By Aaron Burke, Director, Central U.S. Crops — The early bird gets the worm. In the case of specialty crop retailers working with Atticus this year, they also get the fungicides they need, when they need them.

This year, fungicide availability has been a concern across the specialty crop production landscape. The pandemic has impacted our industry in two key ways: slowing manufacturing globally, and movement of product domestically. That is a massive issue for agriculture, where the use of fungicides is critically based on timing. Every day, we hear instances of retailers not getting what they need for timely and effective applications for their growers.

For the most part, Atticus has been able to navigate this challenge and offer retailers and growers an advantage, from navigating the supply chain and our portfolio options. As a smaller organization we’re more nimble, accessible and reliable than many of our competitors.

The Atticus retail distribution model allows our customers to secure product in inventory or a clear line of sight to delivery for timely applications. Atticus started forecasting and demand-planning last fall. We met with customers, looked at their historic product use and annual consumption. We built plans with each customer and connected them with our production plans. Every single customer that planned with Atticus in the fall had a full stock of Atticus fungicides this spring. This defines “demand driven” – a commitment of our go-to-market strategy.

The hard work of our Operations team has enabled the commercial team to generate orders and work directly with customers to put plans into action. Our Operations team is doing an unbelievable job of getting products scheduled and shipped – all while navigating pandemic-generated challenges with suppliers as we manufacture product.

Another Atticus advantage is our broad fungicide portfolio for specialty crops. We have more than 30 different fungicides that can be used in crops ranging from sugar beets and potatoes to turf and ornamentals. With several new products ready to launch and the constant challenge of fungicide resistance, Atticus is well-positioned for the future.

New products include ReCon™ Bold SL, Aquila™ XL, Acadia™ ESQ Fungicide, Vango™ ESQ Fungicide and Esquire™ XT Fungicide. These products are targeted at different geographies, crops and pathogens and reflect the breadth of the Atticus fungicide portfolio. This portfolio diversity ensures our customers are battle-ready for any scenario. No other post-patent company in North America matches what Atticus offers.

We also have several proven chemistries in our pipeline. We evaluate nearly a dozen products a month, looking at the viability, agronomic need, best fit and opportunity for retailers and growers. In addition to new active ingredients, our pipeline has products that expand application windows. Atticus is preparing to move from over-the-top and in-crop fungicides into the at-plant and seed treatment segments.

Our expansive fungicide portfolio and pipeline helps more retailers battle more pests in more crops than any other post patent manufacturer. If your growers need more fungicide options in their specialty crops, Atticus provides a formidable ally for your business.

Aaron Burke is a sales director at Atticus, serving the Central region of the U.S. He has more than 22 years of experience in the industry, working with companies like WinField United, United Suppliers, American Cyanamid and BASF. He has an intimate knowledge of the issues Midwest row crop growers and retailers face and a passion for helping retailers grow their business to win with tomorrow’s grower.

Conversations surrounding recent supply shortages are top of mind for retailers and growers with limited explanation of how we arrived in such a dismal state. The ongoing global supply-chain challenges are complex, affecting the crop protection industry and beyond. While high-volume products like glyphosate, glufosinate, and S-metolachlor command headline news, the current challenge is far broader-reaching with some of the smaller agronomically significant molecules delivering the greatest surprises.  Supply instability and price increases have been attributed to the pandemic, but a series of three progressive events landed us in the challenge we now face. Initial stress fractures were amplified by tariffs and further exacerbated with COVID-19, erupting supply fragility to its limits.

Initial Stress Fractures

Beginning as early as 2017, global manufacturing sources were already experiencing serious negative influences. Both China and India were adjusting to newly imposed environmental regulations, resulting in plant shutdowns and raw material shortages. Effects are still felt today. Basic chemical intermediates such as Pentanediol, Bromine, MEA (2-Ethyl-6-Methyaniline), and several others continue to be in tight supply, affecting not just one molecule but multiple, causing a ripple effect of delays as manufacturers attempt to produce active ingredients.

Tragedy that struck both China and India plants intensified with government-imposed environmental and safety inspections, which resulted in complete shutdowns of plants with phased re-openings. These forced shutdowns were further compounded as factories closed and consolidated, decreasing the number of factories by nearly half between 2017 and 2018.

Several factors resulted in price increases:

1. Disruption in intermediates
2. Shutdown of active ingredient manufacturers
3. Adoption of new environmental standards
4. The closures and consolidation of manufacturers

These all resulted in significant unpredictability in the supply chain, while also triggering basic supply and demand principals that resulted in price increases.

“Regardless of the challenge, the team at Atticus committed to Reliability as a core value proposition, and much like the farm community’s commitment to deliver our food supply, we must consistently supply critical crop inputs,” said Shannon Russell, EVP, Business & Product Development. “Atticus has built a broad global and US domestic sourcing network complemented by a robust regulatory strategy at both the technical active ingredient and end-use product level, which affords extreme flexibility while remaining within the EPA’s FIFRA compliance. Such diversification puts Atticus in the best position to mitigate supply availability, cost, tariff and pandemic challenges, while simultaneously ensuring consistent product integrity.”

Working Through Tariffs

In September of 2018, agribusiness felt the shock waves of several rounds of tariffs on goods produced by China. The burden of trade actions was amplified as the tariffs came when global manufacturing shortages were at an all-time high.

Outcomes of the resulting trade imbalance include container shortages and port congestion in China, India and the US. Additionally, US domestic logistics companies were stressed as the industry was still adjusting to the updated rules surrounding hours of service and the aging out of the driver workforce.

To mitigate tariffs, EPA registrants were forced to register alternative active ingredient manufacturing sources. For these EPA registrants, the registration process was already a lengthy and expensive endeavor that was strained by the EPA’s overwhelming workload relative to staffing that was toppled further with government shutdowns.

Tariffs impacted “Opportunistic EPA Registrants” the hardest since they most significantly struck against those importing turnkey formulated, packaged and labeled finished goods. This started a shift of formulation production from China back to the US, causing strains on US domestic contract manufacturers, especially with formulations with water dispersible granules (WDGs) and suspension concentrates (SCs).

The pandemic brings labor shortages, shutdowns

While tariffs impacted costs, the pandemic brought its own set of unpredictable dynamics that spanned the entire supply chain, including active ingredient manufacturers, formulation and packaging manufacturers, as well as logistical infrastructure from ocean cargo to US domestic freight to warehouses.  With waves of infection come labor shortages, shutdowns, and transportation constraints, presenting challenges of ensuring product availability to growers during the growing season. Human capital is one of the most significant supply chain challenges of the pandemic, felt at all levels.

“We have definitely seen the uptick of inquiries for new business. But we have to tread lightly, because along with COVID, we are also experiencing the labor shortage,” says a plant manager at one of Atticus’ contract tolling facilities. “We typically rely on hiring seasonal workers to assist with fulfilling orders during our busier season. This past year we weren’t seeing that activity of seasonal workers coming in that we have been accustomed to seeing. The last thing we would want to do is over-commit ourselves and not come through for our customers.”

In addition to labor shortages, shortages of trucks, drivers, shipping containers, and delays in off-loading cargo ships interfered with US domestic manufacturing. Amid these shortages, the Texas severe winter storm of February 2021 dealt another blow to the supply chain’s continuing unpredictability. The tolling plant manager explains, “If there’s one glitch… If that truck delivering materials shows up one or two days later than it was scheduled to, then that sets everything back one or two days. Not just from an Atticus campaign perspective, but also the production campaign that is going to follow and the other customers after that. It becomes a chain reaction, and it is very hard to make up that line time once it is lost due to a glitch in the supply chain or because of a labor shortage.”

Pandemic-related challenges put pressure on manufacturing systems that operate with tight supply schedules. “Everything we’ve ever experienced in this business is ‘Just-in-Time,’ whether it has been inventory or delivery. Our facility has become very good at being flexible with scheduling over the years and will continue to do so whenever possible. But until these shortages are addressed, everyone, including us on the tolling side of the business, will need to be thinking outside the box and become even more efficient in what we are trying to accomplish,” says the plant manager.

“As we faced each of these three sequential events,” Mike King, Atticus EVP, Operations, explains, “we deliberately fell back on our cultural framework with our commitment to reliability on the forefront and operational excellence as our foundational backbone. Through human resources structure and staffing, systems and processes, and communication and coordination, we turn these obstacles into a more agile, adaptable and aligned supply chain team.”

So ‘When will we go back to normal?’

Searching for a silver bullet proves to be an unproductive exercise founded on false hope. With supply unpredictability reaching back to 2017, tariffs, a worldwide pandemic, and the resulting labor shortage, a simple answer just doesn’t exist. In crop protection and other industries, the issues are far-reaching, creating a delicate state of supply with a long tail of recovery.

“The escalating events leading to the current supply situation aren’t always communicated,” says King. “It’s a misconception that these challenges will resolve as efforts to manage COVID improve. Although the state of supply isn’t simple by any means, our commitment to strengthening every aspect of our supply chain coupled with our relentless pursuit of results allows us to deliver as dynamics become increasingly complex. We put our experience to work so our customers can focus on growing their businesses.”

Looking forward, we should all brace for more of the same in Market Year 2022. But there are ways we as an industry can create more predictability in the coming crop season.

Atticus would like to extend a call to action for the industry to unite as growers, retailers and suppliers to define a new normal to work through these challenging supply dynamics. When growers and retailers actively engage, plan and act decisively as they prepare for the next crop season, suppliers can better manage supply and production to meet the agronomic needs of growers.

“It’s more important than ever to commit to demand planning with a reliable supplier instead of making opportunistic product decisions based on pricing. While at the same time, suppliers should be held accountable and avoid exploiting an already emotional situation with premium pricing,” said King.

“As the world charts a course toward recovery, there is not a more significant time to reach deep within the industry where we have all found an emotional connection to collectively build a more efficient, resilient and responsive era of supply chain and crop protection leadership,” said Randy Canady, Atticus Founder & CEO. “We will not let this new era of supply chain challenges define us as an industry. At Atticus, we are battle-hardened and ready for combat … Market Year 2022 … Bring It!”

As more retailers and growers seek new alternatives for quality products at a fair price, Atticus is meeting those needs with its portfolio of branded-generic products relevant to each crop type.

When we bring new generic products to market, we are offering proven products and technologies you already know, and we support you with reliable, consistent service.

Watch now as Sam Knott, Business Unit Lead, East, shares why you can go big on branded-generics and receive the same high-quality herbicides, insecticides and fungicides at an exceptional per-acre value.

CARY, N.C. (February 15, 2021) — As the weather starts to warm, insect numbers – and calls from customers – rise. By partnering now with Atticus, LLC, retailers can help specialty crop growers manage what Mother Nature throws at them this season with integrated pest management advice and relevant crop protection solutions.

“Pay attention to the degree days, weather, and what’s going on out in the field,” said Tanner Lowrey, Atticus area business manager based in Fresno, California. “In my experience as a PCA, any time is relevant to discuss when insects are a problem. But as soon as those degree days start climbing and you start getting 80-plus days, you’ll see more aphids, mealybugs and more.”

The best way to help customers evade economic losses from insect pressure is to be sure they adopt an integrated pest management (IPM) plan. Lowrey recommends that retailers go beyond just setting up a spraying schedule and take an all-encompassing approach to combat insect pressures.

According to the University of California Integrated Pest Management Program, six major components should be included in any successful IPM program:

1. Identifying pests
2. Monitoring pest numbers and assessing damage
3. Consulting guidelines to take management action
4. Preventing pest problems
5. Using a combination of biological, cultural, physical/mechanical and chemical management tools
6. Assessing the effects of pest management after the fact

University of California IPM specialists also advise pesticides be used only when needed and in combination with other practices for the most effective, lasting control. That means choosing the best selective product for the pests present and assuring products are safe for other organisms and air, soil and water quality.

“Retailers should consider, in planning out a grower’s insecticide use strategy, the prior chemistries that have been applied. You don’t want to use consecutive chemistries year after year on things like scale and some of the ant baits that build up resistance over time,” said Lowrey. “If it’s been used in the past, it’s not going to be as effective year two or year three. You’re just going to see less and less efficacy going forward.”

Atticus offers a wide range of chemistries in its insecticide portfolio to assist retailers and their customers in managing insects and resistance at the same time during the 2021 growing season, such as multiple pyriproxyfen offerings and methoxyfenozide, bifenazate, hexythiazox and etoxazole products.

Atticus insecticides are a critical part of an IPM program that includes flexible application options and optimal mixability. “Atticus keeps on top of what the relevant post-patent chemistries are, providing them to our customers at a reasonable cost and working with retailers to rotate out chemistries they’ve used in prior years,” added Lowrey.

“We can be an ideal partner for retailers – we have multiple solutions for the issues they’re facing in a wide range of crops at any given time and at the right value.”

Reach out to an Atticus representative today to discover how a custom crop protection plan can benefit your customers’ operations.

Conversations surrounding recent supply shortages are top of mind for retailers and growers with limited explanation of how we arrived in such a dismal state. The ongoing global supply-chain challenges are complex, affecting the crop protection industry and beyond. While high-volume products like glyphosate, glufosinate, and S-metolachlor command headline news, the current challenge is far broader-reaching with some of the smaller agronomically significant molecules delivering the greatest surprises.  Supply instability and price increases have been attributed to the pandemic, but a series of three progressive events landed us in the challenge we now face. Initial stress fractures were amplified by tariffs and further exacerbated with COVID-19, erupting supply fragility to its limits.

Initial Stress Fractures

Beginning as early as 2017, global manufacturing sources were already experiencing serious negative influences. Both China and India were adjusting to newly imposed environmental regulations, resulting in plant shutdowns and raw material shortages. Effects are still felt today. Basic chemical intermediates such as Pentanediol, Bromine, MEA (2-Ethyl-6-Methyaniline), and several others continue to be in tight supply, affecting not just one molecule but multiple, causing a ripple effect of delays as manufacturers attempt to produce active ingredients.

Tragedy that struck both China and India plants intensified with government-imposed environmental and safety inspections, which resulted in complete shutdowns of plants with phased re-openings. These forced shutdowns were further compounded as factories closed and consolidated, decreasing the number of factories by nearly half between 2017 and 2018.

Several factors resulted in price increases:

1. Disruption in intermediates
2. Shutdown of active ingredient manufacturers
3. Adoption of new environmental standards
4. The closures and consolidation of manufacturers

These all resulted in significant unpredictability in the supply chain, while also triggering basic supply and demand principals that resulted in price increases.

“Regardless of the challenge, the team at Atticus committed to Reliability as a core value proposition, and much like the farm community’s commitment to deliver our food supply, we must consistently supply critical crop inputs,” said Shannon Russell, EVP, Business & Product Development. “Atticus has built a broad global and US domestic sourcing network complemented by a robust regulatory strategy at both the technical active ingredient and end-use product level, which affords extreme flexibility while remaining within the EPA’s FIFRA compliance. Such diversification puts Atticus in the best position to mitigate supply availability, cost, tariff and pandemic challenges, while simultaneously ensuring consistent product integrity.”

Working Through Tariffs

In September of 2018, agribusiness felt the shock waves of several rounds of tariffs on goods produced by China. The burden of trade actions was amplified as the tariffs came when global manufacturing shortages were at an all-time high.

Outcomes of the resulting trade imbalance include container shortages and port congestion in China, India and the US. Additionally, US domestic logistics companies were stressed as the industry was still adjusting to the updated rules surrounding hours of service and the aging out of the driver workforce.

To mitigate tariffs, EPA registrants were forced to register alternative active ingredient manufacturing sources. For these EPA registrants, the registration process was already a lengthy and expensive endeavor that was strained by the EPA’s overwhelming workload relative to staffing that was toppled further with government shutdowns.

Tariffs impacted “Opportunistic EPA Registrants” the hardest since they most significantly struck against those importing turnkey formulated, packaged and labeled finished goods. This started a shift of formulation production from China back to the US, causing strains on US domestic contract manufacturers, especially with formulations with water dispersible granules (WDGs) and suspension concentrates (SCs).

The pandemic brings labor shortages, shutdowns

While tariffs impacted costs, the pandemic brought its own set of unpredictable dynamics that spanned the entire supply chain, including active ingredient manufacturers, formulation and packaging manufacturers, as well as logistical infrastructure from ocean cargo to US domestic freight to warehouses.  With waves of infection come labor shortages, shutdowns, and transportation constraints, presenting challenges of ensuring product availability to growers during the growing season. Human capital is one of the most significant supply chain challenges of the pandemic, felt at all levels.

“We have definitely seen the uptick of inquiries for new business. But we have to tread lightly, because along with COVID, we are also experiencing the labor shortage,” says a plant manager at one of Atticus’ contract tolling facilities. “We typically rely on hiring seasonal workers to assist with fulfilling orders during our busier season. This past year we weren’t seeing that activity of seasonal workers coming in that we have been accustomed to seeing. The last thing we would want to do is over-commit ourselves and not come through for our customers.”

In addition to labor shortages, shortages of trucks, drivers, shipping containers, and delays in off-loading cargo ships interfered with US domestic manufacturing. Amid these shortages, the Texas severe winter storm of February 2021 dealt another blow to the supply chain’s continuing unpredictability. The tolling plant manager explains, “If there’s one glitch… If that truck delivering materials shows up one or two days later than it was scheduled to, then that sets everything back one or two days. Not just from an Atticus campaign perspective, but also the production campaign that is going to follow and the other customers after that. It becomes a chain reaction, and it is very hard to make up that line time once it is lost due to a glitch in the supply chain or because of a labor shortage.”

Pandemic-related challenges put pressure on manufacturing systems that operate with tight supply schedules. “Everything we’ve ever experienced in this business is ‘Just-in-Time,’ whether it has been inventory or delivery. Our facility has become very good at being flexible with scheduling over the years and will continue to do so whenever possible. But until these shortages are addressed, everyone, including us on the tolling side of the business, will need to be thinking outside the box and become even more efficient in what we are trying to accomplish,” says the plant manager.

“As we faced each of these three sequential events,” Mike King, Atticus EVP, Operations, explains, “we deliberately fell back on our cultural framework with our commitment to reliability on the forefront and operational excellence as our foundational backbone. Through human resources structure and staffing, systems and processes, and communication and coordination, we turn these obstacles into a more agile, adaptable and aligned supply chain team.”

So ‘When will we go back to normal?’

Searching for a silver bullet proves to be an unproductive exercise founded on false hope. With supply unpredictability reaching back to 2017, tariffs, a worldwide pandemic, and the resulting labor shortage, a simple answer just doesn’t exist. In crop protection and other industries, the issues are far-reaching, creating a delicate state of supply with a long tail of recovery.

“The escalating events leading to the current supply situation aren’t always communicated,” says King. “It’s a misconception that these challenges will resolve as efforts to manage COVID improve. Although the state of supply isn’t simple by any means, our commitment to strengthening every aspect of our supply chain coupled with our relentless pursuit of results allows us to deliver as dynamics become increasingly complex. We put our experience to work so our customers can focus on growing their businesses.”

Looking forward, we should all brace for more of the same in Market Year 2022. But there are ways we as an industry can create more predictability in the coming crop season.

Atticus would like to extend a call to action for the industry to unite as growers, retailers and suppliers to define a new normal to work through these challenging supply dynamics. When growers and retailers actively engage, plan and act decisively as they prepare for the next crop season, suppliers can better manage supply and production to meet the agronomic needs of growers.

“It’s more important than ever to commit to demand planning with a reliable supplier instead of making opportunistic product decisions based on pricing. While at the same time, suppliers should be held accountable and avoid exploiting an already emotional situation with premium pricing,” said King.

“As the world charts a course toward recovery, there is not a more significant time to reach deep within the industry where we have all found an emotional connection to collectively build a more efficient, resilient and responsive era of supply chain and crop protection leadership,” said Randy Canady, Atticus Founder & CEO. “We will not let this new era of supply chain challenges define us as an industry. At Atticus, we are battle-hardened and ready for combat … Market Year 2022 … Bring It!”

CARY, N.C. (February 15, 2021) — As wheat and other cereal growers look for solutions to decrease lodging, many turn to plant growth regulators (PGRs) to ensure strong stalks and an easier harvest. However, growers are often deterred from using beneficial PGRs due to their high cost. Atticus, LLC is cautioning growers against employing risky growing practices to avoid using PGRs, and offers alternatives without the heavy price tag of branded products currently on the market.

Even though the chemistry of PGRs has been proven effective and they are a viable agronomic solution, many growers have found using PGRs to be cost prohibitive, and have moved away from recommended growing practices by putting off nitrogen applications as a way to avoid using PGRs.

Atticus, a demand-driven manufacturer of relevant branded-generic crop protection products, is dedicated to providing high-quality plant growth regulators to help improve stem thickness and diameter, leading to higher yield. Pinzola^™ EC uses the active ingredient trinexapac-ethyl to shorten nodes of cereal plants through inhibition of cell elongation, which decreases lodging and increases plant stability.

According to the Michigan State University Extension, in a wheat crop, nitrogen is most effective when applied shortly after spring green-up to maximize its impact on increasing yield. Depending on soil type and geography, timing is key for nitrogen application, whether it’s a split application or applied in the spring. There are several things to keep in mind:

• If applied too early, the risk for loss during spring rains is increased
• If applied too late, growers risk not getting the full value of nitrogen, because the benefits of tapping into early spring growth and wheat head formation are lost; plus, yield can be negatively impacted when wheat crops are lacking nitrogen later in the growing cycle

Plant growth regulators, in combination with nitrogen, are important to help control plant height and increase stem thickness, which helps:

• Reduce the risk of lodging. Less risk makes managing and harvesting a tall winter wheat crop easier
• Reduce potential harvest losses that are a result of lodging

CARY, N.C. —As populations of spider mites, brown almond and other tetranychid mites begin to expand throughout the summer, threatening the success of a bountiful crop, it is important to find affordable solutions to manage the issue. Applying a miticide as part of an integrated pest management plan helps reduce the chance of resistance development, and allows growers to gain control of mites with fewer applications.

As specialty crop growers evaluate their crops for pests this summer, Atticus, branded-generic crop protection manufacturer, announces a portfolio of miticides available to treat almonds, grapes, walnuts, cotton and stone fruit.

Groves and orchards with water stress and ongoing warm temperatures are at risk for an issue with mites. As thresholds are reached — when 15% of leaves sampled have a mite present — it’s time to treat with an effective solution that offers both strong knockdown and residual control, while also minimizing the impact on beneficial mites and insects. Atticus has a full suite of proven miticides with the active ingredients you’re familiar with, at the right value.

Work with your pest control advisor to develop a pest management plan ideal for your operation.

Conversations surrounding recent supply shortages are top of mind for retailers and growers with limited explanation of how we arrived in such a dismal state. The ongoing global supply-chain challenges are complex, affecting the crop protection industry and beyond. While high-volume products like glyphosate, glufosinate, and S-metolachlor command headline news, the current challenge is far broader-reaching with some of the smaller agronomically significant molecules delivering the greatest surprises.  Supply instability and price increases have been attributed to the pandemic, but a series of three progressive events landed us in the challenge we now face. Initial stress fractures were amplified by tariffs and further exacerbated with COVID-19, erupting supply fragility to its limits.

Initial Stress Fractures

Beginning as early as 2017, global manufacturing sources were already experiencing serious negative influences. Both China and India were adjusting to newly imposed environmental regulations, resulting in plant shutdowns and raw material shortages. Effects are still felt today. Basic chemical intermediates such as Pentanediol, Bromine, MEA (2-Ethyl-6-Methyaniline), and several others continue to be in tight supply, affecting not just one molecule but multiple, causing a ripple effect of delays as manufacturers attempt to produce active ingredients.

Tragedy that struck both China and India plants intensified with government-imposed environmental and safety inspections, which resulted in complete shutdowns of plants with phased re-openings. These forced shutdowns were further compounded as factories closed and consolidated, decreasing the number of factories by nearly half between 2017 and 2018.

Several factors resulted in price increases:

1. Disruption in intermediates
2. Shutdown of active ingredient manufacturers
3. Adoption of new environmental standards
4. The closures and consolidation of manufacturers

These all resulted in significant unpredictability in the supply chain, while also triggering basic supply and demand principals that resulted in price increases.

“Regardless of the challenge, the team at Atticus committed to Reliability as a core value proposition, and much like the farm community’s commitment to deliver our food supply, we must consistently supply critical crop inputs,” said Shannon Russell, EVP, Business & Product Development. “Atticus has built a broad global and US domestic sourcing network complemented by a robust regulatory strategy at both the technical active ingredient and end-use product level, which affords extreme flexibility while remaining within the EPA’s FIFRA compliance. Such diversification puts Atticus in the best position to mitigate supply availability, cost, tariff and pandemic challenges, while simultaneously ensuring consistent product integrity.”

Working Through Tariffs

In September of 2018, agribusiness felt the shock waves of several rounds of tariffs on goods produced by China. The burden of trade actions was amplified as the tariffs came when global manufacturing shortages were at an all-time high.

Outcomes of the resulting trade imbalance include container shortages and port congestion in China, India and the US. Additionally, US domestic logistics companies were stressed as the industry was still adjusting to the updated rules surrounding hours of service and the aging out of the driver workforce.

To mitigate tariffs, EPA registrants were forced to register alternative active ingredient manufacturing sources. For these EPA registrants, the registration process was already a lengthy and expensive endeavor that was strained by the EPA’s overwhelming workload relative to staffing that was toppled further with government shutdowns.

Tariffs impacted “Opportunistic EPA Registrants” the hardest since they most significantly struck against those importing turnkey formulated, packaged and labeled finished goods. This started a shift of formulation production from China back to the US, causing strains on US domestic contract manufacturers, especially with formulations with water dispersible granules (WDGs) and suspension concentrates (SCs).

The pandemic brings labor shortages, shutdowns

While tariffs impacted costs, the pandemic brought its own set of unpredictable dynamics that spanned the entire supply chain, including active ingredient manufacturers, formulation and packaging manufacturers, as well as logistical infrastructure from ocean cargo to US domestic freight to warehouses.  With waves of infection come labor shortages, shutdowns, and transportation constraints, presenting challenges of ensuring product availability to growers during the growing season. Human capital is one of the most significant supply chain challenges of the pandemic, felt at all levels.

“We have definitely seen the uptick of inquiries for new business. But we have to tread lightly, because along with COVID, we are also experiencing the labor shortage,” says a plant manager at one of Atticus’ contract tolling facilities. “We typically rely on hiring seasonal workers to assist with fulfilling orders during our busier season. This past year we weren’t seeing that activity of seasonal workers coming in that we have been accustomed to seeing. The last thing we would want to do is over-commit ourselves and not come through for our customers.”

In addition to labor shortages, shortages of trucks, drivers, shipping containers, and delays in off-loading cargo ships interfered with US domestic manufacturing. Amid these shortages, the Texas severe winter storm of February 2021 dealt another blow to the supply chain’s continuing unpredictability. The tolling plant manager explains, “If there’s one glitch… If that truck delivering materials shows up one or two days later than it was scheduled to, then that sets everything back one or two days. Not just from an Atticus campaign perspective, but also the production campaign that is going to follow and the other customers after that. It becomes a chain reaction, and it is very hard to make up that line time once it is lost due to a glitch in the supply chain or because of a labor shortage.”

Pandemic-related challenges put pressure on manufacturing systems that operate with tight supply schedules. “Everything we’ve ever experienced in this business is ‘Just-in-Time,’ whether it has been inventory or delivery. Our facility has become very good at being flexible with scheduling over the years and will continue to do so whenever possible. But until these shortages are addressed, everyone, including us on the tolling side of the business, will need to be thinking outside the box and become even more efficient in what we are trying to accomplish,” says the plant manager.

“As we faced each of these three sequential events,” Mike King, Atticus EVP, Operations, explains, “we deliberately fell back on our cultural framework with our commitment to reliability on the forefront and operational excellence as our foundational backbone. Through human resources structure and staffing, systems and processes, and communication and coordination, we turn these obstacles into a more agile, adaptable and aligned supply chain team.”

So ‘When will we go back to normal?’

Searching for a silver bullet proves to be an unproductive exercise founded on false hope. With supply unpredictability reaching back to 2017, tariffs, a worldwide pandemic, and the resulting labor shortage, a simple answer just doesn’t exist. In crop protection and other industries, the issues are far-reaching, creating a delicate state of supply with a long tail of recovery.

“The escalating events leading to the current supply situation aren’t always communicated,” says King. “It’s a misconception that these challenges will resolve as efforts to manage COVID improve. Although the state of supply isn’t simple by any means, our commitment to strengthening every aspect of our supply chain coupled with our relentless pursuit of results allows us to deliver as dynamics become increasingly complex. We put our experience to work so our customers can focus on growing their businesses.”

Looking forward, we should all brace for more of the same in Market Year 2022. But there are ways we as an industry can create more predictability in the coming crop season.

Atticus would like to extend a call to action for the industry to unite as growers, retailers and suppliers to define a new normal to work through these challenging supply dynamics. When growers and retailers actively engage, plan and act decisively as they prepare for the next crop season, suppliers can better manage supply and production to meet the agronomic needs of growers.

“It’s more important than ever to commit to demand planning with a reliable supplier instead of making opportunistic product decisions based on pricing. While at the same time, suppliers should be held accountable and avoid exploiting an already emotional situation with premium pricing,” said King.

“As the world charts a course toward recovery, there is not a more significant time to reach deep within the industry where we have all found an emotional connection to collectively build a more efficient, resilient and responsive era of supply chain and crop protection leadership,” said Randy Canady, Atticus Founder & CEO. “We will not let this new era of supply chain challenges define us as an industry. At Atticus, we are battle-hardened and ready for combat … Market Year 2022 … Bring It!”

CARY, N.C. (February 15, 2021) — As wheat and other cereal growers look for solutions to decrease lodging, many turn to plant growth regulators (PGRs) to ensure strong stalks and an easier harvest. However, growers are often deterred from using beneficial PGRs due to their high cost. Atticus, LLC is cautioning growers against employing risky growing practices to avoid using PGRs, and offers alternatives without the heavy price tag of branded products currently on the market.

Even though the chemistry of PGRs has been proven effective and they are a viable agronomic solution, many growers have found using PGRs to be cost prohibitive, and have moved away from recommended growing practices by putting off nitrogen applications as a way to avoid using PGRs.

Atticus, a demand-driven manufacturer of relevant branded-generic crop protection products, is dedicated to providing high-quality plant growth regulators to help improve stem thickness and diameter, leading to higher yield. Pinzola^™ EC uses the active ingredient trinexapac-ethyl to shorten nodes of cereal plants through inhibition of cell elongation, which decreases lodging and increases plant stability.

According to the Michigan State University Extension, in a wheat crop, nitrogen is most effective when applied shortly after spring green-up to maximize its impact on increasing yield. Depending on soil type and geography, timing is key for nitrogen application, whether it’s a split application or applied in the spring. There are several things to keep in mind:

• If applied too early, the risk for loss during spring rains is increased
• If applied too late, growers risk not getting the full value of nitrogen, because the benefits of tapping into early spring growth and wheat head formation are lost; plus, yield can be negatively impacted when wheat crops are lacking nitrogen later in the growing cycle

Plant growth regulators, in combination with nitrogen, are important to help control plant height and increase stem thickness, which helps:

• Reduce the risk of lodging. Less risk makes managing and harvesting a tall winter wheat crop easier
• Reduce potential harvest losses that are a result of lodging

Conversations surrounding recent supply shortages are top of mind for retailers and growers with limited explanation of how we arrived in such a dismal state. The ongoing global supply-chain challenges are complex, affecting the crop protection industry and beyond. While high-volume products like glyphosate, glufosinate, and S-metolachlor command headline news, the current challenge is far broader-reaching with some of the smaller agronomically significant molecules delivering the greatest surprises.  Supply instability and price increases have been attributed to the pandemic, but a series of three progressive events landed us in the challenge we now face. Initial stress fractures were amplified by tariffs and further exacerbated with COVID-19, erupting supply fragility to its limits.

Initial Stress Fractures

Beginning as early as 2017, global manufacturing sources were already experiencing serious negative influences. Both China and India were adjusting to newly imposed environmental regulations, resulting in plant shutdowns and raw material shortages. Effects are still felt today. Basic chemical intermediates such as Pentanediol, Bromine, MEA (2-Ethyl-6-Methyaniline), and several others continue to be in tight supply, affecting not just one molecule but multiple, causing a ripple effect of delays as manufacturers attempt to produce active ingredients.

Tragedy that struck both China and India plants intensified with government-imposed environmental and safety inspections, which resulted in complete shutdowns of plants with phased re-openings. These forced shutdowns were further compounded as factories closed and consolidated, decreasing the number of factories by nearly half between 2017 and 2018.

Several factors resulted in price increases:

1. Disruption in intermediates
2. Shutdown of active ingredient manufacturers
3. Adoption of new environmental standards
4. The closures and consolidation of manufacturers

These all resulted in significant unpredictability in the supply chain, while also triggering basic supply and demand principals that resulted in price increases.

“Regardless of the challenge, the team at Atticus committed to Reliability as a core value proposition, and much like the farm community’s commitment to deliver our food supply, we must consistently supply critical crop inputs,” said Shannon Russell, EVP, Business & Product Development. “Atticus has built a broad global and US domestic sourcing network complemented by a robust regulatory strategy at both the technical active ingredient and end-use product level, which affords extreme flexibility while remaining within the EPA’s FIFRA compliance. Such diversification puts Atticus in the best position to mitigate supply availability, cost, tariff and pandemic challenges, while simultaneously ensuring consistent product integrity.”

Working Through Tariffs

In September of 2018, agribusiness felt the shock waves of several rounds of tariffs on goods produced by China. The burden of trade actions was amplified as the tariffs came when global manufacturing shortages were at an all-time high.

Outcomes of the resulting trade imbalance include container shortages and port congestion in China, India and the US. Additionally, US domestic logistics companies were stressed as the industry was still adjusting to the updated rules surrounding hours of service and the aging out of the driver workforce.

To mitigate tariffs, EPA registrants were forced to register alternative active ingredient manufacturing sources. For these EPA registrants, the registration process was already a lengthy and expensive endeavor that was strained by the EPA’s overwhelming workload relative to staffing that was toppled further with government shutdowns.

Tariffs impacted “Opportunistic EPA Registrants” the hardest since they most significantly struck against those importing turnkey formulated, packaged and labeled finished goods. This started a shift of formulation production from China back to the US, causing strains on US domestic contract manufacturers, especially with formulations with water dispersible granules (WDGs) and suspension concentrates (SCs).

The pandemic brings labor shortages, shutdowns

While tariffs impacted costs, the pandemic brought its own set of unpredictable dynamics that spanned the entire supply chain, including active ingredient manufacturers, formulation and packaging manufacturers, as well as logistical infrastructure from ocean cargo to US domestic freight to warehouses.  With waves of infection come labor shortages, shutdowns, and transportation constraints, presenting challenges of ensuring product availability to growers during the growing season. Human capital is one of the most significant supply chain challenges of the pandemic, felt at all levels.

“We have definitely seen the uptick of inquiries for new business. But we have to tread lightly, because along with COVID, we are also experiencing the labor shortage,” says a plant manager at one of Atticus’ contract tolling facilities. “We typically rely on hiring seasonal workers to assist with fulfilling orders during our busier season. This past year we weren’t seeing that activity of seasonal workers coming in that we have been accustomed to seeing. The last thing we would want to do is over-commit ourselves and not come through for our customers.”

In addition to labor shortages, shortages of trucks, drivers, shipping containers, and delays in off-loading cargo ships interfered with US domestic manufacturing. Amid these shortages, the Texas severe winter storm of February 2021 dealt another blow to the supply chain’s continuing unpredictability. The tolling plant manager explains, “If there’s one glitch… If that truck delivering materials shows up one or two days later than it was scheduled to, then that sets everything back one or two days. Not just from an Atticus campaign perspective, but also the production campaign that is going to follow and the other customers after that. It becomes a chain reaction, and it is very hard to make up that line time once it is lost due to a glitch in the supply chain or because of a labor shortage.”

Pandemic-related challenges put pressure on manufacturing systems that operate with tight supply schedules. “Everything we’ve ever experienced in this business is ‘Just-in-Time,’ whether it has been inventory or delivery. Our facility has become very good at being flexible with scheduling over the years and will continue to do so whenever possible. But until these shortages are addressed, everyone, including us on the tolling side of the business, will need to be thinking outside the box and become even more efficient in what we are trying to accomplish,” says the plant manager.

“As we faced each of these three sequential events,” Mike King, Atticus EVP, Operations, explains, “we deliberately fell back on our cultural framework with our commitment to reliability on the forefront and operational excellence as our foundational backbone. Through human resources structure and staffing, systems and processes, and communication and coordination, we turn these obstacles into a more agile, adaptable and aligned supply chain team.”

So ‘When will we go back to normal?’

Searching for a silver bullet proves to be an unproductive exercise founded on false hope. With supply unpredictability reaching back to 2017, tariffs, a worldwide pandemic, and the resulting labor shortage, a simple answer just doesn’t exist. In crop protection and other industries, the issues are far-reaching, creating a delicate state of supply with a long tail of recovery.

“The escalating events leading to the current supply situation aren’t always communicated,” says King. “It’s a misconception that these challenges will resolve as efforts to manage COVID improve. Although the state of supply isn’t simple by any means, our commitment to strengthening every aspect of our supply chain coupled with our relentless pursuit of results allows us to deliver as dynamics become increasingly complex. We put our experience to work so our customers can focus on growing their businesses.”

Looking forward, we should all brace for more of the same in Market Year 2022. But there are ways we as an industry can create more predictability in the coming crop season.

Atticus would like to extend a call to action for the industry to unite as growers, retailers and suppliers to define a new normal to work through these challenging supply dynamics. When growers and retailers actively engage, plan and act decisively as they prepare for the next crop season, suppliers can better manage supply and production to meet the agronomic needs of growers.

“It’s more important than ever to commit to demand planning with a reliable supplier instead of making opportunistic product decisions based on pricing. While at the same time, suppliers should be held accountable and avoid exploiting an already emotional situation with premium pricing,” said King.

“As the world charts a course toward recovery, there is not a more significant time to reach deep within the industry where we have all found an emotional connection to collectively build a more efficient, resilient and responsive era of supply chain and crop protection leadership,” said Randy Canady, Atticus Founder & CEO. “We will not let this new era of supply chain challenges define us as an industry. At Atticus, we are battle-hardened and ready for combat … Market Year 2022 … Bring It!”