Fertiliser prices jumping
Fertiliser prices have spiked sharply — urea is reported up roughly 30–77% to about $600–750/metric tonne and phosphate prices are over $700/MT — raising immediate risks for importing countries like Egypt and Pakistan. (x.com) U.S. farmers are reporting roughly 40% increases in some inputs and warning the shock is already influencing planting and input‑use decisions. (x.com)
Fertilizer prices have jumped again in early 2026, pushing up farm costs just as growers in the United States and major importing countries lock in crop plans. (worldbank.org) The World Bank said urea prices surged nearly 46 percent between February and March 2026. Trading Economics showed urea at about $694 a metric ton on April 10, 2026, up 17.3 percent over one month and 75.3 percent over one year. (worldbank.org) (tradingeconomics.com) The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said on March 26 that Middle East granular urea rose 19 percent in the first week of March and Egyptian urea rose 28 percent. The agency said global fertilizer prices could average 15 to 20 percent higher in the first half of 2026 if the current Gulf disruption persists. (fao.org) Fertilizer is the nutrient mix farmers buy to replace nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in soil after each harvest. Nitrogen products such as urea depend heavily on natural gas, while phosphate products depend on sulfur and phosphate rock, so energy and shipping shocks move prices fast. (fao.org) The latest shock is centered on the Strait of Hormuz, a shipping lane that the Food and Agriculture Organization says carries up to 30 percent of internationally traded fertilizers and about one-fifth of global liquefied natural gas. The agency said tanker traffic there had fallen by more than 90 percent within days of the escalation in March. (fao.org) Higher global benchmarks are already feeding into U.S. farm bills. DTN said on March 18 that retail urea averaged $674 a ton, up 12 percent from a month earlier, while diammonium phosphate averaged $851 a ton and monoammonium phosphate averaged $889 a ton. (dtnpf.com) DTN’s survey also found all eight major fertilizer categories were higher than a year earlier in March. Urea was up 14 percent year over year, while urea ammonium nitrate 28 was up 31 percent and anhydrous ammonia and urea ammonium nitrate 32 were each up 23 percent. (dtnpf.com) Import-dependent buyers are exposed first when benchmark prices jump. Pakistan imported $825.56 million of fertilizers in 2024, according to United Nations trade data compiled by Trading Economics, and the government set aside 6 billion Pakistani rupees in 2024 to subsidize imported urea distribution. (tradingeconomics.com) (fertilizerdaily.com) Pakistan’s farm system is especially sensitive to phosphate costs because diammonium phosphate is the second most-used fertilizer after urea, and the Food and Agriculture Organization says farmers there often cut application rates when fertilizer prices rise faster than crop prices. (fao.org) The World Bank had expected fertilizer markets to stabilize in 2026 after a tight 2025, but it also warned that export restrictions, sanctions, and energy costs were keeping the market vulnerable. March’s price spike shows how quickly that balance can break when a major gas and shipping corridor seizes up. (worldbank.org 1) (worldbank.org 2)
