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Updated April 15, 2026 \u2014 4:56pm,first published 4:27pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Australia is leveraging its food exports to secure critical supplies of fuel and fertiliser from Brunei as farmers warn that soaring costs and fuel shortages may stop half the country\u2019s growers from planting crops this season.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed a joint statement with Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah on Wednesday, in which both nations committed to maintaining open trade of critical exports. Australia is a major exporter of food to Asia, and Brunei supplies more than 10 per cent of Australia\u2019s diesel and fertiliser.<\/p>\n Albanese visited a fertiliser plant, where he said there was potential for Brunei to increase its exports to Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cThis underscores our commitment to ensuring that essential goods continue to flow between our countries … by building regional co-operation on energy security and economic resilience, we strengthen our fuel security,\u201d Albanese said in Brunei.<\/p>\n Related Article Since the US war with Iran began on February 28, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has dwindled to almost nothing after missile attacks and blockades, choking off a major global source of both fertiliser and oil.<\/p>\n Foreign Minister Penny Wong, speaking alongside Albanese, said the joint statement released by the sultan and the prime minister showed Brunei recognised the value of Australia\u2019s food supply.<\/p>\n Australia exports around 70 per cent of the food it grows, and nearly half of that goes to Asian nations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe statement that was signed today reflects that willingness to work with each other on our shared security, on energy security, on food security, the recognition that the urea and diesel that we seek we import from Brunei, and that we continue to seek, comes back to the region as food that is very well understood here,\u201d Wong said.<\/p>\n Australian farmers\u2019 confidence has been smashed by unprecedented price pressures, with a doubling of fertiliser and diesel costs since the war began almost seven weeks ago.<\/p>\n The National Farmers Federation said that based on what it had heard from producers across the country, half of all farmers might not plant a winter crop this season.<\/p>\n \u201cFifty per cent are saying that they are actively considering not planting because they can\u2019t see any way through,\u201d said NFF chief executive Mike Guerin.<\/p>\n NSW Farmers vice president Rebecca Reardon, who runs a cropping and livestock farm at Moree in north-west NSW, said the price of fertiliser was critical to farmers staying in business.<\/p>\n \u201cFuel hurts, but fuel is probably more about availability. Fertiliser is just killing the bottom line for us,\u201d Reardon said. \u201cWe have to apply it or we don\u2019t get the yield, and that kills our profitability.\u201d<\/p>\n Urea is the most common fertiliser used by farmers growing wheat, barley and canola, which comprises about 90 per cent of the winter crops grown in the country.<\/p>\n In the middle of the winter planting window, the Iran war has sent the price of urea up to $1700 a tonne \u2013 double last year\u2019s prices. If urea costs too much, the earnings from the crop will not cover the costs, including fuel and seeds.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cIt is incredibly difficult for regional communities, it\u2019s not just the primary producers. It flows through to all the small businesses in town, the truckers, the processors, people that get that food from farm to plate, all of those suffer,\u201d Guerin said. \u201cAnd then, of course, food security, more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n Albanese last week cut a deal with Singapore, where the city state offered assurances about Australia\u2019s fuel supply in exchange for a commitment to continue sending them liquid natural gas.<\/p>\n After Brunei, Albanese will on Thursday head to Malaysia, whose oil refineries supply about 10 per cent of Australia\u2019s diesel and petrol.<\/p>\n Energy Minister Chris Bowen said on Wednesday that the government had made progress with its scheme to urgently boost fuel imports.<\/p>\n In this scheme, taxpayers guarantee fuel companies\u2019 losses if they bought expensive shipments before sudden oil price falls in an increasingly volatile market.<\/p>\n Bowen said there were \u201cwell-advanced discussions\u201d between the government and the nation\u2019s major fuel importers, Ampol and Viva, to buy extra shipments to bring to Australia.<\/p>\n He also announced that two smaller fuel importers that focus on regional supply chains, IOR and Park Fuels, had agreed to participate in the scheme.<\/p>\n Efforts to reduce localised petrol and diesel shortages, driven by panic buying, were working, he said. In Victoria, 18 were without diesel, which is down 16 compared to last week. There were 11 with no unleaded petrol.<\/p>\n In Queensland 33 had no diesel and 20 no regular unleaded.<\/p>\n Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said the government should encourage oil production in Australia to increase fuel security.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to put Australians first. We need to have more fuel in this country. We need to drill more to get more out from under the ground. But that won\u2019t happen whilst this Labor government is in place because they don\u2019t believe in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Prime](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/157fd2728ad3acaa1d850956bcb67ec9fa0af321.jpeg\")
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) shakes hands with Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah after signing a joint statement on energy and food security. AAPIMAGE<\/p>\n![\"Grain](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/3c4a914d8fdb1f17abb641c572f527c3e6ce73d4.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"NSW](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ba1bb7adcd5a741a41a9f61c42d687834329969f.jpeg\")
NSW farmer Rebecca Reardon says fuel shortages hurt but fertiliser is killing the bottom line. Grace Quast <\/p>\n![\"At](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775517677_966_e3aa749a79204ff39cadaa5df6b6183ee4813ee8.jpeg\")
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In NSW on Wednesday there were 84 service stations without diesel, which is 3.5 per cent of the state\u2019s total and 25 fewer than late last week. Seventeen had no fuel at all.<\/p>\n![\"Mike](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768102829_963_7f47b503728da7e265c0917951384bea10b25583.png\")
Mike Foley<\/a> is the climate and energy correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated April 15, 2026 \u2014 4:56pm,first published 4:27pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-608223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}