Farmers advised to buy fertiliser as Middle East war continues

By Aisling O'Brien

March 3, 2026 4:15 PM

Share this article

Farmers are being advised to purchase fertiliser for the coming months if they can due to the potential impact of the US-Israel war with Iran.

Bill O'Keeffe, chair of the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) Farm Business Committee, told Agriland this is a very busy time of the year with a lot of inputs going into farms over the next few months.

He said that fertiliser prices had already been pushed up over the introduction of the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which taxes imports of carbon-intensive products.

"In some cases, those fertiliser inputs are already bought and on farm. There has been a push, maybe through the first couple of months of the year for farmers to buy fertiliser.

"The price has risen significantly since January already before this issue. We've already seen a rise of €80-€90/t on protected urea," O'Keeffe told Agriland.

"The advice would be to probably try and secure a good stock of fertiliser for at least the first half of the year, and further, if people can afford to and have it in the yard.

"It’s not good news. It's after already [having] an increase at the start of the year.

"It's not looking good for the rest of the year, with gas prices increasing and oil prices increasing. It will all feed into more upward pressure on prices,” he added.

Fertiliser

As the conflict in the Middle East continues, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran is of particular concern.

The shipping route, located between Iran and Oman, normally handles around one-fifth of the world's oil trade.

Since the conflict began at the weekend, there has been spike in global oil and gas prices.

The IFA Farm Business Committee chair said the closure of shipping lanes will add "a huge amount of extra costs" to the supply chain as products are sent on different routes or delayed.

However, O'Keeffe warned it is still too early to predict the full impact of the conflict on farm inputs.

"We don't know enough yet to really comment, but none of it is going to be good for prices of inputs, and that's for sure.

"Hopefully, we don't see a repeat of 2022 with huge rises then in inputs, up to a €1,000/t for urea at the time.

"We don't know, and that's reality is we don't know, but there is upward pressure.

"The only advice we can give is fertiliser is likely to be as cheap as it's going to be this year at the moment, despite the price rises earlier in the year and if people can get out and secure stocks, as quickly as possible," he said.

CBAM

O’Keeffe said the current conflict in the Middle East must not be used by any fertiliser suppliers to inflate the prices charged to farmers.

“There is a sufficient supply of fertiliser in the country, in merchants’ yards today, to cover all requirements for first applications to tillage crops and grassland, both grazing and first cut silage requirements.

"These stocks have been purchased before the current conflict started and the recent spike in energy prices,” he said.

“Weather conditions have delayed fertiliser spreading across the country, meaning that many farmers are only now going about purchasing fertiliser.

"Poor weather combined with depressed prices for both milk and grain mean that farmers cannot afford to be paying over the odds,” he added.

The European Commission said that it could temporarily suspend CBAM tariffs if there is evidence of market disruption.

“While it is early days, should energy prices remain elevated it is likely to impact on fertiliser prices as we move through 2026.

"Given this, it is now imperative that our minister [for agriculture] pushes for the immediate suspension of CBAM tariffs on fertiliser to minimise any price impact in the coming months," O'Keeffe said.