\n<\/p>\n
Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>The head of one of the world\u2019s largest fertiliser companies has warned that heightened tensions in the Middle East could trigger a fresh food price shock by straining global supply chains for crop nutrients and energy.<\/p>\n<p>Svein Tore Holsether, chief executive of Norwegian group <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/4b4d400a-86f2-4489-8807-d01f130a747d\" data-trackable=\"link\">Yara<\/a>, said fertiliser groups and customers were \u201cmonitoring closely\u201d the risks around the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 per cent of the world\u2019s urea and 20 per cent of global LNG flows, warning that any disruption could ripple through global food production. <\/p>\n<p>Fertiliser markets have \u201cbeen extremely volatile in the last two weeks, and it shows how connected everything is\u201d, he told the Financial Times.<\/p>\n<p>Holsether pointed to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/9def8cb1-0a22-4ce7-ba53-b3e0e040c955#post-0b81134e-d893-4a9b-a495-25d49d7b4e78\" data-trackable=\"link\">recent shutdown of Israeli gasfields<\/a>, which disrupted fertiliser production in Egypt, as a sign of how quickly regional tensions can ripple through supply chains.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/middle-east-war\" data-trackable=\"link\">Tensions<\/a> between Iran and Israel escalated sharply this month pushing up Brent crude above $80 per barrel before falling back to the high $60s after a ceasefire was brokered earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>Industry analysts have warned that more than a fifth of the world\u2019s urea output had stopped due to conflict and supply disruptions. \u201cIran has shut all ammonia plants for security reasons, while Egypt remains offline due to halted Israeli gas flows,<em>\u201d<\/em> said Sylvia Traganida, senior ammonia editor at consultancy ICIS.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Consultancy CRU warned Israel\u2019s strikes on Iran and the retaliatory attacks \u201cfed into major disruption to nitrogen markets\u201d within a few days of the events and posed \u201congoing threats to phosphate, potash and sulphur supply from the region\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Almost a third of urea exports, 44 per cent of sulphur exports and nearly a fifth of ammonia exports move through or are produced in countries west of the Strait of Hormuz, according to data from CRU.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe food system is fragile,\u201d said Holsether. \u201cIf [energy prices] stay high over time, that will also spill into the food system, like it did in 2021 and into 2022 as well with the outbreak of the war [in Ukraine].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The last major disruption to fertiliser markets came in 2022, when Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine sent natural gas prices soaring and triggered a sharp rise in fertiliser costs, contributing to a global food price crisis. <\/p>\n<p>Since then, crop nutrient prices had eased as the natural gas market had declined, but Europe\u2019s fertiliser industry remained under pressure as Russian imports took a bigger share of the market, Holsether said, as he returned from his first visit to Ukraine since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in February 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While sanctions have curbed exports of Russian natural gas, a critical input in nitrogen fertiliser, food and crop nutrients have remained exempt, allowing Moscow to redirect its gas through fertiliser production.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Holesther welcomed the EU\u2019s recent move to impose tariffs on Russian fertiliser but called it overdue. He said Europe needed to avoid \u201crepeating mistakes\u201d made in energy imports with food.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>The Yara chief accused Moscow of weaponising food and fertiliser, both by expanding fertiliser exports to increase global dependency on its supply and by targeting Ukraine\u2019s civilian agriculture in a campaign to destroy the country\u2019s role as one of the world\u2019s agricultural powerhouses.<\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title o3-type-body-highlight\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image o-teaser--opinion js-teaser\" data-id=\"3a1a6fc5-f887-4120-a613-f8f92d7366af\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/3a1a6fc5-f887-4120-a613-f8f92d7366af\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" data-trackable-context-story-link=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2493\/1402\"><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s the military fight, but there\u2019s also a fight where food is being used as a weapon,\u201d Holsether said, adding that more than 20 per cent of Ukraine\u2019s farmland was now mined, occupied or unusable.<\/p>\n<p>Before the war, Ukraine\u2019s food exports, which included up to 50mn tonnes of cereals, fed about 400mn people a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The country\u2019s grain and oilseed production fell from 78mn tonnes in 2023 to 72.9mn tonnes this year, Holsether said, reflecting the mounting impact of war on the country\u2019s agricultural output.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/12fb3204-c69c-49c2-92fc-f7c9f5402668\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":32775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>The head of one of the world\u2019s largest fertiliser companies has warned that heightened tensions in the Middle East could trigger a fresh food price shock by straining global supply chains for crop nutrients and energy.<\/p>\n<p>Svein Tore Holsether, chief executive of Norwegian group <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/4b4d400a-86f2-4489-8807-d01f130a747d\" data-trackable=\"link\">Yara<\/a>, said fertiliser groups and customers were \u201cmonitoring closely\u201d the risks around the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 per cent of the world\u2019s urea and 20 per cent of global LNG flows, warning that any disruption could ripple through global food production. <\/p>\n<p>Fertiliser markets have \u201cbeen extremely volatile in the last two weeks, and it shows how connected everything is\u201d, he told the Financial Times.<\/p>\n<p>Holsether pointed to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/9def8cb1-0a22-4ce7-ba53-b3e0e040c955#post-0b81134e-d893-4a9b-a495-25d49d7b4e78\" data-trackable=\"link\">recent shutdown of Israeli gasfields<\/a>, which disrupted fertiliser production in Egypt, as a sign of how quickly regional tensions can ripple through supply chains.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/middle-east-war\" data-trackable=\"link\">Tensions<\/a> between Iran and Israel escalated sharply this month pushing up Brent crude above $80 per barrel before falling back to the high $60s after a ceasefire was brokered earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>Industry analysts have warned that more than a fifth of the world\u2019s urea output had stopped due to conflict and supply disruptions. \u201cIran has shut all ammonia plants for security reasons, while Egypt remains offline due to halted Israeli gas flows,<em>\u201d<\/em> said Sylvia Traganida, senior ammonia editor at consultancy ICIS.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Consultancy CRU warned Israel\u2019s strikes on Iran and the retaliatory attacks \u201cfed into major disruption to nitrogen markets\u201d within a few days of the events and posed \u201congoing threats to phosphate, potash and sulphur supply from the region\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Almost a third of urea exports, 44 per cent of sulphur exports and nearly a fifth of ammonia exports move through or are produced in countries west of the Strait of Hormuz, according to data from CRU.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe food system is fragile,\u201d said Holsether. \u201cIf [energy prices] stay high over time, that will also spill into the food system, like it did in 2021 and into 2022 as well with the outbreak of the war [in Ukraine].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The last major disruption to fertiliser markets came in 2022, when Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine sent natural gas prices soaring and triggered a sharp rise in fertiliser costs, contributing to a global food price crisis. <\/p>\n<p>Since then, crop nutrient prices had eased as the natural gas market had declined, but Europe\u2019s fertiliser industry remained under pressure as Russian imports took a bigger share of the market, Holsether said, as he returned from his first visit to Ukraine since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in February 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While sanctions have curbed exports of Russian natural gas, a critical input in nitrogen fertiliser, food and crop nutrients have remained exempt, allowing Moscow to redirect its gas through fertiliser production.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Holesther welcomed the EU\u2019s recent move to impose tariffs on Russian fertiliser but called it overdue. He said Europe needed to avoid \u201crepeating mistakes\u201d made in energy imports with food.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>The Yara chief accused Moscow of weaponising food and fertiliser, both by expanding fertiliser exports to increase global dependency on its supply and by targeting Ukraine\u2019s civilian agriculture in a campaign to destroy the country\u2019s role as one of the world\u2019s agricultural powerhouses.<\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title o3-type-body-highlight\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image o-teaser--opinion js-teaser\" data-id=\"3a1a6fc5-f887-4120-a613-f8f92d7366af\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/3a1a6fc5-f887-4120-a613-f8f92d7366af\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" data-trackable-context-story-link=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2493\/1402\"><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s the military fight, but there\u2019s also a fight where food is being used as a weapon,\u201d Holsether said, adding that more than 20 per cent of Ukraine\u2019s farmland was now mined, occupied or unusable.<\/p>\n<p>Before the war, Ukraine\u2019s food exports, which included up to 50mn tonnes of cereals, fed about 400mn people a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The country\u2019s grain and oilseed production fell from 78mn tonnes in 2023 to 72.9mn tonnes this year, Holsether said, reflecting the mounting impact of war on the country\u2019s agricultural output.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/12fb3204-c69c-49c2-92fc-f7c9f5402668\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":32775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}