It's not just oil: Iran war also threatens Asia's food security

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. It's not just oil: Iran war also threatens Asia's food security 9 hours ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Shawn Yuan , World Service, Global China Unit and Jiraporn Sricham , Thai Suchart Piamsomboon, a 60-year-old rice farmer in Chachoengsao province, Thailand As planting season dawned across South East Asia's rice fields, Suchart Piamsomboon, a 60-year-old farmer from Thailand's Chachoengsao province, went to the local shop for fertilisers. But the fertiliser had not arrived. And, he was told, it might not arrive.

Even if it did, it would cost over 1,100 baht a sack - a jump from the 800-900 baht it cost just over a month ago. By the time Piamsomboon got home, word was already circulating that prices could even hit 1,200 baht. "I've decided not to do it," he said, when asked whether he would plant this season.

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"Farming only leads to financial losses. I'd rather work as a day labourer and earn 100 to 200 baht a day just to get by. Expenses don't go down, but income keeps falling.

" Piamsomboon is not alone. From Thailand's rice belt to Vietnam's Mekong Delta, farmers across Asia are making the same calculation - and arriving at the same grim conclusion. The planting season is here.

The fertiliser is not. And the decisions being made in the next few weeks will determine how much the world's rice bowl yields at the end of the year. Hormuz closed, Beijing followed The proximate cause of this crisis is a war that most of these farmers had little reason to care about before.

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When the United States and Israel struck Iran on 28 February, the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly one-third of the world's seaborne fertiliser trade flows, effectively shut down. Many countries import a large amount of fertilisers from the Persian Gulf region. Within weeks of the war starting, the price of urea, the world's most common nitrogen fertiliser, had jumped more than 40%.

As exports through the Strait halted, the world's gaze turned to China, the planet's single largest fertiliser producer. Last year, China was responsible for 25% of global output of fertiliser and exported more than $13 billion of it. But China has shut its own doors - in March it banned exports of several types of fertiliser, crucial to the agricultural industry.

This came on top of restrictions that have been steadily been put in place since 2021. Between half and 80% of those fertiliser exports are now restricted, according to a ' analysis of Chinese customs data. In China's Shandong province, a fertiliser exporter who asked not to be named described receiving the notice to halt exports from the government.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.