Blaming unfair trade practices from China, crop chemical company Albaugh Inc. laid off 37 workers at its St. Joseph facility Monday.

Albaugh eliminated its weekend production shift that makes glyphosate — a popular herbicide that the company says is being unfairly subsidized by the Chinese government or is being priced by Chinese companies at below fair market value.

Stuart Feldstein, vice president in Akneny, Iowa, said Albaugh is one of two manufacturers in the United States that makes glyphosate.

“Since 2008, we’ve seen this glut of cheap imports from China coming into the United States market, which has created an oversupply situation,” Mr. Feldstein said. “We basically took this restructuring action in response to what we consider to be unfair trade practices coming from China.”

The layoffs represent nearly 19 percent of Albaugh’s total work force. Workers’ last day at the agricultural chemical company is Friday. They will be paid their accumulated benefits, Mr. Feldstein said.

“We’re very concerned right now. We’ve never had to make a decision like this and regret having to do it now,” he said. “We hope to reverse these trends and bring that shift online at some point in the future.”

He said the company is seeking outside assistance to contend with the rise in Chinese imports, but he would not elaborate.

Local officials have heralded Albaugh as quietly growing into an important part of the city’s stockyards revitalization plans. The company is housed at a more than 400,000-square-foot facility in the former Swift packinghouse at 4900 Packers Ave.

Albaugh is the largest independent formulator and packager of off-patent crop production products in the U.S. Under the Agri Star brand name, it markets a generic copy of the popular Roundup herbicide that its calls GlyStar. Albaugh uses a facility in Argentina to produce most of the raw materials used by the company.

Ahmad Safi can be reached

at ahmadsafi@npgco.com.