A conflict on the other side of the world is cause for concern for farmers in southern Alberta. About a third of the world’s fertilizers pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which is effectively closed. As a result, global prices are climbing. “That’s a critical logistical channel for our farmers,” said Sylvain Charlebois, director of the agri-food analytics lab with Dalhousie University. It’s another blow for farmers who have seen their input costs increase dramatically over the past several years. This could add tens of thousands of dollars in costs with margins already razor-thin. “You think about farmers out west; we’re not talking about a few thousand dollars. It’s probably over $100,000 for some farmers just looking at an increase,” said Charlebois. Many producers in southern Alberta have already locked in their prices for the spring planting season. But anyone who needs a resupply in the late summer or fall could be in for a rough time. Even securing fertilizers could be a challenge. “So, they probably won’t be hit with extra prices until maybe the middle of the summer if they have to purchase some extra or for next fall, although next fall is predicting a little bit too far out,” said Lynn Jacobson, president of the Alberta Federation of Agriculture. Canada is a leading producer of potash, which is a key ingredient in fertilizers. But that may not provide as much relief as farmers hope. Many, particularly in eastern Canada, will be stuck paying close to global prices. “We know at this point in time, fertilizer has been going up. Eastern Canada probably is going to be affected worse than western Canada, because they don’t have any local production of fertilizer there,” said Jacobson.
