Here’s What Driving Growth in the Micronutrients Market
September 20, 2023 Constantly changing business conditions create challenges for even the best executives. Add in a black swan event (COVID) and the planning for the future becomes exponentially more difficult.
CropLife® magazine interviewed several micronutrient providers who shared their insights on the most recent growing season and their expectations for 2024. It’s been a bit of a mixed bag.
Expectations
“Expectations were exceeded,” Galynn Beer, National Strategy & Product Management Lead, AgroLiquid. “Sales of micronutrients were flat, so it sounds weird for that to result in ending above expectations. Nitrogen started out very elevated in price and a lot of farmers committed to those higher prices to secure supply. We live in a world of tradeoffs, and I feared a higher nitrogen spend might reduce investment in micronutrients. For the most part, farmers still invested in micronutrients.”
Koch Agronomic Services (KAS) saw similar results.
“We have continued to see a strong demand for KAS solutions, such as WOLF TRAX DDP micronutrients, which provides better distribution in the field when compared to traditional granular micronutrients, and PROTIVATE nutritional seed enhancer, which provides a highly concentrated source of nutrients for early season growth, applied directly on the seed,” says TJ Bingham, Technical Agronomist.
The reluctance to spend money and supply chain concerns that dominated the past few years, couple with optimism that accompanied the fading of COVID (or at least fewer worries about the pandemic) has certainly helped the micronutrient segment.
“Mosaic experienced strong demand and increase over 2022 for Aspire and MicroEssentials. Spring exceeded expectations,” says Tom Fry, Director of Performance Products, The Mosaic Co.
Not every company exceeded expectations, however.
“This year’s crop season, we expected micronutrient volume to be slightly higher year-over-year,” says Chuck Anderson, VP and GM, Specialty Liquids, The Andersons. “However, the supply chain had more carry-over inventory going into the season than expected. Additionally, demand was soft, and farmers were slow to engage throughout the season.”
Drivers
Several factors continue to drive the growth of the market including education and increased efficiency.
“There was still enough supply concern for nitrogen in the fall of 2022 that farmers committed capital to covering that critical input,” AgroLiquid’s Beer says. “But a better understanding of the role of micronutrients stabilized micronutrient sales to a degree. The recognition of value prevented the micros from being on the chopping block. Farmers have learned that micronutrients improve the efficiency of primary nutrients, so it made sense to still invest in micronutrients to help extract value out of the higher priced primary nutrients. It’s sort of like buying a $40 tie to make the $500 suit look better! Elevated prices last fall due to supply concerns with primary nutrients were offset by grower’s increased education on the role of micronutrients.”
Mosaic’s Fry offers another reason for micronutrients’ continued growth.
“Higher commodity prices drove a bullish mindset by growers looking to provide the balanced crop nutrition their crops need to optimize yield and profitability,” he says.
Challenges
“Micronutrients are critical for a balanced nutrient management program and are important in helping growers overcome cropping system challenges and to better meet yield goals, KAS’s Bingham says. “As an industry, we need to keep educating growers and retailers on these value propositions by coming up with strategies that are based on crop yield potential and their specific crop’s micronutrient needs.
The Science
“Improving the efficiency of micronutrients is constantly changing,” Beer says. “Micronutrients generally aren’t cheap, so finding chelates that help protect the nutrient, or timing of application, or even soil versus foliar feeding is evolving. This is due in part to our ability to apply micros in a variety of applications. Farmers are trying to leverage their micro investment as much as possible and are also refining where diminishing returns kick in for their farm.”
Finding the right mix and balancing micronutrients requires a deep understanding of the way products interact with a variety of crop inputs.
“Mosaic utilizes our strategic focus on potassium and phosphate fertilizers to look for science-based synergies with other nutrients, like zinc with MicroEssentials and boron with Aspire,” Fry says. “We continue to invest in basic R&D in ways that we can provide additional value to our performance products and have several exciting technologies in our pipeline that we are testing in North America.”
As understanding about the way micronutrients offer and the value they bring to growers, their adoption increases.
“We have seen rapid development of technology take hold across the industry,” Anderson says. “For example, the growth in the amount of tissue sampling occurring in the fields to better understand in-season nutrient deficiencies has led to increased use of foliar applications and micronutrients. With foliar applications, we have also seen increased use of fulvic acids and biostimulants to enhance efficiency and get more applied nutrients into the plant, leading to increased profitability for the grower.”
Looking To 2024
Barring unexpected events, there is little reason to believe the micronutrient segment won’t continue to grow.
“As the use of micronutrients continues to steadily increase, the industry continues learning about the offerings and opportunities within the market,” Bingham says. “At KAS, we are continuously evaluating how we can provide effective and efficient products to growers and retailers.”
AgroLiquid’s Beer agrees.
“I see consistent growth of micronutrient sales ahead, but not explosive growth,” he says. “Late adopters still remain. We will likely realize new or more efficient uses of micros. I think we have reached a point where most growers have accepted that they need micronutrients, but the process of refinement can result in scaling back some micros while ramping up others. I think the net result is slow and steady growth unless suppliers like AgroLiquid stumble onto a disruptive application.”
As long as the segment continues to offer benefits, expectations continue to remain high.
“Heading into 2024, Mosaic is excited to see strong demand, with solid fundamentals at the farm gate with good return on farmers’ fertilizer investment,” Fry said. “This is true on a global basis. Agriculture has a bright future heading into next year.”
A bright future seems to be the reigning sentiment for the next growing season.
“For 2024, we are anticipating demand recovery to traditional volumes, similar to pre-pandemic levels,” The Anderson’s Chuck Anderson says. “There may be some continued consolidation within the industry, especially as credit tightens at multiple levels in the U.S., potentially pinching some in their ability to operate.”
Opportunities
“Continued advances in product development, application technology, and education at all levels will drive this category and create future opportunities,” Anderson says. “
Micronutrients play a key role in maintaining a healthy crop, and having the right products to apply at the right time with the right equipment is the goal.”
Even for experienced users, continuing to learn about these products will further expand the market.
“Helping more growers understand the benefits of balanced crop nutrition continues to unlock opportunities to grow the micronutrient market,” Mosaic’s Fry says.
Tying that education to a program that growers are already familiar with should help as well.
“The biggest opportunity we see for the micronutrient market is the continued awareness of solutions that align with the 4R Nutrient Stewardship framework,” KAS’s Bingham says. “We believe there is an opportunity to continue driving increased adoption of micronutrients within growers’ nutritional programs, as well as optimize the use of micronutrients. Our goal is to provide efficient strategies and solutions for growers to better maximize their nutrient investments.”
AgroLiquid’s Beer also see continued opportunities for education.
“A big opportunity for growth of micronutrients is still understanding all the ways they provide value as yields climb,” he says. “For instance, adding calcium to a starter has never been a consideration on a broad scale. But now, growers are recognizing the role of various nutrients affecting the crop’s utilization of other nutrients. There are a lot of variables to account for, though, so opportunity lies in helping growers understand relationships and applying those learnings in the right conditions.”
The Latest
AgroLiquid: “We’ve brought some refined versions of products to the market and that’s where our short-term focus is,” Beer says. “Compatibility and storing of micros can be challenging. To continue to scale the use of micros, we need to be able to take for granted that storage and application will be easy and convenient. One plugged screen or ‘cottage cheese’ in a tank will slow the adoption of micros.”
Koch Agronomic Services: “One of the most exciting growing areas has been micronutrient nutrition for seed treatments. KAS offers PROTIVATE nutritional seed enhancer as a solution designed to give young crops the nutrients they need for optimal growth while eliminating the need for talc.
“PROTIVATE was relaunched in August 2022 under the KAS brand and new name PROTIVATE. Formerly known as Rocket Seeds, a brand KAS acquired in 2021.”
Mosaic Company: “We are working on a new technology to improve the performance of MicroEssentials SZ. A new formulation with a new patented technology will be coming in the next couple of years,” says Fry.
The Andersons: “We launched several new liquid micronutrient blends this year, including AgroMix and product extensions of our UltraMate LQ that include specific micronutrients such as zinc, boron, or manganese to better target growers’ needs.
Additionally, our company just launched a new line of granular micronutrients, MicroMark DG. These products contain essential micronutrients for plant growth, such as iron, manganese, copper, zinc, boron, molybdenum, or even humic acid,” Anderson says. “They feature The Andersons dispersing granule (DG) technology, resulting in homogenous spherical granules for easier blending, spreading, and most importantly increased efficacy. With DG technology, granules break down in the soil upon contact with water into thousands of sub-particles which increase the coverage and availability to crops.”
WinField United: Next season, growers will be able to give their deficient crops a more powerful micronutrient boost. MAX-IN Ultra ZMB Plus, a new foliar micronutrient from WinField United, combines a high-load blend of zinc, manganese and boron into one convenient and effective product, the company says.
“Zinc, manganese and boron are the most common micronutrient deficiencies in many crops, including corn and soybeans, and a deficiency in just one can impact yield potential,” said Jon Zuk, crop protection product manager with WinField United. “Now, with a single application of MAX-IN Ultra ZMB Plus micronutrient, farmers can meet a majority of in-season crop demands.”
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