Pritzker hopes proposed fertilizer plant could cut costs for farmers

CENTRAL ILLINOIS (WCIA) — The last few weeks before harvest gets underway should be an exciting time for farmers. A year’s worth of work is about to pay off but this year prices aren’t looking great for producers in Central Illinois.

“Input costs have risen astronomically. The average tariff or tax on ag inputs has gone from 1% to 12% in seven months. I will say that again, seven months ago, the average input tariff was 1%,” Jerry Costello, the Illinois Director of Agriculture, said.

The numbers just aren’t adding up for farmers.

The Illinois Corn Growers Association estimates that farmers will need to make around $4.60 per bushel in 2025 to break even. Right now corn cash bids are coming in at just under $4 with some prices dipping as low as $3.50

“I believe about five percent of farms this year are expected to be profitable. The average farm will lose a little over $300 in annual income,” Costello said.

High tariffs have also caused input prices for things like fertilizer to surge.

But Governor Pritzker hopes a long awaited construction project will help bolster farmers pocketbooks.

“They will be an anchor of the Illinois agricultural industry of today and tomorrow. The $2 billion production facility, let me repeat that the $2 billion production facility, will bring in 130 new full time jobs to the area and will spur further development and growth in the community that will extend out across not just agriculture but the entire Illinois economy,” Pritzker said on the stage at Tuesday’s Farm Progress show in Decatur.

For more than a decade, Cronus Chemicals has said it is planning to build a new ammonia fertilizer plant in Tuscola.

Those plans are still on and on Tuesday Pritzker celebrated Cronus promising a $2 billion investment for the project.

Pritzker and Costello hope the plant won’t just boost jobs but also cut input costs for farmers.

At Tuesday’s event the governor and city leaders claimed the plant is closer than ever to construction. But when asked, neither could say when a groundbreaking could happen.

On top of the unsure start date even once construction starts, it will be years before the plant goes online.

“So it is estimated to be about a 40 month build. So I would think once groundbreaking occurs about a third, about a three and a half year period before ammonia would actually be produced at the facility,” said Brian Moody, Executive Director for Douglas County’s Economic Development Corporation.