conflict in the Middle East<\/a> have forced\u00a0farmers in Australia\u00a0to reduce crop sizes or avoid planting.<\/p>\nAustralia\u00a0exports about 70 per cent of its agricultural products, mostly to Asia. The top importers of Australian meat and produce are China, Japan, the US, Indonesia and South Korea.<\/p>\n
To grow its crops,\u00a0it imports about 65 per cent of urea, a fertiliser, from the Middle East.\u00a0It also\u00a0imports about 90 per cent of its fuel, much of which is refined in Asia and originates in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Mr Hamish McIntyre, head of the National Farmers\u2019 Federation, an organisation that represents the nation\u2019s farming sector, told The Straits Times that prices of Australia\u2019s main agricultural exports \u2013 such as beef, wheat and barley \u2013 could increase by 20 per cent to 30 per cent due to fuel and fertiliser disruptions.<\/p>\n
He said the price rises were likely\u00a0to be\u00a0part of global price hikes that would be felt by the end of the year as output declines and as buyers pay more to ensure farmers keep up supplies\u00a0in the face of\u00a0rising costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have farmers who are making the difficult decision not to plant crops,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can\u2019t be sure customers will pay any more, so it is safer to do nothing and stay fallow until you can be sure how to make a profit. (Or) they can\u2019t get hold of urea and starter fertiliser, and are choosing not to plant.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the world\u2019s biggest food suppliers, Australia\u00a0exported more than A$16 billion (S$14.5 billion) worth of beef in 2025; the\u00a0largest buyers were the US, China,\u00a0Japan and South Korea, with Singapore the 14th-largest buyer.<\/p>\n
Exports of wheat \u2013 Australia\u2019s second-largest food export\u00a0after beef\u00a0\u2013 were worth about A$9 billion; the largest buyers were China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Yemen and Japan. <\/p>\n
Australia is by far the biggest foreign supplier of Singapore\u2019s wheat, accounting in some years for more than half of its imports.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Singapore is also a major buyer of Australian vegetable oil, dairy products, fruit and seafood, with total purchases of Australian agricultural products\u00a0amounting to more than A$1.4 billion in the year to June 30, 2025.<\/p>\n
The price of\u00a0urea in Australia has increased\u00a0amid\u00a0the war in Iran\u00a0from about A$800 a tonne to about A$1,800 a tonne.<\/p>\n
The price\u00a0of diesel, which is used for machinery and freight, has increased from about A$1.70 a litre to A$2.65 a litre, though prices in recent weeks have been as high as A$3.40 a litre.<\/p>\n
The federal government has been trying to secure fertiliser supplies, including by helping to underwrite purchases by fertiliser firms.<\/p>\n
In early April, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese\u00a0visited\u00a0Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia to discuss efforts to cooperate on ensuring stable regional flows of fuel, fertiliser and gas.<\/p>\n
Mr Albanese assured\u00a0Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong\u00a0that Australia would continue supplying it with liquefied natural gas. PM Wong said Singapore would continue supplying refined fuels to Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They also agreed to cooperate on ensuring the flows of essential supplies through efficient border and port processes, transparency and early consultation.<\/p>\n
Canberra and Jakarta also helped secure a recent deal between Australia\u2019s\u00a0Incitec Pivot Fertilisers and PT Pupuk Indonesia to provide an extra 250,000 tonnes of urea for Australian farmers.<\/p>\n
On April 23, Mr Albanese, when asked about warnings by farmers that Australia\u2019s domestic grocery prices could increase by 20 per cent, said there would be an impact on prices, but the extent of any increase was \u201cuncertain\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we know is that there will be an impact,\u201d he told The Daily Aus news outlet. \u201cWhat we are trying to do is to limit and restrict the impact that is there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe want farmers to have the confidence to be able to plant and use the fertiliser.\u201d<\/p>\n
Products that use large amounts of fertiliser are expected to be worst affected, including wheat, barley, oats and canola. Supplies of some vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and capsicum, are also set to be affected.<\/p>\n
Mr Michael Coote, head of AUSVEG, which represents Australia\u2019s vegetable growers, told ST that\u00a0surges of\u00a0fuel and fertiliser costs and concerns about\u00a0access to supplies were\u00a0causing \u201cwidespread uncertainty\u201d. <\/p>\n
He said the sector had not yet experienced price hikes, and future export prices were difficult to predict\u00a0as the international market for vegetables was \u201chighly competitive and highly price-sensitive\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vegetable industry is very different from more homogenised sectors like beef or\u00a0grains because vegetable growers produce a much wider array of crops, grown in different conditions across a large continent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs impacts are still flowing through and playing out differently for growers\u2026 it is challenging to provide crop-specific forecasts for specific vegetables.\u201d<\/p>\n
Higher fuel costs are\u00a0also\u00a0expected to affect products dependent on freight, such as milk and other dairy products, which\u00a0could result in\u00a0domestic price hikes of 20 per cent.<\/p>\n
A survey of farmers in April by the Victorian Farmers Federation, which represents the state\u2019s farmers, found that farmers expect their output to decline by 30 per cent\u00a0due to the current disruptions.<\/p>\n
The federation\u2019s president, Mr Brett Hosking, told The Sydney Morning Herald: \u201cWhat I am certain will happen is we will see less food produced globally this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The National Farmers\u2019 Federation\u2019s Mr McIntyre, who has a grain and beef farm in\u00a0the state of\u00a0Queensland, said some grain farmers may switch to products such as chickpeas and lentils, which require less fertiliser.<\/p>\n
He said the worst affected were grain farmers who had not pre-purchased fertiliser and were now facing steep prices, which\u00a0meant growing a winter crop would be\u00a0unprofitable.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, however, the upheavals in supply will leave no\u00a0one unaffected.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is worried about receiving enough\u00a0(revenue)\u00a0for their food and fertiliser to cover their costs,\u201d Mr McIntyre added.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SYDNEY \u2013 Prices of Australian exports of staples such as beef, wheat and barley are predicted to increase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-415416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}