WASHINGTON, DC – American rice farmers are caught in a deepening financial squeeze as global supply chain disruptions drive input costs to punishing levels, and the rice industry is pushing Congress and the Trump Administration to act.

Over the past five years, volatility in fertilizer markets, first reacting to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, then made worse by inflation, and now exacerbated further by the disruption of shipping lanes through the Middle East, has rocked the entire U.S. agricultural supply chain.  U.S. urea fertilizer import prices surged 30 percent in a single week after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for roughly 20 percent of global oil and between 20 and 30 percent of global fertilizer exports.

For rice farmers, who already face the highest operating costs for any major row crop (in excess of $1,300 per acre), and who are looking at projected per-acre losses of roughly $210 even after recently announced federal assistance, the added burden is severe. 

Arkansas, the nation’s top rice-producing state, recorded more Chapter 12 farm bankruptcy filings in 2025 than any other state.  It was more than double the prior year.  The toll on rural economies, from local lenders to small-town suppliers, is impossible to separate from the farm-level pain.

In response, USA Rice has joined a coalition of commodity groups urging the U.S. Department of Commerce to revoke countervailing duties on phosphate fertilizer imports that have added between 28 and 34 percent to the total price, prompted at least one major Moroccan supplier to halt U.S. shipments, and worsened shortages that have only deepened amid the current Middle East conflict.  Bipartisan legislation has also been introduced in the Senate to improve fertilizer price transparency and boost domestic production (see USA Rice Daily, March 26, 2026).

“By eliminating these duties, the Trump Administration would help restore balance to fertilizer markets by providing immediate relief to U.S. rice farmers facing elevated input costs and a lack of availability,” said USA Rice President & CEO Peter Bachmann.  “Additionally, as Congress looks at emergency spending measures in the coming weeks, they need to understand the help they have already provided is deeply appreciated, but with real world conditions what they are, it is not going to prevent more bankruptcies, personal tragedies, a further hollowing out of rural communities, and a general threat to our food and national security.”  

Published Date: April 14, 2026