{"id":259923,"date":"2026-04-09T20:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259923\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T20:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:43:09","slug":"war-in-iran-impacts-fertilizer-diesel-prices-for-fresno-county-ag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259923\/","title":{"rendered":"War in Iran Impacts Fertilizer, Diesel Prices for Fresno County Ag"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the world waits to see if an uneasy peace through the Strait of Hormuz holds, the impacts of diesel and fertilizer prices have already hit Fresno County ag.<\/p>\n

Normalizing fuel prices following the three-way ceasefire between Iran, Israel, and the U.S. is yet to materialize. On Thursday, oil rose nearly 5% as doubts remain about the ability of that peace to last, Reuters reports.<\/p>\n

For farmers with tractors going through fields every day, it adds to the stressors Central Valley growers already face, said Jasbir Sidhu, a Kerman almond farmer and co-founder of Punjabi American Growers Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Beyond fuel prices, costs for fertilizer \u2014 a natural gas byproduct \u2014 has surged globally, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just the diesel, it\u2019s the fertilizers, it\u2019s every commodity that requires freight,\u201d Sidhu said.<\/p>\n

Iran Second Largest Producer of Urea: Rosenbusch<\/p>\n

Sidhu said he\u2019s seen diesel prices rise 30% since the start of the conflict at the end of February.<\/p>\n

This comes as the almond bloom ends and the nut begins to fill out the hull. For farmers sending tractors through the rows to spray herbicides and foliars<\/a>, that means paying that much more.<\/p>\n

For all crops using fertilizers, farmers have seen spikes in prices.<\/p>\n

Corey Rosenbusch, president and CEO of the Fertilizer Institute, said the last few months have created global chaos for fertilizer sellers and buyers.<\/p>\n

About 40% of urea exports and 50% of sulfur exports pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The natural gas that goes through the strait not only helps provide energy to create fertilizer but also are essential ingredients for ammonia, urea, and phosphates.<\/p>\n

He says there are at least 24 vessels that cannot get through the narrow pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hitting the U.S. farmer hard. As an example, even Iran itself is the second largest exporter of urea,\u201d Rosenbusch said. \u201cAnd so a grower in the United States might say \u2018we don\u2019t use any Iranian urea,\u2019 but when you\u2019re that significant and you\u2019re moving 10% of total global supply, it\u2019s basic economics.\u201d<\/p>\n

US Will Need 2 Million Tons of Urea This Spring<\/p>\n

Across the country, Rosenbusch estimates the country had about 20% of its spring fertilizer needs already in warehouses ready to sell. U.S. natural gas production can cover much of the country\u2019s\u00a0 domestic ammonia needs, but about 20% will have to come from global sources, he said.<\/p>\n

Rosenbusch says the country will use about 1 million tons of urea in April.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just U.S. growers scrambling. India had tendered about 1.5 million tons, about a third of which was supposed to come through the strait.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow they\u2019re scrambling to find products for spring planting,\u201d Rosenbusch said.<\/p>\n

In total, he forecasts a need of 2 million tons of urea for spring. Farmers in the Midwest growing staple crops may opt for less nitrogen dependent crops such as soybeans. Others may forego a crop altogether and hope crop insurance can cover the losses, he said.<\/p>\n

Iranian Conflict Has Hurt That Country\u2019s Nut Exports<\/p>\n

The Iranian conflict has benefitted pistachio prices. That\u2019s because as the second largest producer of the nut behind the U.S., Iran has shut down its exports during the war.<\/p>\n

Adam Orandi, CEO of ARO Pistachios in Terra Bella, said a 50-cent-per-pound-price increase to growers has strengthened the value of the nut, helping growers who face similar input pressures. Wholesalers experienced about a 75-cent bump.<\/p>\n

Global markets are hungry for the nut, driven not only by the conflict but also in alternative pistachios uses such as Dubai chocolate.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarming in general has really taken a blow and is suffering but pistachios, I believe, we\u2019re doing a little bit better than most,\u201d Orandi said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the world waits to see if an uneasy peace through the Strait of Hormuz holds, the impacts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-259923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}