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Europe’s Deepening Fertilizer Crunch Threatens Food Crisis

  • About 70% of region’s fertilizer production capacity halted
  • Repercussions will hurt farmers and consumers beyond Europe
A tractor sprays a wheat field with fertilizer in Buntingford, U.K.

A tractor sprays a wheat field with fertilizer in Buntingford, U.K.

Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Updated on

Europe’s fertilizer crunch is deepening with more than two-thirds of production capacity halted by soaring gas costs, threatening farmers and consumers far beyond the region’s borders.

Russia’s squeeze on gas shipments in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is hurting industries across Europe. But fertilizer companies are being especially affected because gas is both a key feedstock and a source of power for the sector.