The industry is vibrant, says Dale Edgington, Purchasing and Production Manager for Advanced Micronutrient Products and Chairperson of the Micronutrient Association, which is now part of The Fertilizer Institute. What once was considered a luxury, is now considered a necessity. The micronutrient product category continues to show steady growth each year as growers learn more and more about how various micronutrients contribute to their overall success of growing a crop, says Tony Donoho, Director of Sales, Specialty Nutrients, for The Andersons.

According to Markets and Markets research, the global agricultural micronutrients market is estimated to be valued at $3.6 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach a value of $5.4 billion by 2025. While this is just a projection, it provides an idea of the market potential,” says Brad Griffith, Chief Commercial Officer at Compass Minerals. “Plant nutrition as a category has been underappreciated and underrepresented in terms of science and data supporting the efficacy of its products.

I expect the market to be up significantly, Griffith says. With prevent plant taking out nineteen million acres last year, soil and crops are now getting the nutrients they need. We also continue to experience a retailer and grower community that is quite educated on the overall benefit of micronutrients and the value they can bring. As part of that evolution, growers continue to be conservative about how new products fit on the farm, with proven technologies like zinc on corn being more broadly accepted than newer formulations that they have limited experience with.

While this may slow initial product adoption, growers are willing to invest in products that show a consistent ROI advantage, Griffith says. Increasingly, growers are adopting advanced precision agriculture equipment that can help leverage the benefits of micronutrients by targeting the 4Rs right source, right place, right rate, and right time. Despite the positive response to micronutrients for the 2020 growing season, not everyone was convinced this year would be special.

Initially, there was concern that depressed farm commodity pricing would create enough economic uncertainty to reduce domestic demand for micronutrients, Edgington says. But reports that the U.S. and China had reached a Phase One trade deal in January that included targeted increases in commodity purchases provided impetus to stabilize demand for micronutrients. The results where increased inquiries into domestic sources of production.

While farm commodity prices were not at a level to provide acceptable cash flow to many growers, the USDA Market Facilitation Program payments appear to have added enough liquidity to the market to cause farmers to follow best agronomic practices, The Phase One trade deal mentioned earlier increased expectation of demand for commodities and moved some acres from corn to soybeans. Drier soils in the Midwest in the early spring of 2020 allowed farmers to plant earlier, increasing yield potential and expected nutrient removal from the soil.

As the micronutrient space has grown in recent years, many producers have more awareness of micronutrient deficiencies in their crop and are turning to micronutrient fertilizers, says Jake Socherman, Vice President of Sales, Verdesian Specialty Micronutrients.

Media Contact
David Paul
Managing Editor
Journal of Food and Clinical Nutrition