Staving off a fertilizer crisis

IRAN’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz has not only squeezed the flow of oil shipments to a trickle; it has severely affected the global fertilizer market as well. About 30 percent of the world’s fertilizer exports originate from the Middle East. In 2024, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain accounted for 23 percent of the ammonia trade, 34 percent of the urea trade and 18 percent of the ammoniated phosphate trade. Iran and Qatar alone ship out 16 million tons of fertilizer products through Hormuz annually. Those countries have drastically slashed fertilizer deliveries after the…