Some American farmers have cried foul as they look north to Canada, the land of low-valued dollars and even lower farm chemical prices.
Jerome Anderson, a farmer from Ross, North Dakota, and some of his neighbors look at the prices advertised for pesticides and feel they are at a disadvantage in the marketplace as they try to compete with Canadian-grown grains and oilseeds.
“If it (pesticide) costs less in Canada, why can’t I just go up there and buy it? I mean it is the same stuff that we use. It just costs less (in Canada) and then we have to sell our grain for more just to stay even with our neighbors north of the border,” said Anderson.
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Earlier this month informal inquiries by The Western Producer to chemical retailers in central North Dakota and central and southern Saskatchewan indicated prices for many popular herbicides and insecticides are higher in the United States by 10 to 70 percent.
However, other costs not included in the survey, such as fuel, fertilizer and taxes, are generally higher in Canada.
The pesticide price inquiries confirmed some of the claims made by two regional American farm groups. Those Guys and McKenzie County Energies and Taxation Association complain that cheaper Canadian pesticides hurt their ability to compete.
When contacted, many companies that sell farm chemicals to producers in North Dakota and Montana said they receive inquiries from Canadian farmers about prices just out of curiosity.
Marshall Craft, a Stanley, N.D., farmer, agrees.
“I get my Canadian neighbors laughing when I tell them how much we pay. I don’t think it is that funny, though.
“They are telling us now that we have to learn to compete and then they make our Roundup cost us (more) per acre than for a Canadian farmer.
“They (the government) make us spend more to seed our canola because Canadians can use lindane (prohibited for sale in the U.S.) while we spend twice as much on Gaucho. How can we compete?”
Kerry Preete, an executive with Monsanto, which makes Roundup pesticide, said the company looks at several factors when pricing. Cost of manufacturing, product development, transportation, distribution, retailing, licensing, patent protection and customer support all come into play.
But some factors have more sway over price than others, he said.
“We have to look at the cost of liability, marketing and value to the grower,” he said.
Value to the grower, in Preete’s terms, is related to the value of the crop when sold at the farmgate. Differences in crops, growing conditions and government involvement in price stabilization have meant that American farmers have fared better and received more money per acre than Canadian producers.
“You have to be aware of these things when you price a product,” he said.
“If the farmer can’t make money, he can’t buy your product. Every country or even region of a country is going to be different in some way.”
Addelle Pelland, of Monsanto Canada, remembers when the price for Roundup was higher in Canada than in the U.S. – before patent protection was lifted for RounduP.
“We heard from (Canadian) farmers then that it was unfair that the price in Canada was higher than in the U.S. The market has changed and with it the price. It went down. Prices for Roundup have dropped over time,” she said.
Other farm chemical manufacturers contacted included Zeneca, Dow Elanco and AgrEvo, but they either declined comment or failed to respond to Western Producer inquiries.
