The price of Roundup CT has more than doubled over the past 10 months and the expectation is that it will continue to rise.
It currently costs $195 to buy a 20-litre drum of Roundup CT. In March 2007 this cost $85.
World glyphosate shortages are blamed for lifting prices and the cost of knockdown herbicides is expected to rise even further.
New South Wales rural merchandiser and agronomist, Peter Birch, of B and W Rural, Moree, says China’s monopoly over glyphosate technical material has coupled with an internal anti-pollution drive and with cancellation of an export tariff rebate.
“The result is a glyphosate shortage worldwide,” he said.
“And a lot of the glyphosate has been stockpiled by the countries that pay the most money for it – in the United States for instance – where the price of glyphosate is probably two to three times what it is here.”
He said triazine-based chemicals, including Simazine and Atrazine, would likely endure similar pressures to those of the glyphosate products.
