Farm Supplies Wholesalers NAICS 424910

Sep 23, 2025 - Praise for Second MAHA Report

• Industry pushback regarding the impact of pesticides on children’s health in the Make America Healthy Again Commission’s first report released in May, resulted in the removal of one of the only mentions of ‘reducing’ pesticide use in the final draft issued in September, Civil Eats reports. In the months between the two reports, agriculture industry groups criticized the mention of pesticide use as harmful and lobbied the White House for changes. Rather than restricting pesticide and toxic chemical use or taking a more precautionary approach to safety evaluations, the second report merely tasks the Environmental Protection Agency with working to reform the approval process for chemical and biologic products to protect against weeds, pests and disease. Critics of the revised report argue it abandons major reforms and the policy recommendations amount to a public relations campaign with few effectual changes, according to CE.
• The trade association for the US commercial fertilizer industry, The Fertilizer Institute, is urging the Trump administration to provide a strategic carveout for Canadian fertilizers – including designating potash and phosphate as critical minerals – to exempt them from import tariffs. Trump imposed 25% duties on most Canadian products on March 4th before announcing a one-month reprieve on some goods, including fertilizers, two days later. The US imported nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizer products valued at more than $10 billion, more than half of which came from Canada, in 2023. Canada supplies 85% of the potash fertilizer and nearly 10% of their nitrogen fertilizer used by US growers, according to TFI. Potash prices have already risen nearly 20% this year ahead of US tariffs and phosphate prices are poised to surge more on retaliatory Canadian tariffs, Reuters reports. Higher prices for fertilizer – most farmers’ biggest input cost – would likely be passed along to growers.

• The widening spread between input prices paid by farmers and what they receive for their outputs in the form of lower commodity prices is squeezing farm profits, according to Farm Progress. Current farm income instability due to inflationary pressures, high interest rates, and several supply chain disruptions have farmers facing higher input costs while receiving lower commodity prices. Moreover, as commodity prices have fallen the gap between the two widened in 2023 and 2024. The percentage change in crop output prices between 2023 and 2024 (-13.8%) is much larger than the percentage decrease in input prices (-1.38%) during that period, USDA data show. Without any relief in the form of improved crop prices, farmers will continue to suffer from cost/price squeezes, eroding farm profit margins and reducing their purchasing power, according to Farm Progress.
• Employment by farm supplies wholesalers remained flat in July compared to a year ago, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Employment by the industry is seasonal, typically peaking in the second quarter, coinciding with spring planting season, and declining in the fall as farm activity slows. The average wage at farm supplies wholesalers rose 3.1% year over year in July to $30.35 per hour, easing from its peak in June, BLS data shows. Inventories for miscellaneous nondurable goods wholesalers, which includes farm supplies, increased 2.5% YoY in July but fell 2.2% versus June. Farm supply inventories typically peak in the first quarter as distributors stock up for the spring planting season.