Fertilizer prices bring more pain for American farmers amid war in Iran

By Gordon Ebanks, CNN

(CNN) — The war in Iran is pushing up prices for already-strained farmers, with higher costs for fertilizer and energy on top of last year’s tariffs. And the increasing pressure on American agriculture could lead to even bigger price tags at the grocery store.

John Yeley, an Illinois farmer who grows corn and soybeans, said prices for nitrogen — a key fertilizer component — are going up so fast that he can’t even get suppliers to commit to a price ahead of purchases.

“When I call a retailer right now … I could not get a price on any nitrogen source out there,” he said.

The war has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a major chokepoint through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and one-third of the world’s fertilizer pass. It’s a shock to the global fertilizer supply as American farmers prepare for the spring planting season, which can start as early as March.

While most fertilizer used on US farms is made in North America, the rising cost of natural gas means American-made fertilizer will get more expensive as well. The price for imported urea, a crystallized form of nitrogen that powers much of the world’s farming, has risen by close to a third since the US and Israel attacked Iran, according to FactSet.

Yeley told CNN that since the war in Iran, only one supplier has given him a quote for nitrogen prices; he usually uses several suppliers based in various locations.

The strain on farmers could drive up grocery costs, which have been a significant source of stress for millions of Americans for months. Even before the war began, USDA economists projected that food prices this year would rise more than in 2024 or 2025.

“When farmers face supply shortages or major price increases, those impacts ripple through the entire food chain,” said Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, at a press conference two weeks ago.

The lay of the land

The war with Iran adds to financial uncertainty for American farmers.

Even before the conflict, the cost of nitrogenous fertilizer shot up by 22% from February 2025 to February 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“The writing was on the wall that there was probably going to be an increase in fertilizer prices heading into the spring,” said Josh Boxell, who grows corn and soybeans 50 miles north of Indianapolis.

Meanwhile, farmers aren’t making much of a profit — if at all. The US-China trade war closed off what had been one of the largest markets for American farmers, plunging the value of their crops.

Josh Manske, who grows corn and soybeans in southwest Iowa, noted the massive swings in the price of his crops following months of trade negotiations. He said the market is “just unsustainable” right now.

It’s not just a decline in crop prices. Farming equipment has gotten more expensive over the years, and the cost of diesel — which powers the machinery — has also increased with the war in Iran.

Chad Hart, a crop market specialist and economics professor at Iowa State University, told CNN that while the broader American economy is on solid footing, “the agricultural economy’s been in a recession.” Hart pointed to low crop prices over the past three years and rising farm bankruptcies following the pandemic.

The crisis in crops is so severe that farmers actually lose money growing corn, oats, rice and other staples.

Yeley said the mix of shrinking revenues and growing expenses means farmers have to take on debt to stay afloat — a trend that pushed farm debt to a record high in 2025.

Even as farmers earn less for their crops, consumers find themselves paying more for groceries — a trend that many economists attribute to America’s food supply chain. And with the war in Iran, Americans could see higher prices for produce, meat and dairy aisles because of surging fuel costs.

“The farmer’s really not seeing an increase in our goods sold, but everybody’s seeing the increase at the grocery stores,” Boxell said.

An uncertain future

For now, many farmers must rely on federal aid that came from last year’s tariff turmoil.

Over $7 billion of government assistance had been distributed to help farmers weather the trade war and “elevated input costs,” the USDA said in a statement to CNN. The payments started going out on February 28, the same day the war with Iran began.

“The joke was that the check barely hit the farm before it went out the door to the fertilizer dealer,” said Aaron Lehman, who grows a variety of cereals and serves as the president of the Iowa Farmers Union.

Boxell said federal assistance is a “safety net” for him and other farmers. But he added: “It’s not going to fix the problem of net loss. It just kind of helps take a little bit of the edge off of the loss.”

When asked about the rising cost of fertilizer, the White House said it would allow Venezuelan fertilizer to be imported to the United States. The regulation went into effect this month, but it’s unclear how much fertilizer Venezuela can produce or how much of it would come to the US.

Most farmers have purchased fertilizer for the coming planting season, but the disruptions to global fertilizer supply could last well into the future.

“When we have to price fertilizer again, what is that gonna look like for signing for crop that’s going to be growing in the year 2027?” Manske asked.

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