{"id":386339,"date":"2026-04-11T07:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T07:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/386339\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T07:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T07:21:10","slug":"fuel-shortages-from-iran-war-threaten-asias-biggest-food-staple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/386339\/","title":{"rendered":"Fuel shortages from Iran war threaten Asia\u2019s biggest food staple"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harvest-ready rice fields are lying idle and farmers are deciding whether to skip planting for the coming season, as spiking fuel and fertilizer costs<\/a> from the war in the Middle East hit one of the world\u2019s biggest rice-growing regions.
Across Southeast Asia, tens of millions of smallholders are struggling to find affordable crop nutrients as well as the diesel needed to run tractors, irrigation pumps and rice planters. In Thailand, some farmers are leaving the crop in the ground as it\u2019s too expensive to harvest.
Click here to track live developments on Iran war<\/a>
The scarcity of supplies underscores how the six-week war in Iran has upended global trade and raised concerns around food shortages. As well as driving oil prices higher, the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> \u2013 which remains largely blocked despite a temporary ceasefire \u2013 has choked a vital route for fertilizer and fuel deliveries, with Asia particularly affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of panicked farmers,\u201d said Patrick Davenport, director and co-founder of BRM Agro, an integrated rice farmer and miller in Cambodia, where roughly three-quarters of the population lives in rural areas. \u201cMost are involved in agriculture \u2013 and they\u2019re all hurting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"ETLive EventsAlso Read: Wholesale rice prices up 7% as West Asia ceasefire fuels export rush<\/a>
Rice is a staple for more than half of the world\u2019s population, as well as a livelihood for rural communities across a region where agriculture still accounts for a large share of economic activity. Farmers struggling with input costs that have doubled or even tripled are also finding themselves squeezed by persistently low prices, at least for now.
Weighed down by ample inventories, benchmark prices for Thai white rice 5% broken fell to a decade-low in late October and have recovered only a little since then, spending most of last month below $400 a ton.\u201cMargins are super tight, and that means they will plant less,\u201d said M\u00e1ximo Torero, chief economist at the United Nations\u2019 Food and Agriculture Organization, noting that a further 20- to 30-day closure of Hormuz would affect the availability of food as soon as the second half of the year. The input shortages can only be resolved if vessels can begin moving through the strait again. \u201cI don\u2019t see any other solution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In Cambodia, some growers are reluctant to proceed this month without a guaranteed return, said Davenport, whose company works with about 2,000 farmers. Around a 10th have said they won\u2019t plant unless they can secure a fixed price for the new crop.<\/p>\n

\"Bloom.\"Bloomberg
In the Philippines, the world\u2019s top rice importer and also a major producer, paddy-rice output could fall by at least 10% this year, according to Raul Montemayor, national manager for the Federation of Free Farmers Cooperatives Inc. That could amount to about 2 million tons of lost rice given projected national output of 20.3 million tons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a very big possibility, and the reduction will be felt during the next harvest season in September or October,\u201d said Montemayor.<\/p>\n

Also Read: Rice export rules relaxed for select European countries<\/a>
The shortage of inputs couldn\u2019t have come at a worse time for rice farmers in Southeast Asia, many of whom grow two or more crops a year and are currently straddling the seasons. Harvesting of dry-season fields is in progress, while planting is beginning for the main wet-season paddy crops in Thailand and the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when all these fuel costs start mattering a lot. Fertilizer costs will matter a lot. Availability will matter a lot,\u201d said Alisher Mirzabaev, senior scientist for policy analysis and climate change at the International Rice Research Institute. \u201cOn the food-security side, we are buffered by the existing stocks \u2014 but we should not get complacent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Asia, the main plantings in India \u2014 a major grower \u2014 remain a couple of months away, while China has been more insulated from the energy and fertilizer shocks.<\/p>\n

But in Vietnam\u2019s Mekong Delta, where rice is grown three times a year, farmers are barely breaking even as they collect the main paddy crop. With production costs surging, some growers are considering scaling back to just two crops, said Pham Van Nhut, a 63-year-old farmer in the southern province of Vinh Long.<\/p>\n

Some farmers in Thailand, meanwhile, have chosen not to harvest the rice crop that\u2019s ready now or are delaying collection, leading to a decline in quality. The dry-season crop in March-April could fall by around 19% from the same year-earlier period, according to a March 31 report by the Bangkok-based Kasikorn Research Center.<\/p>\n

Planting for this year\u2019s main crop in Thailand is due to start in weeks, and while it\u2019s unlikely that growers will halt production entirely, output will be limited by how much fertilizer can be procured, said Pramote Charoensilp, president of the Thai Agriculturist Association, which represents tens of thousands of farmers across much of the country.<\/p>\n

With the disruptions set to last, farmers are seeking creative ways to reduce their dependence on imported fertilizers and fuel. Some are switching from rice to corn, which needs less water from diesel-fed irrigation machines. BRM, the company in Cambodia, is accelerating plans to scale up bio-organic fertilizer production and seeking suppliers of electric tractors and solar-powered water pumps to reduce fuel use.<\/p>\n

But options are limited for many others who depend on rice for their livelihoods, leaving them little alternative but to continue planting \u2014 even if that means absorbing losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no choice,\u201d said Ruel Bantugan, a rice farmer in the Philippines\u2019 Bataan province. \u201cWe just need to gamble and plant again, rather than leave the land idle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harvest-ready rice fields are lying idle and farmers are deciding whether to skip planting for the coming season,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[184151,114,184,171651,85,184147,184148,170668,184149,117780,46,157540,184150,114994],"class_list":{"0":"post-386339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-asia-iran-war-impact","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-fertilizer-costs","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-iran-war-agriculture-impact","14":"tag-iran-war-food-supply","15":"tag-iran-war-impact","16":"tag-iran-war-rice-production","17":"tag-iran-war","18":"tag-israel","19":"tag-middle-east-conflict","20":"tag-rice-production","21":"tag-strait-of-hormuz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}