Overview
- FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu told the Council the Strait’s closure has cut ship traffic by roughly 90–95%, stalling an estimated 1.5–3 million tonnes of fertilizer each month.
- The agency reported sharp urea spikes by mid-April, including 52% in the United States and 60% in Brazil, while OilPrice cites market data showing some prices have more than doubled.
- FAO warned that fertilizer must arrive within tight planting windows or yields drop for the season, raising food costs and worsening hunger risks in countries such as Lebanon and Yemen.
- FAO has moved to real-time supply tracking and a fertilizer access program, while UN bodies push land workarounds like Turkey–Gulf trucking that takes about four days.
- Logistics experts say even a reopening would bring slow relief because gas feedstock, shipping networks and contracts need months to restart and rebalance.