The Global Fertilizer Crisis

The effects of grain shortages, significant as they are, pale in comparison to those of a global fertilizer shortage.

In addition to its pivotal role in producing sustainable crop yields, fertilizer is a one of the leading determinants of global food prices.

With high gas prices and the Biden administration's reluctance to tap new oil sources, the input costs for domestic fertilizer producers are already high.

China, one of the world's leading exporters of non-nitrogen-based fertilizers, put a moratorium on fertilizer exports in late October 2021.

While the Biden White House branded surging fertilizer prices part of "Putin's price hike," imposing sanctions on Russian fertilizer exports was a political decision by members of the international community.

The most recent figure from the U.S. Fertilizer Price Index, which measures the weighted average of natural phosphate rock, phosphate, potassium, and nitrogenous prices, was $254.97, more than double its 2021 level.

More than 40 percent of the world's fertilizer is traded, Nigh said, so disruptions to other countries' fertilizer production will have inflationary effects on food and fertilizer prices at home.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-global-fertilizer-crisis/