Ourselves as farmers can afford to speculate since we are not working on margins. We create something from scratch. And most of us have assets to fall back on if we are wrong, or can store our products for longer.
Fertlizer retailers are working on margins, very thin margins at that. If they speculate and buy high priced product, and by spring the price is lower, it is game over for that retailer. As happened in 2008 to many of them. They have one time per year to sell most of their physical product, which doesn't store well.
If they are sitting on over priced inventory by spring, they have no choice but to blow it out at a loss. How many years of low single digits margins would it take to get back to even if they lose 20 to 50% in one year?
Fertlizer retailers are working on margins, very thin margins at that. If they speculate and buy high priced product, and by spring the price is lower, it is game over for that retailer. As happened in 2008 to many of them. They have one time per year to sell most of their physical product, which doesn't store well.
If they are sitting on over priced inventory by spring, they have no choice but to blow it out at a loss. How many years of low single digits margins would it take to get back to even if they lose 20 to 50% in one year?
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