Hursh Consulting & Communications Inc.

According to farm input suppliers, BASF has cut the price of Pursuit herbicide by $350 a jug. If you followed this commentary last week, you’ll know that there was a lot about the inflated price of this widely-used product. The Canadian price has been running at nearly $1,100 for a 3.3 litre container, so a $350 cut is significant. Pursuit is coming into Canada from the U.S. under GROU, the Grower Requested Own Use program. Farmers of North America and Rayglen Commodities have been acting as facilitators. Producers using GROU to access U.S. product are still going to end up with a lower price, but the gap has been significantly narrowed. Farm input suppliers say the prices of other BASF products such as Odyssey are also being cut. This is great news for Canadian producers. GROU has proven to be useful for all Canadian growers, whether or not they actually participate. Another company is quietly working to bring a generic Pursuit to Canadian growers for next year. If that happens, there should be price competition from more than just the GROU program. I’m Kevin Hursh.