID-19 vaccine mandates in both the U.S. and Canada could take even more truckers off the road. As the supply chain is already wading through chaos and shortages of everything from food products to equipment parts, more fertilizer shortages could be coming just before spring. 

Trucking industry experts warn while empty store shelves are being advertised as a product of these recent vaccine mandates, the issue will snowball into much more. The concerns derive from a recent vaccine mandate requiring truckers to be vaccinated before crossing the border. Truckers were previously exempt from federal travel restrictions. The new mandate went into effect on January 15,, 2022 in Canada, and on January 22, 2022 in the U.S.....

....More Fertilizer Shortages? 

And in the U.S., effects of driver shortages are just starting. Kelly Krapu is safety director for True North Compliance Services in West Fargo, North Dakota, a company that helps trucking companies and drivers navigate rules and regulations on the road. She says we haven't seen the full extent of the impact considering the mandate for drivers coign to the U.S. only went into effect Saturday. "I have been told from some chatter in industry, and some of my customers is a lot of their fertilizer comes from Canada,” she says. “About 50% of Canada's fertilizer is exported into the United States. So, if an unvaccinated driver is not allowed to go into Canada to pull that fertilizer out, we're going to have some issues there. And then vice versa, even if the Canadian driver that's going to pull some fertilizer down into the U.S. isn't vaccinated, they're not going to be allowed in.”

Krapu says it’s not that truck traffic is shuttered. She says it’s just severely throttled back since there are so many cross-border truck drivers unvaccinated. But there’s no definitive answer on just how many are still unvaccinated despite the new mandate. She says some drivers who aren’t vaccinated are opting for different routes that don’t take them across the border. So, that leaves fewer drivers able to transport goods, including everything from food and fertilizer, across the border.....

....MUCH MORE

We weren't posting all those Canadian border/trucker stories for grins and giggles:
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