Nutrien Ag Solutions WA embraces Mingenew Midwest Expo

"It gives us a chance to come together as an agricultural community and learn from each other," Mr Duperouzel said.

"Some years in farming are tougher than others but this year is shaping up to be a good year - rains have been good, demand is high and prices are high."

He said all going well, and with one eye firmly focused on the weather forecast for the next couple of weeks, it would be a good season.

Having said all that, the company's WA leader gave a rundown of the challenges that local farmers have already dealt with - and the headwinds they could face in the future.

"It is fair to say there is a lot going right at the moment but as we all know, there are a lot of variables going forward and at some stage, what goes up must come down," Mr Duperouzel said.

Supply chains

Mr Duperouzel said supply chains were still not back to normal and would remain fragile, suggesting it would "only take a few minor things to go wrong for some of the incremental gains that we have made to unravel".

"Factors that affected the supply chain in 2022 included shipping a full container of crop protection product from China, increasing from $US500 to $US10,000 and to put that into context, for an FCL (a full container load of say Atrazine granules at 10,000kg), freight increased from about five cents a kilogram to $US1/kg," Mr Duperouzel said.

Demand

"There was a significant global demand when supply and demand was in equilibrium - and what I mean by that is supply was meeting demand and demand was meeting supply and then obviously we had these disruptions and then demand globally soared, pushing prices up," he said.

COVID-19

Mr Duperouzel said the pandemic created spot disruptions which accentuated the supply/demand imbalance.

"What I mean by that is demand is inelastic and for your crop inputs you need to get glyphosate when you need it, you need fertiliser when you need it, you can't can't switch it out for something else, so that supercharged demand and again prices followed with that imbalance," he said.

China

Mr Duperouzel said China was the epicentre for supply, particularly for crop protection products into Australia.

He said China's power supply was majorly disrupted which was mandated by the government, meaning 90 per cent of the power network was shut down, which exacerbated the supply/demand imbalance.

So how do these factors compare as we head into 2023?

Mr Duperouzel said shipping costs have eased and the shipping container that cost up to $US10,000, had dropped to about $US3500.

"Demand still remains high due to early-season shipping but we anticipate that to ease in Q4," he said.

As for COVID, Mr Duperouzel said there was no change from their supply sources.

Shutdowns will continue and, he said, that remained a real risk heading in 2023, particularly in South East Asia.

Mr Duperouzel said power disruptions were no longer an issue however it was at a higher price point than it has ever been.

He said there would be some factors that would affect farming decisions heading into next year.

Solvent pricing is at an all time high, affecting solvent-based products, such as any emulsifiable concentrate herbicide product including Trifluralin.

Mr Duperouzel predicted there would be crop increases in the vicinity of 10pc or more over "what you have paid most currently and this will also depend on what happens with currency as we go forward".

"Supply certainly appears to be easing, meaning suppliers are catching up and are just meeting that demand, so we are close to meeting that equilibrium," he said.

Mr Duperouzel said importing into WA at the Fremantle Port was problematic at times and also of major concern was the conflict between Russia and Ukraine which continued to be uncertain, as well as the brewing conflict between China and Taiwan, which is something still playing out and "something to keep our eye on".

He said there were ongoing issues with labour and the uncertainty of impacts around new policies being implemented by governments and what the impacts would be.

Mr Duperouzel said these factors were a lot to work around but "that is what we all have to do to make agriculture in WA work".

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"From our end at Nutrien, part of our role is to take some of the risk so that you, as farmers, have certainty of supply and certainty of decisions you need to make, for example, we make decisions now for a product that you might need for this time next year," he said.

"In short, you need what you need, you can't afford to wait and we can't afford to let you down.

"All things considered, there are a lot of tailwinds for WA farmers at the moment and with the right management and a bit of luck, this can continue."

Mr Duperouzel said risk would come from biosecurity threats, increasingly complex global supply chains and major global disruptions coupled with local issues such as barriers at Fremantle Port.

He said the key had to be a united front from everyone in the agriculture sector, "so we can all do our bit".