Washington-The Agricultural Retailers Association on April 7 sent out a survey to members and other industry professionals seeking input on ARA’s model fertilizer contract confirmation, a document that ARA says is designed to help companies better manage their risks by providing consistent terms and conditions when dealing with suppliers or customers. The contract was first unveiled in November and discussed in detail at the ARA 2009 Conference & Expo in December (GM Dec. 14, 2009). ARA released a final version of the contract on Jan. 12 of this year (GM Jan. 18, p. 10). ARA said it is seeking additional input “in order to gain better insight as to how the industry is utilizing this document and potential ways that it could be improved to meet the needs of the agricultural retail-distribution industry.” ARA formed a Fertilizer Contract Task Force in April 2009 to develop the contract and specify “the mutual agreed upon terms of the buyer and seller between any two business entities in the distribution system: manufacturer, distributor, retailer and end user.” The 10-question survey is available at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6HYFDNT. ARA said it is seeking responses by April 23. A copy of the final fertilizer contract confirmation is available at the ARA Web site at www.aradc.org.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain