Hormuz disruption hits fertilizer market ahead of U.S. spring planting
Shipping disruption in the Strait of Hormuz has sent urea prices sharply higher just as U.S. farmers move into the peak spring nitrogen application period.
Spring planting is beginning across the Northern Hemisphere, but for many U.S. farmers the shock has arrived before seed goes into the ground: nitrogen costs have surged. In NPR’s report from Kansas, farmer Matt Ubel said many growers had waited for lower prices this spring, only to see urea jump by close to 30 percent after shipping through the Strait of Hormuz was disrupted.
The timing is especially severe because the strait handles a huge share of global fertilizer trade. NPR reported that the closure has bottled up almost 50 percent of the world’s urea exports. That hit the market just as corn farmers in the United States move into the main application window for nitrogen. Josh Linville of StoneX described the overlap of location and timing as the exact nightmare scenario the fertilizer trade would fear.
The Fertilizer Institute estimates that U.S. farmers could be short about 2 million tons of urea this spring. The United States is the world’s top natural gas producer and has a large domestic fertilizer industry, yet it still imports roughly 18 percent of the nitrogen sold in the country to cover seasonal demand peaks. That means domestic production strength does not eliminate import exposure when the spring rush arrives.
The disruption is broader than urea alone. NPR noted that around half of global sulfur exports had been moving through Hormuz, and sulfur is not only a plant nutrient in its own right but also a critical ingredient in phosphate fertilizer production. Fertilizer Institute chief economist Veronica Nigh said that without sulfur, phosphate output in the United States is also at risk.
The fallout is spreading into other major producing and consuming countries. According to the report, India, Pakistan and China are struggling with access to Gulf gas supplies, which is constraining their own fertilizer production. Washington is trying multiple responses, including easing barriers to fertilizer imports from Venezuela and Morocco, but industry sources say there are no quick fixes and that restoring normal supply chains could take months.
For growers, the issue is already shifting from logistics into planting decisions. The report says farms may reduce corn area in favor of soybeans, which need less nitrogen, and in some cases may skip planting certain crops altogether. That turns the fertilizer shock into a direct risk for cropping patterns, farm economics and, ultimately, food supply.