Sponsors (6)
The bill increases fertilizer market transparency and gives farmers and policymakers better, more frequent price and supply information, but it creates compliance costs, potential competition/privacy risks, and may leave reporting gaps due to exemptions.
Farmers (and agricultural workers) gain regular, timely price and availability information for nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and fertilizer products, improving their ability to plan purchases, manage budgets, and time inputs.
Smaller buyers (including small farms and ag-related small businesses) benefit from improved market transparency that reduces information asymmetry and the risk of overpaying during fertilizer price spikes.
State and local planners, and rural communities, receive weekly benchmarks and regional estimates they can use to estimate input costs and respond more quickly to supply disruptions.
Manufacturers and wholesalers face new compliance costs and administrative burden from mandatory weekly reporting, costs that are likely to be passed on to farmers and small buyers.
Weekly public publication of price data risks revealing commercially sensitive information (despite aggregation), which could harm competition or create incentives for price coordination among suppliers.
Exempting cooperatives and most retailers from reporting may produce gaps in the dataset and limit the accuracy of published farmer-facing price information.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires USDA to publish weekly fertilizer price and quantity data and mandates weekly reporting by manufacturers and wholesalers, with domestic vs. foreign sourcing identified.
Introduced March 19, 2026 by John Thune · Last progress March 19, 2026
Creates a mandatory USDA fertilizer price and quantity reporting program that requires manufacturers and wholesalers of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and fertilizer products to submit weekly price and volume data to the Department of Agriculture. USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service must run a Market News program that conducts weekly retail price surveys and publish timely national and, where appropriate, regional or state-level price information, with separate reporting that distinguishes products marketed by domestic versus foreign manufacturers or wholesalers. Cooperatives and non-manufacturer retailers are exempt from mandatory reporting but may submit voluntary confidential data.