NEVADA, Iowa — More than 100 people, including farmers and state representatives, packed the Gatherings Farmhouse in Nevada Saturday morning to express their concerns over a potential violation in antitrust laws regarding a recent billion dollar sale of Iowa Fertilizer Company to Koch Industries.
The sale would include the purchase of Iowa Fertilizer Company's plant OCI Nitrogen Iowa in southeastern Iowa and could affect the hundreds of employees who have worked at the facility since it opened in 2017.
"It truly can be devastating to us, because I don't think that some of the other companies, the closer one being Koch, I don't think that they would be as concerned about what they're doing to competition," said John Whitaker, a former Iowa state representative.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent Chair Lina M. Khan to Nevada for the listening session Saturday. Khan reassured the crowd the FTC wanted to hear what farmers and state leaders had to say before deciding to open an investigation.
"You can't do a merger if it will substantially lessen competition," Khan said.
Lessening competition, Khan noted, could create a monopoly, which would violate antitrust laws.
In addition to a potential loss of jobs, other farmers shared they may be hit hard financially if the sale went through and prices of fertilizer went up.
"This is bigger than just Iowa, because the northeast corner of Missouri is pulling a lot of nitrogen out of that plant as well," said Derek England, a BigIron Sales representative. "It definitely had a moderating effect on the price."
LaVon Griffieon, a family farmer in Ankeny, added that as crops prices go up, other industry prices go up as a result. The increase in prices would make it more difficult for her to pass generational wealth to her kids, because they would have to spend more money on other products.
A Koch Fertilizer spokesperson sent Local 5 a statement in response to the listening session Saturday, saying in part: "We have received support from many customers and are confident the Federal Trade Commission will allow our transaction to proceed after they have concluded their analysis and customer outreach. This acquisition builds on the $2 billion in investments we have made in our North American facilities to increase production, enhance safety and reliability, and improve our customers’ access to the products and service they need to feed and fuel the world. Koch Fertilizer is firmly committed to operating and growing production at the Wever facility. "
If the FTC opens an investigation, the companies could not go through with the acquisition until a review is completed.
Khan noted if the FTC believes the sale violates antitrust laws, the agency could file a lawsuit, putting the sale in the courts' hands.