Formerly NE North Dakota, now NW MN | I've seen a few posts about prepaying fertilizer and it reminded me of an issue that was called to my attention this spring.
In North Dakota, there's no recourse or protection for a farmer that prepays fertilizer or chemical and then watches their coop or retailer go bankrupt. Your only option would be to go to bankruptcy court and stand in line with all the other creditors, which may or may not get you the physical product but almost certainly won't make you whole on the deal.
What do other states do in this regard? Any states have some kind of an ag-retailer insolvency fund, similar to our grain warehouse insolvency fund in ND? As fertilizer gets more and more expensive, this will become a bigger and bigger issue. I'd hate to see the day when we'd all have to take physical delivery whenever we buy fertilizer to make sure we're 100% protected. |
Fert. Prepay Protection
