CropX will be in big demand globally - won the WEF prize17 Sep 2021 21:42
Food prices are likely to soar next year after record-high gas prices forced fertiliser manufacturers to halt production, experts have warned. Farmers face paying sky-high prices for fertiliser and may struggle to secure supplies at all, raising the prospect of weak crop yields that will affect food supplies, according to industry specialists. A second major fertiliser producer, Yara, announced today that it was curtailing production because “record-high natural gas prices in Europe are impacting ammonia production margins”. The Norwegian group said that 40 per cent of its European ammonia production capacity would be curtailed by next week. Late on Wednesday night CF Industries, the American group, had said it was halting production at two sites in the north of England that together supply about 40 per cent of UK fertiliser needs. The government’s Civil Contingencies Secretariat, the crisis planning unit, met on Thursday to discuss the potential shortfall in supplies to farmers.
Julia Meehan of ICIS, the commodities price reporting agency, warned that “supply of the food that we eat could be severely hampered by European halts in output by major fertiliser producers because of record high gas costs”. Gas prices have surged globally this year as demand rebounds from the pandemic and after a long, cold winter that has left storage stocks unusually low. Demand has been particularly high in Europe because of low wind speeds that have hurt wind power generation and increased reliance on burning gas for electricity. UK month-ahead gas prices hit record highs this week after a fire damaged a subsea power link to France, leaving Britain even more dependent on gas-fired power stations.
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