From DTN/Progressive Farmer

OMAHA (DTN) -- Monsanto announced it will cut prices of its glyphosate-based Roundup herbicides, which should reduce retail prices to farmers by as much as 50 percent. The move will reduce input costs to farmers as commodity values fall off their 2008 and 2009 highs, the company said in an announcement.

"This new price is effective now as retailers and farmers begin planning for the 2010 planting season," said Glenn Stith, Monsanto's North American crop protection lead, said in the statement.

Timing of the announcement coincides with when many farm chemical distributors and retailers begin to make orders for 2010 uses. Monsanto put those orders on hold in recent weeks as the new pricing structure was being decided, according Monsanto spokeswoman Janice Person.

The St. Louis-based biotech and crop chemical company has made several key business announcements in recent months. Statements earlier this month put earnings off 14 percent, a drop the company blamed mostly on lower herbicide sales. The company also said it would restructure its Roundup and herbicide business units, and would lay off 1,800 employees due to the losses.

Monsanto had increased the price of Roundup-branded products about 30 percent in 2008, due to what it called tight supplies of glyphosate and increased demand. At that time, the company announced a $196 million expansion of its Luling, La., production plant that manufactures basic products for Roundup.

In today's announcement, Monsanto said the Luling plant will begin to use its expanded capacity "in the coming months." Monsanto also increased mining capacity in the phosphate mines it owns in southeast Idaho. Phosphate rock, which also has seen price swings in recent years, is a basic material in glyphosate production.

The price move could have a positive impact on Monsanto's share of the glyphosate herbicide market.

The recent drop in Roundup sales is due to previous increases of Roundup-branded herbicides in relation to generic glyphosate products and the increased used of alternative herbicides and tank-mix products as a growing number of common weeds show resistance to glyphosate.

An increase in tillage in recent seasons, due to heavy fall and spring rains, may also be reducing the overall use of glyphosate in burn-down applications.