For Immediate Release

Farmers of North America reinforced its previous claim of excess profits in the herbicide industry, pointing to a new product entering the market this spraying season.

Claiming that within a 30 day period manufacturers managed to shave $60 million off their prices for a single product type, FNA declared that farmers need manufacturers to provide genuinely competitive prices now more than ever.

"Many farmers have had a crisis year," according to FNA Analyst Darren Palendat, "For those who were able to spray these savings may make the difference between breaking even or going more heavily into debt."
Palendat said that competitive input prices will be critical to farmers next season as they work to recover from the flooding disasters this year.

To bolster its case on excess pricing, FNA announced that at the conclusion of its first selling season for the new generic herbicide, Aurora, it has documented what FNA is calling "the Aurora Effect," taking credit for major price declines on competing grassy weed control products.

"Working with our suppliers to get this product registered in Canada has proven that competition can have a dramatic impact favouring farmers," according to Palendat.

Aurora is a GROUP 1 grassy weed herbicide for wheat that is a direct substitute for Horizon, Achieve, Everest and Puma.

According to a chart included with its media release, the prices for these products went from as high as $785/case to lows of $250 -$500/case.

Palendat estimates the savings to farmers this season to be in the range of $60 million.

"This shift in prices occurred over a 30 day period," said Palendat, "and while others can put forward all kinds of other explanations, a reasonable person can see the launch of Aurora was not coincidental."

Palendat said the rapid price response to Aurora can be compared to the market reaction when FNA brought Albaugh into the market with ClearOut.

"General price reductions did not occur in the first two years," Palendat continues, "but once 20% of the market was buying ClearOut, the reaction was sharp. Over $150 million was kept in farmer pockets because of that FNA initiative."

With Aurora, it looks like the mainstream players have decided not to wait.

"The big players lost a pile of money by holding off on price adjustments for ClearOut and they do not want to see that happen to them again with Aurora. So they'll bite the bullet, reduce prices now in an effort to maintain market share going forward."

FNA claims that its Members are achieving even higher returns than the average market savings due to direct cash payments made to FNA members as part of its MPower farm returns program. MPower pays cash to Members achieved from best price negotiations, volume discounts, logistics efficiencies and other management and administrative savings.

Palendat also noted that the role of FNA members is crucial.

"None of these achievements is possible without our Members. The reality is that they are historic achievements. When farmers are organized into a business alliance they really can change markets and improve their own bottom lines."

The important piece of information here, the story, is that once again FNA has proven that there are massive excess margins in the inputs market and that the only way to squeeze some of that excess out in favour of farmers is to be organized into operational business alliances like FNA.

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Farmers of North America is a farmer-member based business with the single mission of "Improving Farm Profitability." www.fna.ca
For more information contact:
Darren Palendat 306.665.4548 866.362.3276

FARMERS OF NORTH AMERICA
318 — 111 Research Drive • Saskatoon, Saskatchewan • S7N 3R2 Tel (306) 665-2294 • Fax (306) 651-0444 • Toll Free (877) 362-3276 Email info@fna.ca • Web www.fna.ca