The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports the cost of fertiliser has collapsed by more than $500 in the last three months. By the end of the year, farmers in Australia should be able to purchase urea at one-third of the current price. In July, urea was trading for a record US$900 a tonne. Steven Mitchell, from commodity forecaster ICIS, says prices in Australia will take a while to adjust. "It's a question very much of how the distributor handles it," he says. "If they want to average the price between the high prices imports in July and August and the low priced imports from November, they could give an averaged price straight away between US$300 and US$350 FOB, plus ocean freight of US$40 a tonne. "So there ought to be some much cheaper fertiliser available in the country from the turn of the year onwards."
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