THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Farmers around the world are feeling the squeeze of the Iran war. Gas prices have shot up and fertilizer supplies are waning due to Tehran’s near shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli bombing.
The fertilizer shortage is putting the livelihood of farmers in developing countries — already troubled by rising temperatures and erratic weather systems — further at risk, and could lead to people everywhere paying more for food .
The poorest farmers in the Northern Hemisphere rely on fertilizer imports from the Gulf , and the shortage comes just as planting season begins, said Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Programme.
“In the worst case, this means lower yields and crop failures next season. In the best case, higher input costs will be included in food prices next year.”
Iran is seriously limiting shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage that usually handles about a fifth of the world’s oil shipments and nearly a third of global fertilizer trade.
Nitrogen and phosphate — two major fertilizer nutrients — are under immediate threat from the blockade.
Supplies of nitrogen including urea, the most widely traded fertilizer that helps plants grow and boosts yields, are the hardest hit because of shipping delays and the soaring price of liquefied natural gas — an essential ingredient.
The conflict has restricted about 30 percent of global urea trade, said Chris Lawson of CRU Group, a London-based commodities consultancy.
Some countries are already facing critical shortages, according to Raj Patel, a food systems economist at the University of Texas. For example, Ethiopia gets over 90 percent of its nitrogen fertilizer from the Gulf through Djibouti, a supply route that was strained even before the war began in February…
