– More and more Latin American coffee growers are cutting fertilizers because costs are skyrocketing . Stable for almost a decade, fertilizer prices have hiked in the last year on high demand and as oil and natural gas prices rose. Prices for common phosphate fertilizers have increased five-fold in the past 15 months to an unprecedented $1,230 per tonne. At that level, farmers must use close to a third of what they earn per pound of coffee just to pay for fertilizers. Outputs will inevitably suffer, growers say. The pinch on production will be felt in coming years, when trees produce less for lack of nutrients.
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