The Fertilizer Crisis Is Getting Real for Europe Food Prices
- Farmers may have to use fewer nutrients or pass on the costs
- Gas crisis, export restrictions hit nitrogen fertilizer supply
A farmer spreads fertilizer in Piace, France.
Photographer: Jean-Francois Monier/AFP/Getty Images
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As Europe’s farmers prepare to spread fertilizers on fields after winter, sky-high nutrient prices are leaving them little choice but to use less and try to pass on the cost down the food chain.
For growers of staples like corn and wheat, it’s the first time they’ve really been exposed to a fertilizer crisis fueled by an energy crunch, export curbs and trade sanctions. It now costs much more to buy chemicals needed for winter crops coming out of dormancy, and the extra expense could prompt smaller spring plantings that make up roughly a third of European grain.