Amid the ongoing war in Iran, the soaring price of oil since shipping was disrupted through the Strait of Hormuz has caused great alarm.On March 2, Ebrahim Jabari, a senior adviser to the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), announced that the Strait of Hormuz – through which 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas is transported – was “closed”, a move that sent oil prices soaring higher than $100 per barrel.But experts say a parallel crisis is looming – a considerable threat to global food security, caused by a looming shortage of fertiliser, essential for food production. Why is there a shortage of fertiliser?Nearly half of the world’s traded urea – the most widely used fertiliser – and large volumes of other fertilisers are exported from Gulf countries via the Strait of Hormuz, making global agriculture highly exposed to any disruption there.Recent disruptions to gas supplies and shipping have already forced fertiliser plants, which use natural gas to manufacture fertiliser, in the Gulf and beyond to shut or cut their output.After its LNG facilities were attacked, Qatar’s state-run energy firm, QatarEnergy, halted output at what is the world’s largest urea plant after it shut down gas output.Since LNG output from Qatar has dropped off, India has cut output from three of its own urea plants. Bangladesh has also shut four out of its five fertiliser factories.The US is already close to 25 percent short of fertiliser supply for this time of year. Advertisement Compounding shortages, urea export prices from the Middle East have surged by about 40 percent, rising from just less th …
