Iran Impacts Idaho Farmers: Diesel and Fertilizer Costs Spike During Difficult Year

ROCKFORD, Idaho (KIFI) – Rising costs from the conflict in Iran are putting the squeeze on Idaho farmers.

“The farmers are very much concerned about this war in Iran because it is impacting our fertilizer prices and also our fuel prices,” said Brian Murdock, a prominent advocate for agriculture. “All energy and all production of oil and gas has an impact back to the farmers.”

The Strait of Hormuz, a thirty-mile wide stretch of water bordered by Iran and Oman, provides Iran with a strategic chokepoint for global trade.

The strait’s partial closure has cut off half of the world’s exports of urea, thirty percent of ammonia, and twenty percent of the world’s oil. 

Urea is a major component in nitrogen fertilizer used for potatoes, wheat, and other crops.

“We all very much will feel this war,” Murdock continued. “…We could definitely see higher fertilizer prices and we will see higher diesel prices, and that will just cut down the margin of any profitability we have a chance of making this year.”

While fertilizer costs eight to ten percent more than last year, rates could increase dramatically once current stockpiles in Idaho run out.

“Just mainly getting nervous,” said Mark Morgan, a crop advisor. “We know that prices are increasing, so it could have an impact later on. But as far as this spring now, we've got most of what we need already here, already ordered.”

Meanwhile, the American Automobile Association’s Idaho office reports that diesel has jumped from $3.67 a gallon in February to $5.24 a gallon today.

The sudden spike directly impacts farmers’ production, inputs, and shipping costs.

But despite the uncertainty with prices and in Iran, farmers are already hard at work planting their crops in this year’s warm weather.

“This is farming, and every farmer that’s doing it – they know the game,” Murdock said. “This is not a new drill. They’ve been through this more than once.”