As springtime planting gets underway in the Northern Hemisphere, food-exporting countries like the U.S. and China are feeling more than a pinch over world fertilizer disruption; both countries are among the top five food-exporting countries in the world. There are cuts in production and use of nitrogen fertilizer the world over. In India, for example, urea output has been cut by some 30% this month, given short supplies of natural gas.
“The attack on Iran by U.S. and Israeli forces and Iranian retaliation against U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf have roiled energy markets by disrupting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz—the Gulf’s only sea passage to the open ocean. About 27% of the world’s oil exports, 20% of global liquified natural gas (LNG) exports, and 20%-30% of global fertilizer exports, including urea, ammonia, phosphates, and sulfur, pass through the Strait,” reported the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) back on March 6. It noted that there had already been a 70% decline of shipping through the Straits at that time, since the conflict began.
In the U.S., farmers have already suffered reduced crop prices and increased production costs for the past several years. Now they face soaring fuel and fertilizer prices, and even supply shortages, at any price. “’Before the Strait of Hormuz crisis, the global situation of fertilizer was already extremely tight,” said Shawn Arita, the associate director of the Agricultural Risk Policy Center at North Dakota State University. “So this happened in a very, very bad time,” reported MS Now. “Even if the strait were to open tomorrow, Arita said, fertilizer prices won’t soon recover from the lasting impacts of Gulf suppliers halting production amid the war.”
