US-Israel military strikes on Iran impact US agricultural production

Golden Ten Data reported on March 15 that since the United States and Israel launched military strikes against Iran, tensions in the Middle East have continued to escalate. Many American farmers and agricultural practitioners are concerned that the Middle East conflict will cause price fluctuations in the U.S. agricultural product market, impacting the new year's spring planting plans and potentially severely affecting this year's agricultural production and farm yields in the United States. It is currently the spring planting season in the Northern Hemisphere. According to data from the U.S. Fertilizer Institute, the United States is heavily dependent on fertilizer imports. In some years, about half of the urea fertilizer used annually is imported. At present, the supply of urea needed for spring planting on U.S. farms is about one-quarter short. The Strait of Hormuz accounts for about one-third of the global maritime fertilizer trade. After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, global trade was disrupted, causing global fertilizer prices to rise by one-third. Some analysts pointed out that some fertilizers originally planned to be shipped to the United States may be diverted to other regions because buyers elsewhere are offering higher prices.