Dumping Antidumping
10 June 2008 In the July issue of FCI, an in-depth report on glyphosate prices features opinions from around the globe on the market for the world’s leading herbicide. In several places – notably Brazil and the European Union – the already tight situation and skyrocketing prices have been made more difficult by antidumping measures introduced in those regions to prevent a massive influx of cheap product from Chinese producers.
The situation today serves as an example of why such measures should be handled very carefully. The added costs to farmers in these areas is expected to measure in the billions of dollars, thanks to their governments’ "protection."
Markets always change. There are many causes for the state of glyphosate prices today and for the foreseeable future: rising demand, raw material costs, and a slowdown of Chinese production being the primary ones. But these did not materialize out of thin air. Even as the industry watched fully aware that glyphosate product prices were going to swell, governments that had antidumping policies on the books were either unwilling or unable to remove or at least ease them to make these products more affordable, and in the end, the ones hurt were the nations’ farmers.
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