Fertilizer Extends Rally With Some Prices Soaring Nearly 60% With More Costly Natural Gas

Crop-nutrient prices have been skyrocketing as an energy pinch in Europe makes natural gas, the main feedstock for most nitrogen fertilizer, more costly. China and Russia are restricting nutrient exports to ensure sufficient domestic supplies.

And this week, companies in Canada, a major potash exporter, are pursuing alternative shipping routes after flooding cut off Canada’s third-largest city from the rest of the country.

These surging costs for farmers are stoking concerns about already high food prices at a time when U.S. consumers are seeing the steepest inflation since 1990 and people around the world continue to struggle with the impacts of the pandemic.