How the Russia - Ukraine war will affect the global fertilizer and food industry

09 March

Follow this link to BBC online to learn more about how Russia's war with Ukraine will affect global fertilizer and food prices: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60623941


Below is an excerpt from the article:


The war in Ukraine will deliver a shock to the global supply and cost of food, the boss of one of the world's biggest fertilizer companies has said.
Yara International, which operates in more than 60 countries, buys considerable amounts of essential raw materials from Russia.
Fertilizer prices were already high due to soaring wholesale gas prices.
Yara's boss, Svein Tore Holsether, has warned the situation could get even tougher.
"Things are changing by the hour," he told the BBC.
"We were already in a difficult situation before the war... and now it's additional disruption to the supply chains and we're getting close to the most important part of this season for the Northern hemisphere, where a lot of fertilizer needs to move and that will quite likely be impacted."
Russia and Ukraine are some of the biggest producers in agriculture and food globally.
Russia also produces enormous amounts of nutrients, like potash and phosphate - key ingredients in fertilizers, which enable plants and crops to grow.
"Half the world's population gets food as a result of fertilizers... and if that's removed from the field for some crops, [the yield] will drop by 50%," Mr. Holsether said.
"For me, it's not whether we are moving into a global food crisis - it's how large the crisis will be."