Mosaic is laying off 199 workers at its South Fort Meade facility in Polk County, idling the phosphate operation as soon as December 8. The cuts, confirmed in a formal notice to state officials, mark the latest fallout from a global sulfur crunch that has been squeezing fertilizer makers all year.
As reported by FOX 13 Tampa Bay's Carla Bayron, Mosaic will be laying off nearly 200 workers at the South Fort Meade site. The company's vice president, Ron Yasurek, submitted a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) letter on October 5 that was formally processed in mid-October, according to Florida Patch. Federal WARN rules generally require companies to give at least 60 days notice before mass layoffs, which lines up with the December 8 effective date.
Sulfur Shortage Driving the Shutdown
Mosaic has pointed to an acute global shortage of sulfur, a raw material essential to converting mined phosphate rock into phosphoric acid fertilizer. The shortage has been worsened by Middle Eastern conflict and maritime trade disruptions moving through the Strait of Hormuz, according to DTN Progressive Farmer. Sulfur, which is recovered as a byproduct of oil and gas refining, has seen its global price climb from a historical range of $100 to $300 per metric ton to more than $1,000 per ton this year as shipping choke points constrained trade out of the Persian Gulf, the outlet reported.
Middle Eastern exports typically supply nearly half of the world's seaborne sulfur trade, which helps explain why a regional conflict thousands of miles away can shut down a Central Florida processing plant. The South Fort Meade shutdown is expected to last more than six months, though a small core team of employees will stay on-site to handle maintenance, environmental compliance, and safety duties until market conditions allow a restart, per the station's report. The company has indicated it will evaluate alternative sulfur suppliers before setting any firm reopening date.
Union Workers and Bumping Rights
Hourly employees at South Fort Meade are represented by Local 814C of the International Chemical Workers Union Council, part of the UFCW, and union leadership was notified ahead of the mass layoff announcement. Contract provisions allow eligible workers to exercise bumping rights into other company positions, offering some displaced employees a path to stay employed within Mosaic rather than facing an outright job loss.
This is not the first round of cuts tied to the sulfur squeeze. Mosaic's 206 layoffs at its Uncle Sam and Faustina fertilizer facilities were scheduled to take effect by October 10, 2026, amid the same global supply constraints, according to WBRZ. Mosaic is one of the primary industrial employers in Louisiana's St. James Parish, where Hoodline previously reported on ammonia leak fines at another company facility.
Months of Production Cuts Before the Shutdown
Before idling South Fort Meade entirely, Mosaic had already withdrawn its 2026 global production guidance of 7 million metric tons and slashed output in half at its Bartow, Florida plant and across its Brazilian operations in an effort to curb sulfur consumption, according to World Fertilizer. Brazil represents a major international market for Mosaic's blended crop nutrients, making the production cuts there a significant hit to the company's broader business.
South Fort Meade has operated in Polk County since 1995, mining and processing phosphate matrix and moving it via a Mosaic-owned 4.4-mile railway spur onto CSX rail lines that serve company chemical plants in Bartow, Riverview, and New Wales, per records filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Trucking phosphate rock on public roads from the site is prohibited, underscoring how tightly the facility is woven into Mosaic's integrated Central Florida supply chain.
A Major Regional Employer Under Pressure
Mosaic is a Tampa-based fertilizer company, making the South Fort Meade layoffs significant for the region's industrial economy.
The layoffs also land against a backdrop of federal scrutiny of the fertilizer industry. In March, federal prosecutors opened an antitrust inquiry examining pricing and supply practices among major producers, including Mosaic, CF Industries, and Nutrien, amid concerns over market concentration and rising costs for farmers, as Hoodline reported at the time. Whether global sulfur supply chains stabilize enough to allow a 2027 restart at South Fort Meade, and how reduced domestic fertilizer output will affect spring input costs for American farmers, remain open questions.
