Svein Tore Holsether, CEO of Yara International, the world’s biggest fertilizer company, based in Norway, described a situation to the BBC on May 1, in which the Iran war could soon trigger a “global auction” in which wealthier nations outbid poorer ones, which lose out.
Yara, which operates in 60 countries and supplies many more, reports that fertilizer prices are up 60-70% since Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel started the war. Various commodity media estimate that bulk carriers, now stranded in Persian Gulf waters west of the Strait of Hormuz, may have as much as 1.9 million metric tons of fertilizer, equivalent to nearly 12% of the total flow of fertilizer through the Gulf in 2024.
