2024-10-09 21:49:00
As Hurricane Milton approached Florida‘s west coast, major agricultural facilities, including fertilizer plants, animal feed operations, and a large mill, halted operations. The Category 4 storm is causing evacuations along a 300-mile stretch of coast and is expected to make landfall near Tampa Bay around midnight.
Milton’s impact comes shortly after Hurricane Helene, which hit the Big Bend region on September 26, 2023, causing significant damage to the agricultural sector in the Southeast. Mosaic, a major fertilizer manufacturer, ceased operations in Florida due to the storm. The company, responsible for nearly 75% of North America’s phosphate fertilizer, had already faced service disruptions under Helene, with a plant in Riverview, Florida, becoming unusable due to damage caused by rising sea levels .
Veronica Nigh, senior economist at the Fertilizer Institute, expressed concern about the consequences of Helene and Milton on the phosphate market. According to Nigh, the region around Tampa Bay is home to a significant portion of U.S. production capacity for ammonium phosphate, phosphate rock and wet-processed phosphoric acid. The area is also a major export center, with Port Tampa Bay handling substantial portions of U.S. phosphate fertilizer and total fertilizer exports.
Ardent Mills, a flour manufacturer, has closed its Port Redwing mill, which has the capacity to produce 816,466 pounds of flour per day, using grains and wheat imported from the Midwest and Southeast. The mill, which began operating in 2022, is now idled in anticipation of the hurricane’s arrival.
Additionally, global agribusiness Cargill Inc took preemptive action by closing its salt and animal feed packing plant located in the path of the impending storm. These closures reflect the broader closures occurring across the state as residents and businesses prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Milton.
Reuters contributed to this article.
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